Fish survival in the extreme cold aided by genomic adaptations
An international team of biologists has sequenced the genomes of 24 Antarctic fish species to investigate how they survive the extreme cold. This work enables our study of how these organisms survive in the subzero Southern ocean and sheds light on the…
Swordtails, drummers and polka dots: new names for three groups of tropical shrimp
Shrimp researchers Werner de Gier and Charles Fransen had a dilemma: the classification of 'their' group of eighteen tropical shrimp species had to be revised. The species all come from tropical oysters, mussels and sea squirts, so no one has yet taken a…
Colossal crystal for Naturalis
A gigantic rock crystal of approximately 1750 kilos can be seen in Naturalis from Saturday. The giant crystallized quartz cluster is on display in the “Earth” room. A cluster of rock crystal measuring 2 by 1 by 1.5 meters and weighing approximately 1750…
The science of color Liliana D'Alba is now a professor
Evolutionary biologist Liliana D’Alba wants to understand why animals are so colorful. She works at Naturalis, but is also appointed as a professor at Ghent University.
Endangered mammals of Madagascar: over 20 million years of evolution under threat
A new study reveals that it would take 3 million years to recover the number of species that went extinct due to humans on Madagascar. However, if currently threatened species go extinct, recovering them would take more than 20 million years, much longer…
New species named after former Naturalis general director
Naturalis researcher Kees van Achterberg named a new species of parasitoid wasp after Ronald van Hengstum. He was the former general director of Naturalis, and died suddenly in 2007.
Scientists list extinct plants we may be able to "bring back to life"
If a dried specimen of an extinct plant species still has seeds in a herbarium, is the plant really extinct? A global team of scientists toyed with that question. To arrive at the answer, they made a survey of all extinct plants in herbariums that (may)…
Day of the PhD defense: Roderick Bouman
On Tuesday december 6th 2022 at 01.45 PM, Roderick Bouman will defend his thesis Systematics, biogeography and bioactivity of the genus Phyllanthus L. and related genera of tribe Phyllantheae (Phyllanthaceae) . With this, he finishes his PhD research at…
Tree frogs exposed
Biology students from Leiden University have discovered two tree frog species in the Dutch coastal dunes that do not occur there naturally. A special DNA technique revealed these potentially harmful tree frogs. Remarkable, but these are not the only exotic…