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A rare species of fossil crab named in honor of one of our volunteers

13/02/2025

Paleontologists have named a new species of 85-million-year-old fossil crab, found in the Houthalen coal mine, after volunteer Patrick De Saegher. He has been digitizing historical documents for the Institute for twelve years.


Wissenschaft

Homo naledi fossils show they probably weren’t long-distance runners

13/02/2025

A decade after the discovery of Homo naledi fossils in South Africa’s Rising Star Cave system, researchers have gained new insights into how this ancient hominid moved.

Wissenschaft

northseabelgium.be bundles news about Belgian North Sea policy

23/01/2025

Anyone who is concerned with the sustainable management of the Belgian part of the North Sea or wants to stay informed about the North Sea policy can now visit northseabelgium.be.


Wissenschaft

Unique medieval dye plants discovered in Brussels and Mechelen

16/01/2025

Archaeologists have uncovered traces of weld, madder, and woad—the three most important dye plants of the Middle Ages—during excavations in Brussels and Mechelen. These plants were crucial for textile production, yet archaeological evidence of their use is rare.

Wissenschaft

Asteroid impact sulfur release less lethal in dinosaur extinction

16/01/2025

An international research team has demonstrated that the role of sulfur during the mass extinction that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs has been overestimated.


Wissenschaft

Ancient Egyptians Deformed Sheep Horns

26/11/2024

Researchers from the Institute of Natural Sciences and the University of Oxford have found the oldest evidence of livestock whose horns were deliberately deformed. The ancient Egyptians forced the corkscrew-shaped horns of sheep, which naturally grow sideways, to stand upright.


Wissenschaft

Introducing Sphaeroptica: a new tool for visualizing insects in 3D

07/11/2024

A new software tool called Sphaeroptica is offering scientists a better way to visualize and analyse 3D images of insects and other arthropods in natural history collections.

Wissenschaft

Belgian Neanderthals made tools from bird bones

08/10/2024

Cut marks on bird bones from the Scladina cave, near Namur, indicate that Neanderthals ate various bird species and made tools from some of the bones. Scladina is only the second site to show that our distant cousins worked a bird bone into a tool.


Wissenschaft

Mass Extinction Conference

27/09/2024


Wissenschaft

New book maps key areas for Gabon's biodiversity conservation

19/09/2024

A newly released book has mapped 35 essential regions in Gabon that require protection to conserve its unique biodiversity. The book was authored by an international team of experts, including Olivier Pauwels from the Institute of Natural Sciences.