NEWS

Blue land crab (Cardisoma guanhumi) on a vehicle wheel. Photo: Delilah O’Leary. A non-native land crab that dwarfs the state’s native crab species has been spotted at the North Carolina coast. Now officials want the public’s help in tracking its impacts. Now researchers, teaming up with fellow scientists in South Carolina, want the public’s help… Read More >

Pair of rhesus macaques. Photo: Lauren Brent. (RALEIGH, N.C.) – The skin is the largest organ of the human body and the main barrier against the external world. Microbes on the surface of the skin often work in symphony with host skin cells to mediate body odor and, more importantly, overall health. For example, the… Read More >

A biologist holds a handful of salamander mussels (Simpsonaias ambigua). Photo: Megan Bradley/USFWS. The Museum’s Research Curator of Mollusks, Dr. Art Bogan, was interviewed by Pittsburgh’s NPR station WESA.  The article begins: A species of freshwater mussel found in pockets of the Allegheny River might soon be protected under the Endangered Species Act, as proposed… Read More >

(RALEIGH, N.C.) — It’s time to get buggy with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences as they host BugFest, the largest one-day bug-centric event in the country. Satisfy all your web weaving, wing flapping, dungball rolling, creepy crawling and (of course) bug munching pursuits in one day: Saturday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m.–7 p.m. It’s… Read More >

From the Head of the Museum’s Evolutionary Biology & Behavior Research Lab, Adrian Smith: Wow, bat flies are bizarre creatures! I went out to find one of these extraordinary ectoparasitic insects with my museum colleague, Lisa Gatens, as she was trapping and banding bats in the North Carolina’s Coastal Plain. The bat fly in this… Read More >