Nature reports

A student at the University of Amsterdam and a staff researcher of Naturalis Biodiversity Center and University of Groningen recently published the first detailed report of hard corals digesting salps in the Caribbean. Three..

An international team of scientists has found an innovative, animal-friendly way of studying venom genes. The technique makes it possible to determine the unique venom production of a wide range of venomous animals...

During a study on velvet ants, nine new species have been described. Specimens from the collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center were used in this study. As a token of appreciation, the scientists have named one of those newly..

The beetle on the image above is a European stag beetle and the fruit at the bottom left is a fig - but which species of fish is that? This drawing is one in a series of several hundred drawings made and collected between 1596 and..

Slowly, urban planners are realizing the importance of plants, micro-organisms and animals in the city soil. In the Netherlands, the city of Amsterdam is leading the way. Their new book BiodiverCITY shows that they mean business...

Researchers from Naturalis would like to know whether plants quickly adapt to rapidly changing environments, such as urbanization. They use the dandelion as a model for this. Their aim is to find answers to questions such as: is..

The current Arctic region is a desolate place with sparse scrubs, barely enough to support roaming reindeer. Yet 50,000 years ago, in the Pleistocene, that picture was completely different: large herds of woolly mammoths and..

Earthwatch Europe is delighted to announce the roll-out of its FreshWater Watch programme to the Netherlands, thanks to support from Naturalis Biodiversity Center. FreshWater Watch is a global programme in which individuals and..

Last December, a beetle catalogue for the Dutch Caribbean was published. This voluminous paper provides the first critical review of the beetle species reported for the islands. Only about a fifth of the species which are likely..

The sea slug Plocamopherus ocellatus is mainly known from observations in the Mediterranean Sea, which is not its natural habitat. Marine biologists examine this unusual species...