Many animals, but little biodiversity in children’s picture books
Dutch children’s picture books are full of animals, but most of them are mammals. Especially pets and exotic animals are popular. A large part of the Dutch fauna is less visible, but biologist Michiel Hooykaas of Leiden University and Naturalis sees plenty…
The day of the PhD defence: Le Qin Choo
Thursday March 24th at 13:00, Le Qin Choo will enter the Agnietenkapel in Amsterdam to defend her thesis entitled “Genomic variability and population structure in shelled pteropods”. For her PhD research at Naturalis and the University of Amsterdam, she…
Large team will unravel the hidden biodiversity in the city
Which 'hidden' organisms live in the city? How can we use these organisms to help trees grow better, make concrete green and measure heat stress? Will city dwellers act more environmentally conscious if they let their gardens grow wilder and know more…
The city has a direct influence on evolution
A global biological study has provided the most direct evidence to date that humans, and specifically cities, are the drivers of evolutionary change on Earth. Leiden University, the municipality of Leiden and Naturalis contributed substantively and…
Two million euros for researching underground fungal networks
Plants live of solar energy, but some species can exchange food through underground fungal networks. Possibly, way more species are doing this than biologists thought. Naturalis researcher Vincent Merckx wants to determine which plants are sharing their…
The impossible fishing cat
The skull and skin of a Fishing Cat has been in the collections of Naturalis for 200 years, but only recently did it receive attention. What researchers found can inform us about the history of Singapore – natural and cultural. And it shows just how…
Fungal pandemic threatens Vietnamese banana production
Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (FOC) is a fungus found across the world, and various of its races are hitting the banana industry hard. This has major consequences in Vietnam, in particular, where the new FOC-TR4 race is taking a devastating hold…
Sixteenth-century tomatoes entered Europe in a wide range of colors and shapes
The discovery of a sixteenth-century tomato in the top collection of Naturalis elicited many different questions. Was this really the oldest preserved specimen of a tomato? Where did it come from? Could the DNA of this ‘wild ancestral tomato’ tell us…
Ocean sunfish found on Ameland safe in the freezer
The ocean sunfish that washed up on the beach in Ameland last Monday is now in a cold storage. Naturalis employees have taken some samples for research. The animal will be stuffed, and museum visitors will be able to see that process live.