Selected press releases in English

Bavarian State Collection for Zoology During the Late Pleistocene period (between 125,000 to 12,000 years ago) two bear species roamed Europe: brown bears (Ursus arctos) and extinct cave bears (Ursus spelaeus s.l.). It is generally assumed that fossil brown bears had a similar diet to extant brown bears, but the situation is not as clear […]

Bavarian State Collection for Zoology During the Late Pleistocene period (between 125,000 to 12,000 years ago) two bear species roamed Europe: omnivorous brown bears (Ursus arctos) and the extinct mostly vegetarian cave bear (Ursus spelaeus). Until now, very little is known about the dietary evolution of the cave bear and how it became a vegetarian, […]

Bavarian State Collection for Zoology Madagascar is a chameleon paradise. More than 40% of the 206 known species are found exclusively on the island. A team of researchers based in Munich, Germany and Madagascar have now discovered three new species, among them a beautifully coloured rainbow chameleon, and a species with a large hole in […]

LMU Munich & Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology LMU/SNSB researchers report the first description of the geologically oldest fossil securely attributable to the genus Archaeopteryx, and provide a new diagnostic key for differentiating bird-like dinosaurs from their closest relatives. Some 150 million years ago in what is now Northern Bavaria, Archaeopteryx – the […]

Bavarian State Collection for Zoology Chameleons are famous for their colour language. Using colour changes and colourful patterns they communicate with their conspecifics. A research team from Munich, Germany, has now found that many chameleons have bony tubercles on their head, which glow blue under UV light and form impressive patterns. The skin in this […]

Bavarian State Collection for Zoology Madagascar is a famous hotspot of biodiversity. 319 species of frogs are officially known from this island off the East African coast. Recent studies have shown that at least 200 additional new species are still awaiting scientific description and naming. An international team has now described 26 new species of […]

Bavarian State Collection for Zoology Researchers from the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Munich, studied a gecko’s colonization of islands in the Western Indian Ocean. By applying molecular dating of a family tree of gecko species (“molecular clock”) they found that the volcanic island of Grand Comoro is likely much older than previously estimated based […]

Bavarian State Collection for Botany Hoverflies (also called flower flies), are conspicuous flower visitors of the dipteran family Syrphidae which often mimic the colouration of bees and wasps for protection, however they are totally stingless insects. The larvae (“maggots”) of most species are known to be beneficial organisms that feed on aphids and related insect […]

SNSB IT Center The project GFBio is funded with additional 5.8 million € by the ‚Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft‘ to continue the setup of a national data infrastructure in the field of biological and environmental sciences. Innovative research and new techniques in the field of environmental and ecosystem sciences not only lead to new understandings, but also […]

Bavarian State Collection for Botany An international team of botanists from Brazil, USA and the Botanische Staatssammlung München, Germany described a new species of carnivorous sundew (Drosera, Droseraceae), which was discovered on a not-so-remote mountain in Southeastern Brazil. The new species, which has been named Drosera magnifica (the magnificent sundew), turned out to be the […]