Group of the month: Nudibranchs

This month, I would like to present something different from my usual worms: the nudibranchs (order nudibranchia), otherwise known as sea slugs. They are not an organism I have ever studied or worked with, but I encounter them regularly while looking for worms. And one thing I particularly […]

Stories from Slime Eels: How the Hagfish Helps Us Understand Humans

Hagfish, or “Slime Eels” (Slimåler in Norwegian, helpfully), are a group of deep-sea living fish that are most famous for the truly apocalyptic amounts of slime they can release when disturbed. In South Korea, they are eaten as a delicacy (and they are very nice – a bit […]

Group of the month: Dinophilidae

The group of the month I would like to introduce to you today is a group I have a close personal connection with. The group goes back a long way with me. I will present you the annelid family Dinophilidae. After my Diploma thesis (today Master thesis) on […]

Månedens gruppe: Dinophilidae

Månedens gruppe jeg vil presentere for dere i dag, er en gruppe jeg har et nært personlig forhold til. Gruppen har en lang historie for meg. Jeg vil presentere familien til Annelida Dinophilidae. Etter å ha skrevet diplomoppgave (i dag masteroppgave) om proteiner i et virus relatert til […]

New year – new name; FEZ is now CEG

As written in our last blog of the advent calendar, we had many changes already last year with a new group leader and a new group webpage, which we is still develop further this year. However, another change becoming effective this year is that we change the name […]

Nytt år – nytt navn; FEZ heter nå KEG

Som vi skrev i forrige blogg i adventskalenderen, hadde vi mange endringer allerede i fjor, med ny gruppeleder og en ny nettside, som vi skal videreutvikle i år. En annen endring som trer i kraft i år, er at vi skifter navn på gruppen vår og for første […]

Door 24: God Jul, Merry Christmas

Today opens the last door of our advent calendar and we are looking forward to a few holidays and relaxing time with families and friends. In Norway, it is also a good tradition to look back at the year before Christmas, called “Juleavslutning” (Christmas Gathering). Hence, as the […]

Door 23: Insect survey in the Mozogo Gokoro National Park, Cameroon

In Summer 2023, our ANTENNA project team composed of entomologists from the University of Buea, University of Maroua and University of Oslo surveyed insect fauna of the Mozogo Gokoro National Park, Northern Cameroon. As one can see in the satellite photo, the park is located in the savannah […]

Door 22: De-extinction

When in 1990 the fascinating novel entitled ‘Jurassic Park’ by Michael Crichton was published the idea of a re-creation of extinct species was pure fiction. Certainly, by the time many of us were wondering if de-extinction may become reality, even more so when in 1993 the Steven Spielberg […]

Door 21: Wonderful world of symbioses and a note on conserving biodiversity

Only three days until Christmas! For my final post in the advent calendar, I want to introduce our readers to an essential and complex phenomenon in nature, symbiosis. In our daily language, we might casually refer to symbiosis as a mutually beneficial relationship. However, in ecological terms, symbiosis […]