The mission of the University of Texas' Texas Natural Science Center is "...to create awareness, understanding and appreciation of the past, present and future of biological diversity, especially that of the state of Texas." Since its establishment in 1936 (as the Texas Memorial Museum) it has done that via collection and preservation of specimens in its now large research collections. This project will help us further that mission, but now by adding photography and volunteers to our toolset. Observations contributed here will be curated and permanently archived by our curators and staff just as we have always done with specimens to assure that this project will fully complement our largely historic museum specimen-vouchered data and lead to a better understanding of the distribution, evolution, ecology and current status of the state's biodiversity. פחות ↑