The University’s LSU Museum of Natural Science came alive Thursday at its Night at the Museum event in Foster Hall, inviting the public to view the museum’s amphibian and reptile specimens.

The event occurs twice a semester with a different focus each night. The two events in the fall focused on birds and fish, respectively, while the two spring events focused on mammals and amphibians and reptiles, respectively. Museum of Natural Science Outreach Coordinator Valerie Derouen said the event was held to give people a chance to view the exhibit and collections.

“We wanted to have an event where the general public could come and experience the museum and see behind the scenes in the collection, even if they couldn’t make it to our regular hours,” Derouen said.

In the exhibit area, the birds and mammals are all real specimens that have been taxidermied, while the amphibians and reptiles in the exhibit are all painted models. However, behind the scenes where the research is conducted, all the specimens are real. The museum gave a tour of where the research happens.

“Mainly here we’re looking at different evolutionary processes and trying to learn about what kind of life exists on earth, how everything is connected or related, what factors drive speciation, what factors in the environment maybe changing and those different rates of speciation,” Derouen said. “Mainly, it’s just evolution of life on earth. You can use specimens beyond that, that’s just what we mostly study.”

Some of the specimens in the behind the scenes collection include crocodilians, salamanders, frogs, snakes, lizards and turtles. During the tour, attendants learned about how the Museum of Natural Science preserves amphibians and reptiles, where they keep them and how researchers use the specimens in their research.

The event also featured three tables of specimens in the exhibit where participants could look and even touch a few of the specimens. At one of the tables, there were several displays of the venomous snakes that inhabit Louisiana. Another table was presented by biological sciences graduate student Genevieve Mount, who displayed several local amphibians and reptiles that can be found around the University, either on land or in the lakes.

The last table displayed several different specimens, including a turtle from 1866. It was manned by biological sciences graduate student Zach Rodriguez. He said he wanted to show the diversity of the museum’s collection.

“What you see up here is less than 1 percent of what goes on behind the scenes,” Rodriguez said. “For example, our lab just developed a technique to extract DNA from preserved specimens. When we fix it, we inject it with this chemical that makes it hard to extract DNA out of.”

Derouen said the event was important because not everyone knows why natural history museums exist. A lot of evolutionary and ecology questions could not be answered without having specimens to reference, she said.

“We’re mainly the libraries of life on earth,” Derouen said. “We are keeping the records of what exists and what has existed before but no longer exists, so we have some extinct specimens. Without those records, we won’t know what’s been there before or what it’s like in the past, because each specimen could act like a time capsule.”