Introducing MeioSkag: Meiofauna and interstitial fauna of four lophotrochozoan groups of the Skagerrak

Earlier this year, our group got a new Artsprosjekt funded. So, let’s dive into the world of meiofauna. A substantial part of marine biodiversity occurs in the space between the sand grains, gravel and stones of sediments. Species that live here, also known as meiofauna, comprise a crucial […]

Group of the month November: Metchnikovellidae

Cover image: Metchnikovella incurvata, a parasite of a bristle worm infecting gregarine. Picture from Galindo et al. 2018, https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evy205 For this month’s group, I want to present you another group of organisms I am currently working with in my postdoc project PolyPro3 here at NHM Oslo. This is […]

The 2024 Master, PhD and PostDoc Days at the Natural History Museum Oslo

In their daily work early career students and scientists are usually very busy with generating and interpreting data for their scientific projects. But it is equally important to discuss results and methods. While scientific conferences offer such opportunities in official settings, the annual Master, PhD and PostDoc Days […]

Kunstig eller ikke – spiller det noen rolle for strendene

Den siste måneden har Sunniva Løviknes og Jan Einar Amundsen disputert for sine masteroppgaver som de har gjennomført de siste to årene i vår gruppe. Vi gratulerer med dette svært interessante prosjektet. Begge arbeidet med svært like temaer. Rundt om i verden øker antallet kunstige strender og til […]

Artificial or not – does it matter for beaches

In the last month, Sunniva Løviknes and Jan Einar Amundsen successfully defended their Master theses they had conducted the last two years in our group. Congratulations to this very interesting project. Both worked on very similar topics. Around the world the number of artificial beaches and even islands […]

Outreach through ‘art’ – reflections on a sketch experiment on myself

Scientists are used to and trained for communicating with scientists. This includes presentation of research ideas and research projects in a short and comprehensible manner, scientific articles as well as oral and poster presentations at scientific conferences are typical examples. Usually, the audience comprises of higly trained scientists […]

25 years of PhD training at the NHM Oslo

By August 2024 the Natural History Museum (NHM) at the University of Oslo turned 25 years. Not that the entire institutions is that young, but in 1999 the NHM was formally created by the merger of the earlier Botanical, Zoological, Geological and Paleontological museums as well as the […]

Bedre sammen: Forskere fra 33 europeiske land går sammen om å generere referansegenomer for kontinentets rike biologiske mangfold.

Pilotprosjektet European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) har lykkes med å forene forskere fra hele Europa for å produsere referansegenomer av høy kvalitet for 98 arter. Denne kontinentale innsatsen legger grunnlaget for en ny, inkluderende og rettferdig modell for genomikk innen biologisk mangfold. Dette har resultert i flere publikasjoner, […]

Better together: Scientists from 33 European countries join forces to generate reference genomes for the continent’s rich biodiversity.

The European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) Pilot Project reports its success in uniting researchers from across Europe to produce high-quality reference genomes for 98 species. This continental effort is setting the stage for a new, inclusive and equitable model for biodiversity genomics. This resulted in several publications, which […]

Group of the month September– Viola

This month I wish to present a group that I have been working on for nearly 30 years, the angiosperm genus Viola which comprises violets and pansies (Figure 1). Our group recently produced a monograph of the genus (Marcussen et al. 2022) – the first comprehensive (and very […]

Få med de “boring” ting – Feltarbeid i Sverige

Fra 12. til 16. august dro jeg på feltarbeid ved Kristineberg senter for marin forskning og innovasjon (Sverige) sammen med Thomas Schwaha fra Universitetet i Wien (Østerrike) og Nick Roberts fra University of Alabama (USA). Hovedmålet med feltarbeidet var å finne Phoronis ovalis til InvertOmics-prosjektet for å få […]

Getting the boring stuff – Fieldwork in Sweden

From August 12th to 16th, I went to do fieldwork at the Kristineberg Center for Marine Research and Innovation (Sweden) together with Thomas Schwaha from the University of Vienna (Austria) and Nick Roberts from the University of Alabama (USA). The main goal of the fieldwork was to find […]

Possible Masters project in the CEG research group

Tuesday 13. September the Natural History Museum invited the new Master students in Biology at the University of Oslo to a presentation of potential Masers projects. CEG was represented by Lutz Bachmann who intorduced the opportunities within the CEG research group. It was great to see that very […]

Månedens gruppe: De “boring” ormene

Denne måneden vil vi presentere de “boring” ormene. Dette er ormer av forskjellige slekter, som tilhører polychaete-familien Spionidae. Polychaeter kalles også flerbørstemarker, ettersom de ofte har et stort antall (poly) børster (chaetae) på segmentene sine. Familien Spionidae er en familie som omfatter mer enn 600 arter i mer […]

Group of the month: The boring worms

This month, we will present to you the boring worms. These are worms of different genera, which belong to the polychaete family Spionidae. Polychaetes are also called bristle worms as the often have a large number (poly) of bristles (chaetae) on their segments. The family Spionidae is a […]

Group of the month July – Phoronida

This month, I wish to present a very beautiful invertebrate phyla, namely Phoronida – also known as Horseshoe worms.   The phylum is fairly small, with 13 recognized living species, divided into two genera; Phoronis and Phoronopsis. They are found within the phylogenetic grouping of Lophotrochozoa, more specific […]

Tre-for-en-samletur til Sylt

Denne våren dro noen av oss i CEG-gruppen på ekskursjon til øya Sylt, som ligger ved Nordsjøkysten i Tyskland, like ved grensen til Danmark (Figur 1). Biologisk forskning har lange tradisjoner i dette området og Sylt er en av de få «hotspottene» i verden innen meiofaunaforskning. Heldigvis ligger […]

Three-in-one sampling trip to Sylt

This spring some of us at the CEG group went on a field trip to the island of Sylt, located on the North Sea coast of Germany, very close to the border with Denmark (Figure 1). Biological research has a long tradition in this area, and Sylt in […]

Slimete, men skinnende – det første genomet på referansenivå fra InvertOmics-prosjektet

Vi er glade for å kunne kunngjøre den første genomutgivelsen fra InvertOmics-prosjektet i Genome Biology and Evolution. Genomet til Emplectonema gracile har blitt sekvensert og generert på referansenivået til EBP-standardene. Hva betyr dette? Kvaliteten på genomet er av så høy kvalitet at det kan brukes som referanse for […]

Slimy but shiny – the first reference-level genome from the InvertOmics project

We are happy to announce the first genome release note of the InvertOmics project in Genome Biology and Evolution. The genome of Emplectonema gracile has been sequenced and generated at the reference level of the EBP standards. What does this mean? The quality of the genome is of […]

Group of the month: The Laptev walrus – an enigmatic marine mammal

The walrus (Odobena rosmarus) is certainly one of the most fascinating arctic and enigmatic marine mammal species. It is the enormous size of the animal (it is the largest pinniped in the Northern Hemisphere) and the enormous tusks that attract our attention. Walruses are distributed in the circumpolar […]

Group of the month: Gregarisina

For this month’s group, I’m presenting you one of the three groups I am working with here at CEG group, the gregarines (Gregarisina, Apicomplexa). I got to know this group during my PhD research and I grew fond of them as study system for marine symbiosis. Gregarines are […]

Månedens gruppe: Loricifera

I månedens gruppe i april tar vi for oss en hel fyla!Loricifera er en av de nyere gruppene, og ble først oppdaget i 1983. Siden den gang har 44 arter blitt navngitt, fra Frankrike til Antarktis og Japan, og flere oppdages hvert år. Jeg skrev en artikkel om […]

Group of the month: Loricifera

For April’s group of the month, we’re tackling a whole phylum! As phyla go, Loricifera are one of the newer kids on the block, having been first discovered in only 1983. Since then, 44 species have been named, ranging from France to Antarctica to Japan, and more are […]

CEG med et sterkt engasjement for norsk biodiversitetsgenomikk

I forrige uke, 11. og 12. april, gikk den andre norske Biodiversitets- og genomikkonferansen i regi av EBP-Nor av stabelen i Forskningsparken i Oslo. Konferansen hadde interessante foredrag av Aoife McLysaght, Alexander Suh, Lene Lange og Olga Vinnere Petterson, men også vår gruppe var sterkt representert på konferansen. […]