Field Trip to KU Natural History Museum

Six people made the trip to KU’s Natural History Museum (Dyche Hall) on July 19, 2022, for a behind-the-scenes glimpse of some of the many specimens housed there. (The Museum is part of the KU Biodiversity Institute’s collection of 10-million-plus specimens housed in Dyche Hall and six other buildings.) We were shown birds from the museum’s “dry”- preserved collections—including extinct species such as the ivory-billed woodpecker, Imperial woodpecker (world’s largest and possibly extinct), carolina parakeet, and more. We were also shown specimens from the museum’s “wet” collections (ethanol-preserved fish, reptiles, and amphibians). Because of the research value of specimens, data about each are cataloged in a database (including identity, location and date collected, and DNA samples in some cases) and specimens may be loaned out to qualified researchers