news 2023

Paleontologists lack the fossils they need to trace the evolutionary history of the Amazon region, a region characterized by unparalleled biodiversity. By exploiting data from a site known for over a century, Juan Carrillo, a researcher at the University of Fribourg, and his colleagues from other institutions, have made exceptional discoveries that shed new light on this little-known past .

According to Cope's rule, today's animal species are on average larger than older species of the same genus. A large-scale study led by a researcher at the University of Fribourg has just demonstrated that this is not the case in turtles . Paleontologists have noticed that, in the course of their evolution, certain species tend to get bigger and bigger.

Fossils of coelacanth discovered in Ticino reveal the existence of an unexpected diversification after the greatest mass extinction in the history of life. The study of a new species of coelacanth from the Middle Triassic period, with a strange morphology for these fish known as "living fossil", show the formation of several species in a short time, after a mass extinction that occurred 252 million years ago, with more than 80% of marine species disappearing.

After a chance discovery in the collection's repository, a Basel researcher provides the first evidence of the existence of monitor lizards in Switzerland. While working in the vertebrate fossil collection at Basel's Natural History Museum, paleontologist Bastien Mennecart's eye was caught by two teeth of a large lizard.

Islands are biodiversity hotspots and are home to animal species with unique characteristics, including dwarf specimens, which have evolved to very small sizes compared to their mainland relatives, and giants. An international study now reports that these species are at higher risk of extinction. The findings are supported by software developed by Daniele Silvestro of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) at the University of Fribourg.