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Tickets for the Butterfly Pavilion are SOLD OUT for the season. We look forward to welcoming the butterflies back in March 2027. Tickets for the Spider Pavilion (9/20-12/6) go on sale soon. Become a Member to attend special preview days to our seasonal pavilions for free!

David Ledesma

Postdoctoral Researcher, Herpetology & Anthropology (Archaeology)

David is a postdoc studying the evolution of herpetofauna on the California Channel Islands employing the fossil record. Dr. Ledesma earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin where he studied the responses of central Texas herpetofauna to environmental changes over the last 20,000 years. Prior to that, David earned a B.S. in General Geology, also from the University of Texas at Austin. David has expertise in osteological variation of living and fossil herpetofauna, qualitative and quantitative morphological analyses, and paleogenomic methods involving the recovery and analysis of ancient DNA from small fossils.

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