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Becky's Blog: Flint, Stock and Barrel
A few months ago, the geology collection manager discovered a gun in her collection. Happily, it was no cause for emergency. This was not a modern gun by any means, but an old flintlock pistol broken into four large pieces. What was it doing in a natural…
Triceratops timeline
Triceratops, or literally: three-horned face, an iconic dinosaur. Once upon a time, in 2013, researchers from Naturalis made a special discovery. In Wyoming (America) they found the remains of several Triceratopses. Three more expeditions followed and over…
Becky's Blog: A quail tale
Every now and then I am invited to do a special after hours event. Usually this is some kind of live preparation demonstration, the type I used to do regularly in LiveScience in our old museum (and will do again after our new building opens!). I really…
An animal big enough to sit in
The story behind the biggest Neptune's cup in the collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center That’s right - this is a story about an animal big enough to sit in . It might be hard to comprehend when you look at it, but the Neptune’s cup ( Cliona patera…
Becky's Blog: Whale bones and murder mysteries
How a process that is a problem for our whale bones, can be of great value in forensic anthropology. A tale about adipocere, otherwise known as corpse wax. Before a decedent whale can be stored in our collection, it has to be completely clean and stripped…
Becky's Blog: Funny bones
Many and more things can be examined form bones. In one of the early blogs, I looked closely at some of the strange bone issues we came across while cleaning dolphin skeletons. As the project continued, we see bone deformities so regularly that I started…
The bees and their pollination work
Ever since there have been flowers, there have been insects to pollinate these flowers. Bees are rewarded by the plant with food; the nectar and pollen from the flowers. They need it for energy and that is why you always see lots of bees flying around in…
Anne Schulp professor of vertebrate palaeontology
As of January 1st, 2019, Naturalis researcher Dr. Anne S. Schulp (1974) will start as professor in vertebrate palaeontology at Utrecht University, for 2 days a week. He is currently researcher in vertebrate palaeontology at Naturalis Biodiversity Center,…
Sauropod under contruction
Behind the scenes, hard work is being done on the Camarasaurus: Naturalis' iconic sauropod. Do you remember it standing in our old museum? It stood on the first floor, sticking his neck through the ceiling and looking into the eyes of our visitors on the…