The CU Museum is closed until January 8, 2026.
During this time, collection visits will be available by appointment and other special access requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.Ìý
Please email cumuseum@colorado.edu for more information.Ìý
CU’s Jingchun Li – Associate Professor of EBIO, Curator of Invertebrates-and talented taxonomist- is recognized for deep sea discoveries
Congratulations to CU’sÌýJingchunÌýLi – Associate Professor of EBIO & Curator of Invertebrates – recognized for advancing biodiversity research and leading species discovery through her deep dive into the vast mollusk collections in natural history museums worldwide! Dr. Li’s global collaboration hopes to uncover dozens of previously unknown bivalve species hidden in museum collections.
Dr. Li is a recipient of the a celebration of the pioneering scientists and taxonomists accelerating the discovery and description of the life in our oceans. This financial award aims to help overcome the financial barriers related to fieldwork, specimen preparation and publication.
Jingchun’s work involves unusual clams that belong to Galeommatoidea, a superfamily of exceptionally diverse but poorly studied small-bodied bivalves. Galeommatids have evolved a dazzling range of forms and lifestyles. Some are free-living among coral reefs, while others live as symbionts on or inside other marine invertebratesÌýsuch as crabs and sea cucumbers. Their highly modified shells and elaborate soft anatomy make them difficult to identify, and as a result, hundreds of species remain undescribed in museum collections around the world.
In 2025, Dr. Li and her lab members will convene 11 marine biodiversity experts from ten institutions across four continents for a two-week workshop at the London Natural History Museum and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. By combining detailed morphological study with cutting-edge molecular work, the team expects to identify and describe 15–40 new species, many of them symbionts that live hidden inside other invertebrates.