Music in all its genres and styles, popular culture and street arts  will once again take centre stage in the programme of activities to celebrate La Mercè in Barcelona, with the festivities taking place from 20 to 24 September. On Tuesday, September 24, Open Doors to all Museum locations! Also take the opportunity to enjoy […]

The 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 […]

An 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 […]

The 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 […]

Individual 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 […]

Let’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 […]

The 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 […]

Abellaite 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 […]

Many 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 […]

A 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; […]