The Donald W. Reynolds Center for Life Sciences

Funded with a $10.8 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, the center is home to the Biology and Psychology Departments. The Center opened for classes in January, 2001.

Tour our facilities

• Basement - three large lecture rooms and two small seminar rooms.
• Ground Floor - one large classroom, conference room, computer lab, seminar room and psychology faculty offices.
• 2nd Floor - botany, zoology, cell and ecology labs, herbarium, biology department library and biology faculty offices
• 3rd Floor - faculty research labs, undergraduate research lab, microbiology/immunology lab, genetics and physiology labs and biology faculty offices
• 4th Floor - faculty research labs, greenhouse, and biology faculty offices

Featured Displays in D. W. Reynolds Center

Elephant Skeleton

Hendrix College displays the skeleton of a sub-adult female Asian elephant in the east lobby. The skeleton is that of Kate, a former circus performer who was retired to Riddle's Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary near Conway after she suffered a broken hip. Sadly, Kate had to be euthanized due to complications from her injury.

Former Hendrix Biology Professor, Dr. Keith Sutton, worked closely with Riddle's Elephant Sanctuary on various projects to help students learn about elephant anatomy, including the exhumation of an African elephant skeleton with the Comparative Anatomy class. Dr. Sutton passed away in 2001. As part of a memorial to him, Scott and Heidi Riddle donated this skeleton to the college. (Information provided by Dr. Kelly Agnew)

Alligator Gar

Students, staff and visitors who enter the D.W. Reynolds Life Sciences Building from the west, walk into a foyer dominated by an enormous alligator gar. The gar has been a part of the Biology Department's collection since 1962. It's origins are in the St. Francis River in northeast Arkansas. After the St. Francis River flooded in 1913, the gar was stranded in a shallow pool created by the receding river. Greene County farmers "hogged" the fish out of the water and carried it to R.W. Meriwether, proprietor of the W.W. Meriwether and Son Hardware Store in Paragould. It was packed in ice and sent by rail to St. Louis, where it was preserved and mounted. The fish was a major attraction at the hardware store until the store closed in 1962. Shortly after, Robert W. Meriwether, grandson of R.W. and a Hendrix administrator and professor, brought the gar to Conway and had it cleaned, repaired and remounted. It is displayed in the west foyer.

This alligator gar, Lepisosteus spatula, is 7 feet 5 inches in length and weighed 161 pounds when it was captured. Based on size-age data, the "big fish" was more than 50 years old at the time it was captured. (Information provided by Dr. Chris Spatz.)

Odyssey Project Marine Aquarium

Windows on the Reef This exhibit in the west foyer of DW Reynolds aims to introduce visitors to the spectacular and variegated world of the coral reef. The exhibit consists of three 140-gallon aquaria, each featuring a different niche of the coral reef. The first contains large fish, such as angelfish and butterflyfish, and invertebrates which are not usually kept in captive reefs. The second system displays the vibrant corals which play a central role in the ecology of the coral reef, with representatives from most major groups of coral species. The third aquarium showcases relationships on the reef, especially the symbiosis between clownfish and anemones, as well as the comical interactions between burrowing jawfish.

The exhibit is routinely used by biology classes to exemplify animals which would otherwise be represented only by preserved specimens, and continues to be a source of education and entertainment for members of the Hendrix community. The exhibit is made possible by two Odyssey grants, and was originally created by Tommy Dornhoffer '09, a biology major from Little Rock.