UNM's Museum of Southwestern Biology to display collections at public event

Jun. 9—The University of New Mexico Museum of Southwestern Biology is home to a collection of 4 million specimens.

It is a set of nine actively growing biodiversity collections containing animal and plant specimens from the Southwest and around the world.

The museum is usually closed to the public, occasionally hosting open house events. Now for the first time since the pandemic, the museum is hosting one of these events.

From 4-9 p.m. Wednesday, June 14, the public is invited to "Evolution Revealed: An Open Collections Event." The event has a suggested donation of $10 and registration is required at eventbrite.com.

"It's really exciting for us because this is something different from our core mission," says Christopher Witt, Museum of Southwestern Biology director and curator of birds. "Our core mission is to do research on biodiversity and help others and support higher education in biodiversity science. When we can open our doors and share that research with the public, it's incredibly gratifying."

Each of the museum's divisions will have items from their collections on display. The divisions are amphibians and reptiles; arthropods (insects, spiders, etc.); birds; fish; genomic resources (frozen tissue samples); mammals; New Mexico natural heritage; parasites; and plants.

The specimens run the gamut from ferns to an aplomado falcon to the skeleton of a minke whale.

Witt says the event will include a wide variety of historic and modern specimens, many of which are irreplaceable and provide unique information about wild populations and natural environments.

There will also be specimen comparisons that demonstrate Darwinian processes: natural selection, mutation, extinction, speciation, sexual selection, mutualism, host-parasite and host-pathogen co-evolution, adaptation to extreme environments, mimicry and convergence.

Visitors will embark on a 60—90 minute walking tour of our collections spaces.

There will be merchandise for sale such as T-shirts, mugs and stickers. There will be food trucks and various exhibitors on hand. Ages 12 and over are welcomed, but minors must be accompanied by adults.

Witt says the staff, curators and students will be on hand at the event to show off their own research, as well as past research that has used our collections to advance the field of evolutionary biology.

"Our collection grows by thousands of specimens each year," Witt says. "We also have the second largest mammal collection in the world and the largest frozen tissue collection for studying genetics in the world of diverse species."

Witt says the largest international conference of evolutionary biologists, Evolution 2023, will be in Albuquerque from June 21-25, at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

On June 21, Witt says the museum will have an Open Collections Event for the conference attendees, which we are calling "The Specimens Behind the Science."

'Evolution Revealed: An Open Collections Event at UNM's Biology Museum'

WHEN: 4-9 p.m. Wednesday, June 14

WHERE: Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico campus, 302 Yale Blvd. NE

HOW MUCH: $10 suggested donation, registration required at eventbrite.com