The VMNHcast

VMNH Executive Director Dr. Joe Keiper and CFO Jonathan Martin have gone afield to search for birds as part of the 2024 Virginia Birding Classic! Tune in to learn more about this event, which is hosted by our friends at the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.

Dino Festival at the Virginia Museum of Natural History is coming up fast, so let's celebrate with a look at one of the weirdest reptiles of the Triassic Period! In this episode, VMNH Assistant Curator of Paleontology Dr. Adam Pritchard discusses his recent paper on drepanosaur, a truly strange reptile that existed before the dinosaurs!

In part two of VMNH Administrator of Science Ben Williams' interview with entomologist and VMNH Research Associate Dr. Art Evans, Dr. Evans discusses a recent trip he took to collect beetles and other insects across the American Southwest. Not even heavy rains, rattlesnakes, and angry bees can stop a dedicated entomologist!

Dr. Art Evans is not only a Research Associate and board member at the Virginia Museum of Natural History, he's also the co-host of VPM's "What's Bugging You?" and has written numerous books about beetles and other insects. His latest book, "The Lives of Beetles," releases this March. In part one of a two-part interview, Dr. Evans sits down with VMNH Administrator of Science Ben Williams to discuss his varied and fascinating career, which includes everything from insect zoos to seagull puppets to winning an Emmy!

The VMNHcast has returned from the holidays! In October 2022, herpetologist Dr. Arianna Kuhn became the newest curator at VMNH. In this episode of the VMNHcast, recorded just a few days after she started, Dr. Kuhn talks about her globe-trotting studies of reptiles and amphibians around the world, the dangers that these creatures face, and the potential to find new or hybrid species right here in Virginia.

Why are natural history collections so important? In this episode, VMNH Administrator of Science Ben Williams sits down with Dr. Jory Brinkerhoff from the University of Richmond and VMNH Curator of Mammalogy Dr. Nancy Moncrief to address that very question. Drs. Brinkerhoff and Moncrief recently collaborated on a paper about the historical prevalence of Lyme disease in Virginia, and their research was only possible thanks to some long-preserved mice in the VMNH collections. The results of their research showed a dramatic rise in Lyme disease in Virginia over the last couple of decades; be sure to listen in to hear a few theories as to why the numbers have increased.

VMNH Adminstrator of Science Ben Williams sits down with board member Dr. Tom Benzing and VMNH Executive Director Dr. Joe Keiper to discuss VMNH-Waynesboro, the museum's upcoming branch campus slated to be built in Waynesboro, Virginia. Listen in to learn how the project came to be and the timeline for the project's completion!

Recently, VMNH Assistant Curator of Archaeology Dr. Hayden Bassett took intrepid VMNH intern Vashawn Gray and Administrator of Science Ben Williams on a fly fishing trip. The purpose: to get a better sense of the ecology of the coldwater streams of southwest Virginia (also, it was a pretty day and it seemed like a fun thing to do). In this episode of the VMNHcast, Bassett discusses the trip with Williams, highlighting the native and non-native species of trout that call Virginia home and the threats that these species face.

Armadillos in Virginia? It's true! In this episode of the VMNHcast, VMNH Curator of Mammalogy Dr. Nancy Moncrief discusses her paper on the first armadillos recorded in Virginia and explains just how and why they're starting to crop up in the Commonwealth.

In this episode of the VMNHcast, Associate Curator of Recent Invertebrates Dr. Kal Ivanov discusses his ongoing survey of the ants of Virginia. Along the way, he discusses some of his most surprising finds, some of Virginia's rarest ants, and just how likely you are to find a nest of fire ants in your own backyard.

VMNH Assistant Curator of Archaeology Dr. Hayden Bassett returns to the VMNHcast, this time to talk about the Smith River Survey, a two-year project to assess the status of archaeological sites along the Smith River. In this episode, Dr. Bassett sits down with VMNH Administrator of Science Ben Williams to discuss how these sites are inspected, the indigenous peoples who once lived along the Smith River, and the threat that climate change poses to these valuable sites.

Virginia is home to an incredible diversity of millipedes, and VMNH Myriapodologist Dr. Jackson Means is here to tell you all about them. In this episode of the VMNHcast, Dr. Means sits down with VMNH Administrator of Science Ben Williams and offers a broad overview of millipede life, along with some tales of new and rare species he's discovered in the field.

Last year, Jeff Lowe, one of the main subjects in the hit Netflix documentary series "Tiger King," ran afoul of the law. When an attorney from PETA needed the help of entomologists to determine whether a young lion in Lowe's care had died of neglect, he knew exactly where to turn: The Virginia Museum of Natural History! In this episode, VMNH Executive Director Dr. Joe Keiper and Associate Curator of Recent Invertebrates Dr. Kal Ivanov discuss the role they played in the court case and provide an overview of forensic entomology, the use of insects found on a body to determine a time of death.

For the past six months, VMNH Paleo Technician Lucy Treado has been working tirelessly to prepare the fossil skeleton of Petra, the large Ice Age cat recovered from a cave in western Virginia. In this episode, Lucy sits down with VMNH Administrator of Science Ben Williams to discuss the process of prepping a delicate skeleton, some surprising findings along the way, and the current theory regarding Petra's species.

In the second episode of the VMNHcast, Administrator of Science Ben Williams sits down with Dr. Alex Hastings, Paleontology Curator at the Science Museum of Minnesota and former Assistant Curator of Paleontology at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. Last fall, Dr. Hastings excavated Petra, a large fossil cat dating back to the Ice Age, from a cave in western Virginia. Shortly after, Dr. Hastings sat down with Williams and discussed the difficulties of removing such a large, delicate specimen from a treacherous cave, theories of how Petra wound up in the cave, and much more. Stay tuned for an update on Petra coming very soon!

Welcome to the official podcast of the Virginia Museum of Natural History! In this inaugural episode, Administrator of Science Ben Williams sits down with Dr. Hayden Bassett, VMNH Assistant Curator of Archaeology and Director of the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML) to discuss how the lab is using advanced satellite imagery to monitor impacts on important archaeological sites around the world, including sites in Ukraine that are currently under threat. Also in attendance is Capt. Bill Welsh, CHML Director of Operations.