Here you can find our current research: brand-new information from botany, entomology, paleontology and zoology. The latest research results are briefly presented here and provide an insight into our work as a research museum. Information about our main research topics can be found on the pages of the respective research departments.
Science News
New
Plattenkalk ichthyosaurs – Now there are two of them
Illustration: Giovanni Serafini
Ichthyosaurs are among the most significant groups of extinct marine reptiles. During the Late Jurassic, around 150 million years ago, they reached a particularly high level of species diversity. However, only a single species from this period has been known from Southern Germany.
An international team led by Dr. Erin Maxwell of the Natural History Museum Stuttgart has now described Jabalisaurus tethyensis, the first new species from the region to be identified. Close relatives of the two Southern German species have been found in Mexico, enabling the team to draw important conclusions regarding the global distribution patterns of ichthyosaurs during the Late Jurassic.
Bone deep – Skeletal cleaning with superworms
Ein echtes Vogelskelett, montiert auf einer flachen Holzscheibe vor einem blauen Hintergrund
Picture: M. Monfared
Complete skeletons and individual bones are an integral part of the exhibitions and collections in natural history museums and also play an important role in research. However, removing the bones from an animal carcass cleanly and undamaged, while maintaining the skeletons’ natural anatomical shape, is not at all easy.
An international team of scientists, in cooperation with Dr Niloofar Alaei Kakhki from the Stuttgart Museum of Natural History, has now found a method for the effective, low-cost and low-risk skeleton cleaning of animal carcasses using larvae of the darkling beetle Zophobas morio, also called “superworms”.
