Behind the Science: Recent Episodes
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"Attenborough’s Beauty" was on display in the Denver Museum of Nature & Science’s Prehistoric Journey exhibition for decades waiting to be identified. Frank Krell, Denver Museum of Nature & Science Senior Curator of Entomology, and Francesco Vitali, National Museum of Natural History of Luxembourg Invertebrate Zoology Collections Curator, worked together to identify this new species. Hear the story of how this magnificent beetle received it's new name, "Attenborough’s Beauty".
In evolutionary terms, islands are the stuff of weirdness. It is on islands where animals evolve in isolation, often for millions of years, with different food sources, competitors, predators, and parasites…indeed, different everything compared to mainland species. As a result, they develop into different shapes and sizes and evolve into new species that, given enough time, spawn yet more new species.
Such is the case with the discovery of a new, bizarre 66-million-old mammal in Madagascar by a team of international researchers led by Dr. David Krause, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Dr. Rich Barclay, paleobotanist at the Smithsonian, talks about finding the oldest legume fossil on the planet found at Corral Bluffs.
Meet our Senior Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, Dr. David Krause, and listen to him talk about the incredible Colorado Springs discovery.