For the first time, researchers in Ecuador have discovered amber fossils from the Cretaceous period on the South American continent. The approximately 112-million-year-old find from the Hollín Formation in the Oriente Basin is one of the oldest known amber deposits in South America. Of particular note are the numerous insect species trapped in the amber, […]
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In the face of climate change and increasing droughts, the Amazon rainforest – one of the largest and most important ecosystems on Earth – is under ever-increasing pressure. A new study by Senckenberg researchers in the journal “Nature Communications” shows that it is not only the size or species diversity of the forest that is […]
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By combining satellite images with a new type of genetic analysis, a research team led by the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center Frankfurt (SBiK-F) was able to decipher how European beech forests react to climate change. The study, published today in the scientific journal “Global Change Biology,” shows that the timing of leaf emergence […]
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Near the Syrian city of Afrin, an international research team, including researchers from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen, has discovered a previously unknown fossil sea turtle. The species Syriemys lelunensis, newly named under the aegis of the University of São Paulo, dates from the early Eocene, around 50 […]
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Angola is home to an impressive diversity of species – but the country’s biodiversity is severely threatened by illegal hunting, habitat loss, and the consumption of bushmeat. A research team, including Senckenberg scientist PD Dr. Raffael Ernst, has investigated the wildlife trade in the province of Uíge. In their study, published in the journal “Oryx,” […]
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An international research team has published a new study on one of the oldest known sites for the processing of animal meat by humans in the southern Balkans. At Marathousa 1, an archaeological site in the Greek Megalopolis Basin, researchers not only found numerous stone tools that provide clues to human behavior but also remains […]
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As part of the joint project ZOWIAC (Zoonotic and Wildlife Ecological Impacts of Invasive Carnivores), a research team from Frankfurt has analyzed hunting data from two decades in 398 German districts. The study aimed to identify the different stages of the invasion of raccoons, originally native to North America, in Germany. The study shows that […]
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A research team from the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung has investigated ancient climate during the Eocene epoch some 56 to 34 million years ago, using a new method based on the evolutionary relationships of fossils. The results of their study, now published in the journal “Communications Earth and Environment,” indicate that the climate in North […]
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An international research team led by Senckenberg scientist Dr. Spyros Theodoridis has investigated the effects of the increasing greening of many European mountain regions on the genetic diversity of plants. Their study, now published in the journal “Current Biology,” uses the example of the Greek mountain tea Sideritis to show that the increase in vegetation […]
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For the first time, a fossilized true cicada has been described from the Messel Pit deposits. Eoplatypleura messelensis is one of the oldest known representatives of the modern-day true cicadas in Eurasia, and it is the earliest record of the subfamily Cicadinae worldwide. The discovery from the UNESCO World Heritage Site near Darmstadt expands our understanding of […]
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