News

Munich, 03.06.2026News on the woolly mammoth from Taimering (Bavaria, Germany): The mammoth, discovered in 2020, was buried in a former Ice Age pond after its death. Pollen findings and radiocarbon dating confirm that the mammoth lived and died during the harsh conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum. Cut marks on several ribs suggest that Palaeolithic […]

Munich/Bayreuth, 28.05.2026The presumed “proto-turtle” Eunotosaurus africanus is not a direct ancestor of modern turtles. This is confirmed by a new analysis of the evolutionary relationships among primitive turtles conducted by an international team of paleontologists. The findings have now been published in the journal Current Biology. The evolutionary relationships of most vertebrate groups are well […]

Munich, 26.05.2026As part of a project led by Chinese scientists to study life in the deep-sea trenches of the world’s oceans, researchers have now discovered a hidden fauna on rock surfaces at a depth of about 10,000 meters. The researchers found a new, diverse fauna consisting primarily of filamentous and sessile protists and foraminifera. The […]

Munich, 29.04.2026 An international study based on Bavarian findings shows that southern Germany‘s population after the collapse of the Roman Empire developed through the gradual intermingling of different groups and regional mobility—not through single large-scale migrations. The study has now been published in the prestigious journal Nature. Between antiquity and the early Middle Ages, many […]

Urwelt-Museum Oberfranken, Bayreuth: A fossil discovery in Mistelgau, Northern Bavaria, Germany, reveals that the last representatives of the giant ichthyosaurs of the genus Temnodontosaurus survived longer in the Southwest German Basin than previously thought. The Early Jurassic marine reptile is exceptionally well-preserved. In addition to injuries in the skeleton of this marine predator, SNSB researchers […]

Palaeontology, Munich, 16.04.2026: A German-Argentine team of paleontologists led by SNSB dinosaur expert Oliver Rauhut has discovered a new long-necked dinosaur, Bicharracosaurus dionidei, from the Upper Jurassic period in Argentina, dating back approximately 155 million years. Long-necked dinosaur fossils from the Jurassic period in the Southern Hemisphere are rare, so the new fossil contributes to […]

Naturkundemuseum Bamberg, 27. March 2026A German-Bulgarian research team led by SNSB paleontologist Christian Bartel has discovered a new species of harvestman in 35-million-year-old Ukrainian and Baltic amber. The animal is related to harvestmen that are now extinct in Europe. The researchers published their findings in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. The arachnid was perfectly preserved […]

Urwelt-Museum Oberfranken, 25.03.2026 The asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous period caused one of the largest mass extinctions in Earth’s history. But some organisms defied the catastrophe. For turtles, the chance of survival was apparently linked to their diet: species with a preference for hard-shelled organisms survived the catastrophic event. SNSB paleontologist Serjoscha […]

RiesCraterMuseum Nördlingen, 03.03.2026 Christian Bergemann joined the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB) on March 1st. The geoscientist will take over as scientific director of the RiesCraterMuseum Nördlingen, one of the SNSB’s ten natural history museums. He succeeds his long-standing predecessor, Prof. Dr. Stefan Hölzl. Dr. Christian Bergemann most recently headed a research project […]

Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg, 23.02.2026 How do plants adapt to drought and heat? New studies on plants of the Canary Islands show that adaptation is not determined by a single character but by the interaction of entire sets of characters. Even closely related plants can follow very different paths. Apparently, the survival strategies of succulent plants […]