Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Dutch: Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021.Although its current name and organization are relatively recent, the history of Naturalis can be traced back to the early 1800s. Its collection includes approximately 42 million specimens, making it one of the largest natural history collections in the world.
The Persian Gulf is both an ecologically fragile marine system and a global energy chokepoint. Past conflicts have shown that warfare in the region can cause extensive and persistent damage to coastal and marine habitats. Today, that risk is amplified by the Gulf’s shallow, semi-enclosed character, restricted exchange with the open ocean, extreme temperature and salinity, expanding hypoxia, and heavy reliance on desalination and other seawater-dependent infrastructure. Armed conflict could therefore trigger oil and chemical releases, chronic contamination, and habitat degradation, with cascading consequences for fisheries, water security, shipping, and industrial operations. Because these impacts are foreseeable and could be severe, prolonged, and transboundary, environmental preparedness in the Gulf should be integrated into regional security, infrastructure protection, and emergency planning.
Ancient herbaria are invaluable archives for botany and ethnobotany, offering unique historical baselines on plant diversity, distribution, and human–plant relationships that are sometimes absent from modern datasets. We studied a rediscovered, century-old herbarium collected by Austrian ethnologist Martin Gusinde in southern Patagonia. Preserved at the Missiemuseum in Steyl, the Netherlands, the collection comprises 105 specimens representing 90 species, 71 genera, and 43 families, with approximately 35
Mitochondrial genomes offer valuable insights into biological and phylogenetic processes, yet the factors shaping their architecture across metazoan lineages remain poorly understood, largely due to limited taxonomic sampling. To address this gap, we analyzed mitochondrial genomes from 20 species spanning a broad taxonomic spectrum of the phylum Gastrotricha. Our findings, supported by phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial datasets, reveal two distinct evolutionary patterns: one lineage displays remarkable conservation in genome structure, while the other exhibits variability in gene content, arrangement, strand polarity, and repeat abundance. These contrasting patterns appear to be related to differences in reproductive strategies (hermaphroditism vs. parthenogenesis) and ecological habitats (marine vs. freshwater). While these associations are intriguing, further data are needed to understand the underlying processes. This study highlights the importance of broad phylum-scale mitogenomic sampling for uncovering genomic diversity and advancing our understanding of mitochondrial evolution across Metazoa.
The names published by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum represent the foundation of modern plant taxonomy. Despite their systematic value, very few of Linnaeus's original type specimens have been analyzed using current DNA sequencing technologies. Here, we performed high-throughput sequencing on Linnean and other type specimens of Ulva, a genus of ecological and commercial importance. Chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes were assembled for Linnaeus's U. compressa, U. intestinalis, U. lanceolata, and U. linza as well as Kützing's Phycoseris smaragdina type specimens. Phylogenetic analyses of these data showed that the names U. compressa and U. intestinalis were correctly applied, but U. linza and U. lanceolata were misapplied. Ulva linza is the earliest available name for the European species currently called U. pseudocurvata. The correct name for the globally distributed species previously known as U. "linza" is Ulva smaragdina (Kützing) comb. nov. The names Ulva lanceolata, U. crispata, and Phycoseris olivacea do not represent distinct species, instead being heterotypic synonyms of U. compressa, and P. planifolia is a heterotypic synonym of U. intestinalis. These results demonstrate that genetic characterization of type material can unequivocally resolve longstanding taxonomic debates over scientific names.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has been keeping annual trade records of live stony corals (Scleractinia) since 1990. On a global scale, CITES data can be used as indicators for trends in the popularity of particular species. A maximum global trade record of 3.1.106 wild-caught corals was reported for the year 2007, which declined to less than 50% (1.4.106) in 2021. Indonesia was the leading exporting country until 2018, being replaced by Fiji in 1996-1998 and 2000-2001. Australia has been the dominant exporter of wild-sourced corals since 2018, which was facilitated by Indonesia's declining export quotas and by temporary export bans by Indonesia and Fiji. Indonesia has been the main exporter of cultivated corals since 2005 with an annual global trade record of nearly 0.6.106 specimens for 2017. The USA always had the highest import records. Acropora, consisting of branched colonies with small polyps, was the most-traded coral genus worldwide (3.4.109 specimens from 1990 to 2021). Corals with large fleshy polyps, such as Trachyphyllia geoffroyi (1.5.106 specimens), Catalaphyllia jardinae (1.0.106), Euphyllia glabresens (0.9.106), Fimbriaphyllia ancora (0.7.106), and Heliofungia actiniformis (0.7.106) were the most-traded species in that period. Harvesting of corals rich in associated fauna may affect coral reef diversity at a larger scale, particularly if these corals are inhabited by host specialists. Since not much research has been done on the impact of selective fisheries on wild coral populations, there is a risk of overfishing popular species, especially those that are not much cultivated. Therefore, better monitoring of coral harvesting is needed and coral cultivation should be stimulated. Stricter trade quotas and bans may be needed as precautionary measures to counteract negative impacts of coral fisheries on reef biodiversity.
