The taxonomic challenge of the annelid genus Perinereis (Nereididae) just gets larger

Today, our paper about Perinereis species from the intertidal coasts of the Red Sea, Gulf of Suez and Suez Canal lead by Asmaa Haris Elgetany was published in ZooKeys. It is her third paper from her internship at our group and fittingly we are describing three new species […]

The FEZ Advent Calendar 2022

By now it is already a good tradition for the FEZ group at the Natural History Museum Oslo to provide in December an advent calendar blog. In previous years, the focus was on our own research and scientific output. This year we thought to take a different approach. […]

Group of the month: Acoela

Suddenly it’s already November, so let us introduce another cool animal in the FEZ blog. This time you can learn about an enigmatic little-known group: the acoels. Acoela is an order of tiny flattened unsegmented worms, belonging to the phylum Xenacoelomorpha (pronounced “zenacelomorpha”). They live mainly in benthic […]

Do we need to lobby more for invertebrate taxonomy and biodiversity?

Spiders, insects and even more so worms and wormlike invertebrates are often considered ugly and disgusting, at least unappealing, and sometimes even dangerous. Certainly, there is also beautiful invertebrates such as e.g., butterflies, beetles, dragonflies, or some sea slugs, but usually invertebrates appeal little to our understanding of […]

Group of the month: hairybellies (Gastrotricha)

What is so fascinating or even better said the beauty of working with tiny worms? Many might be curious about this, when they meet researchers like me. I would suggest to look at the marvelous wonders of the hairybellies, the phylum Gastrotricha, and you will understand why it […]

Launch of Biodiversity Genomics Europe – sequencing the genomes of European species

After two years of hard work and many meetings, we can officially announce that the Biodiversity Genomics Europe consortium has started this month. The road to this consortium at the European level started actually from two points. It is a collaboration between two of the most ambitious biological […]

GNATHOSTOMULIDA, AN OBSCURE AND OFTEN NEGLECTED PHYLUM

Gnathostomuida, also known as “lesser jaw worms”, is a phylum of about 100 described species of minute marine worms. The first gnathostomulid was discovered in 1928, in the fine sand of Kiel (Germany), by Adolf Remane. Later, Riedl (1969) elevated the animal group to the rank of phylum. […]

Specimen fixation – how, and what for(malin)?

When an organism dies, it decomposes, whereby complex structures are broken down. Broadly following 5 to 6 stages, decomposition may be halted or accelerated at any point depending on conditions, such as temperature, water, and oxygen, resulting in different morphological and chemical changes to the organism. By chance, […]

Group of the month: Tardigrades

Hallo again, and welcome to August’s entry in the FEZ blog’s Group of the Month club! This time, we’ll be exploring a charismatic wonder of the microscopic world: the tardigrade. Their ability to withstand incredible heat and cold, and even survive in space, has brought them a certain […]

How to spend summer in Norway: fieldwork on the west coast

Summer is here, so it’s time for the Artsdatabanken project team to go back to the field. Or to the sea, in our case. After driving 500km from the east to the west coast, through beautiful mountains and majestic fjords, we arrived at Austevoll (Figure 1), an archipelago […]