A team of South African and German researchers led by Senckenberg scientist Dr. Melita Vamberger and Dr. Adrian J. Armstrong (Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife) has used a genetic reference database to trace the origins of leopard tortoises that were confiscated and kept in rescue stations. Despite their IUCN status of “least concern (LC),” the tortoises face […]
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The limestone caves of Laos are hotspots of biodiversity: Senckenberg arachnologist Dr. Peter Jäger and his colleague Liphone Nophaseud from the National University of Laos have discovered nine previously unknown spider species there. They belong to three genera and two families, including the first record of the family Ochyroceratidae for Laos. The new descriptions encompass […]
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With the almost complete decoding of the genome of the rare earless monitor lizard, a Senckenberg team of taxonomists and genomicists is providing new, fundamental insights into the early evolutionary history of the scaled reptiles. The lizard, which is regarded as a “living fossil” and is found exclusively on Borneo, is considered a key genetic […]
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An international team led by Senckenberg researcher Dr. Ralf Britz has made an extraordinary discovery in Northeast India when they found an as yet undescribed species of fish in a well. The blind loach with a length of just 20 millimeters, now described as Gitchak nakana in the journal “Scientific Reports,” is characterized by almost non-existent eyes, […]
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Along with forests, grasslands and wetlands are also being converted to cropland and pasture at an increasing rate around the world – often for livestock farming and the export of agricultural products. An international team led by Senckenberg researchers has now analyzed for the first time where, for what purpose, and how quickly natural non-forest […]
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Soil food webs conduct most of the energy in terrestrial ecosystems. Temperate and tropical forests are home to different communities of soil animals, but to date it was not clear how these differences specifically affect the structure and functioning of soil food webs in these large climate zones. In a new study, published in the […]
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Although the deep-sea floor represents around 70 percent of the Earth’s habitats, it is still poorly explored. Therefore, it is also unclear how animal species live in the deep sea, where they occur, and how far they spread. To find answers to these questions, Senckenberg researchers have studied tiny isopods measuring only a few millimeters […]
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In a joint appeal, an international research team, including Senckenberg scientist Prof. Dr. Steffen Pauls, advocates the targeted and comprehensive genome sequencing of type specimens – the reference specimens of individual species that are kept in natural history collections. In their article, published in the scientific journal “Systematic Biology,” the researchers, led by first author […]
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For a long time, researchers believed that the warm and humid climate of the tropics and subtropics destroyed all traces of old genetic material. A new review, led by Senckenberg scientists, now disproves this dogma. Published in the journal “Trends in Ecology & Evolution,” the study shows how ancient environmental DNA can be preserved in […]
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An international research team, including Senckenberg scientists, has developed a new method to investigate what the habitats of prehistoric animals and humans looked like. Their study, led by Prof. Timothy Bromage (New York University) and now published in the renowned scientific journal “Nature,” shows that fossil bones and teeth of animals preserve far more information […]
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