Selected press releases in English

Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology Pelecanimimus polyodon from the Lower Cretaceous (125 Ma) is the first predatory dinosaur found in Spain. An international team of paleontologists now discovered features on the fossil that are typical of dinosaurs closely related to birds, as well as birds. The researchers published their findings in the prestigious […]

The Science Information Service (idw) has awarded the press office of the Bavarian Natural History Collections (SNSB) the idw Prize for Science Communication. The SNSB took 3rd place for their press release on the rediscovery of the Voeltzkow chameleon in Madagascar on October 30, 2020. The prize is endowed with 500 €. Due to the […]

Individual Successes and Unfortunately Many Further Deteriorationsle weitere Verschlechterungen In cooperation and with funding from the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU), a new Red List of endangered ferns and flowering plants of Bavaria is currently being compiled by scientists from the Bavarian State Collection for Botany (SNSB-BSM), as well as volunteer botanists and […]

Staatssammlung für Anthropologie und Paläoanatomie The study of the remains of unborn and newborn lambs shows researchers the fundamental problems our ancestors had to face in keeping sheep during the early Neolithic period (about 10,000 years ago). In order to draw conclusions on possible causes of lamb mortality in prehistoric livestock farming, it is necessary […]

Bavarian State Collection of Zoology An international team, led by the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (ZSM-SNSB), has discovered a minuscule new species of chameleon. The sole known, apparently adult male of the new species has a body size of just 13.5 mm, making it the smallest known male of the roughly 11,500 known non-avian […]

Bavarian State Collection of Zoology Researchers at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (SNSB-ZSM), the Ludwig-Maximilians University and Hochschule München have discovered that the web-footed gecko Pachydactylus rangei from Namibia fluoresces neon-green under UV light in a stripe along its flank and around its eye. These markings, best visible from the perspective of a gecko, […]

Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology An international team of paleontologists, including SNSB researcher Oliver Rauhut, finds evidence of rapid climate change 180 million years ago as the cause of the spread of the widely known long-necked dinosaurs (Sauropods). The researchers published their results in the prestigious scientific journal “Proceedings of the Royal Society […]

Bavarian State Collection for Botany An international research team including botanist Andreas Fleischmann from SNSB-BSM has evaluated the Red List threat categories for all 860 known species of carnivorous plants in the light of the 21st Century – the Anthropocene, i.e. the geological time impacted by human ecological influences like habitat destruction, pollution and global […]

Bavarian State Collection for Zoology Madagascar is home to almost half of all known 217 chameleon species. However, their habitats are also threatened to a dramatic level and the vast majority of the primary rainforest has already been destroyed. Scientists from Germany and Madagascar have now discovered three new species and revalidated another species. The […]

GeoBio-Center at LMU and Bavarian State Collection for Zoology A collaborative research project carried out under the auspices of the GeoBio-Center at LMU has developed an integrative approach to the classification of fossil cichlids, and identified the oldest known member of the Tribe Oreochromini. Cichlids (Cichlidae) are a group of small to medium-sized fish that […]