Communication Current news Museum news
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The recognition of dominance signals among different bird species has been proven for the first time
12 June 2024The journal Ethology has just published a study by the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona (MCNB) that sheds light on animals’ ability to recognise the dominance signals of other species when in a competitive scenario. Led by the Museum’s Vertebrates Curator, Javier Quesada, the study followed the behaviour of two related bird species that nest […]
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Arabian desert geckos illuminate the night with striking fluorescence
7 May 2024An international team led by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE),in which Bernat Burriel ( the first author of the study, previously a predoctoral researcher at the IBE and currently a researcher at the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona (MCNB)) participated, has uncovered a remarkable natural phenomenon: several species of desert-dwelling geckos exhibit striking […]
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Carles Lalueza, director of MCNB, wins the international prize “Fabio Frassetto”
13 November 2023The National Academy of Lincei has awarded the prize to the IBE researcher for his contribution to the field of Anthropology and Human Evolution. Carles Lalueza-Fox, Principal Investigator at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), and current director of the […]
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Evidence found for unique voice print in parrots
4 October 2023Individual voice could help birds be recognized in a flock, no matter what they say Parrots are exceptional talkers. They can learn new sounds during their entire lives, amassing an almost unlimited vocal repertoire. At the same time, parrots produce calls so they can be individually recognized by members of their flock—raising the question of […]
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Epippigerida asella
24 July 2023Let’s continue with the Types of MCNB, specimens of current or fossil fauna that have been used to describe a new taxon, species or subspecies, in most cases. The museum preserves a very valuable part of the insect collection made by Longí Navàs i Ferrer (Cabacés, 1858-Girona, 1938), a Jesuit priest and great naturalist, a […]
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Xerces Blue butterfly genome sequenced, an icon of anthropogenic extinction
12 July 2023The genetic patterns found could be used to identify other endangered insects The study, led by researchers from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE, CSIC-UPF), and the Museum of Natural Sciences in Barcelona, has succeeded in sequencing the complete genome of the Xerces Blue butterfly, the first butterfly to become extinct in historical times. This […]
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Abellaite
5 April 2023Abellaite is the first new mineral species discovered in Catalonia. The first specimens were found in 2010 at the Eureka mine (Castell-Estaó, La Torre de Cabdella, Lleida) and abellaite was approved as a new mineral by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) in 2015. It was named in honour of its discoverer, the mineralogist and gemmologist […]
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Xerocrassa edmundi
19 January 2023Many of the world’s animal and plant species are still to be described. Year after year, researchers describe new species for science. This is the case of the species Xerocrassa edmundi Martínez–Ortí, 2006, described in the twenty-first century by Alberto Martínez Ortí.. He studied samples collected from the province of Castelló on which he based […]
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Festuca dertosensis Pyke & L. Sáez, holotype of new plant species
12 December 2022A description of this new species was published by Samuel Pyke and Llorenç Sáez in 2016 in the journal Willdenowia based on samples collected at Portell de Caro (Roquetes). This grass is found in the Ports de Beseit and nearby mountains and has intermediate characters between other members of the same genus from the area; […]
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In its fifth year, the Nat Award honours Enric Sala, marine ecologist, explorer, promoter of marine reserves and environmental spokesman
13 October 2022Enric Sala is a marine ecologist, National Geographic explorer in residence and founder and director of Pristine Seas, a project devoted to the exploration and protection of the last wild places in the global ocean. He has carried out 36 expeditions, from the Arctic to Patagonia, has helped create 25 marine reserves (equivalent to 13 […]