Systematics/Phylogeny

January 12th, 2011

This NSF-funded PEET project is exploring in detail several subgroups of the enormous beetle family Staphylinidae (rove beetles), which currently includes over 3% of all described animal species. These beetles occur in virtually all terrestrial habitats, and are particularly diverse and abundant in mesic or wetter habitats, especially forests.

Early Bird

January 12th, 2011

Early Bird is a large-scale, cooperative effort among five institutions in the U.S. to determine the evolutionary relationships among all major groups of birds. The project will make these relationships known to the research community and the public, and make it possible to use these relationships as a comparative framework with which to organize and understand the vast amount of information already available on avian ecology, evolution, physiology, and behavior.

Division of Fishes History

January 11th, 2011

Established in 1894, The Field Museum's collection of more than 1,700,000 specimens are the result of the collected efforts of our past and current scientific and collection staff.

Bird Specimen Collection

January 10th, 2011

The bird database contains approximately 500,000 catalogue records from all orders of birds, all but one family, and more than 90% of the world's genera and species. It includes skins, skeletons, alcoholics, tissues, nests and eggs, stomach contents, and syringes.