Biology

Museums worldwide are actively digitizing their collections to enhance accessibility and broaden public engagement. This initiative increases the visibility and appreciation of valuable artifacts among the diverse communities that institutions lik...

The New York State Museum's latest exhibit feature Canine Contrasts: Unraveling Wolves and Coyotes in New York introduces the fascinating world of wolves and coyotes as it tells the story of a wolf recently mistaken for a coyote and killed ne...

The New York State Museum's latest exhibit feature Canine Contrasts: Unraveling Wolves and Coyotes in New York introduces the fascinating world of wolves and coyotes as it tells the story of a wolf recently mistaken for a coyote and killed ne...

Locally-based Ornithologist Dr. Taza Schaming was appointed as a Research Associate in 2023, and has been assisting Dr. Jeremy Kirchman, NYSM Curator of Birds and Mammals, in our specimen preparation lab, turning salvaged birds into research speci...

Happy Fourth of July from the NYSM! This bald eagle, currently on display in Birds of New York Hall, is one of the oldest specimens from our collections and even pre-dates the discovery of the Cohoes Mastodon by sixteen years! The specimen, an adu...

Bowfin fishes are recognized as evolutionary relicts or ‘living fossils’ that historically were distributed worldwide, going back almost 150 million years and living alongside dinosaurs. These fishes retain many of the morphological traits of thei...

Museum specimens are important sources of DNA, used by researchers to discover the evolutionary relationships among species. NYSM zoology curators save small samples of muscle and other tissues from the specimens they prepare for our collections. ...

Zebra and quagga mussels can be aggressive invaders of waterbodies and, when they reach high densities, can be devastating to native mussel populations (among other impacts).  Many lakes and rivers that once supported abundant and diverse com...

Get the official buzz about the emergence of periodical cicadas this summer! In a recent interview with WAMC’s Lucas Willard, Dr. Timothy McCabe, New York’s State Entomologist, discusses the impending appearance of Brood X (10) cicadas after 17 ye...

Challenges in science often require solutions from across various disciplines and involve collaborations between diverse agencies. A recent agreement between the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and Arconic to prote...

In 2014, the State Museum acquired Dr. Howard Reisman's (emeritus professor at Long Island University) personal collection of fish specimens. The collection has over 2,500 individual specimens, including a substantial number of samples...

Alyssa FitzGerald is a Ph.D student at SUNY Albany and works at the Museum to conduct research for her doctoral program. Alyssa's research is focused on studying three closely-related species of thrushes. She wants to know why and how these b...

A 20-foot long Cuvier's Beaked Whale skeleton was acquired by the State Museum in 2014. Worldwide, there are less than 250 Cuvier's Beaked Whale specimens in collections. These whales, also known as goose-beaked whales, are known to be one of the ...

Two papers have been published describing ornithological research by NYSM scientists. The papers are based on Ph.D. dissertation work conducted by Dr. Joel Ralston, former University at Albany graduate student, and NYSM Graduate Fellow under the s...