Press releases 2024

An important milestone has been reached in the reintroduction of the Northern Bald Ibis: for the first time, the migratory birds, which were once extinct in Europe, have once again bred independently in a natural rocky niche near Überlingen on Lake Constance. They were encouraged to do so by two mock-ups of Northern Bald Ibises that were produced by the Natural History Museum Vienna (NHM) using a 3D printer.

The collections of the Natural History Museums are unique archives of evolution. They allow us to look far into the geological past. Shells of marine snails are particularly common fossils and are well suited to reconstructing climate history and former marine distributions. A working group led by Mathias Harzhauser (NHM Vienna) has focussed on the marine gastropods of the so-called Paratethys Sea, which covered large parts of Central and South-Eastern Europe between 35 and 11 million years ago. The palaeontologists have now traced the history of this sea using over 800 species of fossil marine snails from around one hundred sites and have discovered an unexpected diversity.

Coregons, usually referred to as Reinanken, Riedling or Kröpfling in Austria, have a high economic value and are intensively fished. However, intensive fishing, environmental changes and the repeated long-term introduction of non-native coregons have severely impaired the genetic and phenotypic integrity of several native species. At the same time, coregons represent one of the most taxonomically complex groups among freshwater fishes in Europe. Opinions about their phylogeny, their taxonomic status and their infra- and intraspecific structure are diametrically opposed. The question arises as to how many native species (under which scientific names) and ecological varieties still exist in Austria and by which characteristics they can be precisely defined. Some are even categorised as extinct according to the Austrian Red List of Fish, while others are highly endangered and on the brink of extinction. A revision of knowledge about the historical vs. modern diversity of Coregonus in Austria (in the context of all pre-alpine lakes) is currently underway under the direction of the fish collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna.

Press conference on the new exhibition

“The Thin Skin of the Earth - Our Soils”

Tuesday, 18 June 2024, at 10.30 a.m. in the lecture hall and in room 21 of the NHM Vienna

New research on the so-called ‘Carnian Crisis’ by a team led by Alexander Lukeneder, palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum Vienna, reveals astonishing developments surrounding global climate change during the Triassic period. Extensive geochemical and geophysical data decipher one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in Earth's history, the ‘Carnian Crisis’. Climate change 233 million years ago led to a global mass extinction in the seas of the Mesozoic era. The exciting results have now been published for the first time (Scientific Reports).

ABOL, Austrian Barcode of Life, is the name of an Austria-wide initiative that has been dedicated to documenting the estimated 75,000 species of animals, plants and fungi living in Austria for 10 years.

On Citizen Science Day, Saturday, 6 April 2024, all interested parties are cordially invited to get to know and try out Citizen Science from 10 am to 5 pm. How does Citizen Science work and where can you participate in research? On this day, you can find out at first hand how diverse the opportunities are to participate in scientific work, even as a layperson.

Did you know that there are slave-holding ants and that termites build their nests with air conditioning and grow fungi in them? That insects migrate south for the winter and produce extremely potent and painful poison?
These and many other incredible facts can be found in Dominique Zimmermann's new book "Insect whispers. About the hidden life on six legs", published by Leykam Verlag.

A new special exhibition by the Natural History Museum Vienna at the Lower Austria’s Fossil World

Andrea Mayer, State Secretary for Art and Culture: "Window into a large, fascinating and exciting virtual world of art and culture, but also of science."

The brightly coloured green lacewing is likely a common sight to anyone who frequently spends time in the garden or the great outdoors. Their larvae are aphids’ greatest nemesis. Less well known is the graceful antlion lacewing, a member of the neuroptera insect group whose larvae are called simply antlions. When hunting they build sand traps where they hide and wait to throw sand at prey when it approaches. There are around 5,500 of these species worldwide and around 120 in Central Europe.

On 15 March, a new documentary by Joerg Burger about the Natural History Museum Vienna will be released in Austrian cinemas:
 
ARCHIVE OF THE FUTURE by Joerg Burger
AT I 2023 I 92 minutes

To mark World Polar Bear Day (or International Polar Bear Day) on 27 February, the Natural History Museum Vienna would once again like to draw public attention to these animals’ dwindling habitat and the threat posed to them by climate change.

Pigments in fossil snail shells from Austria dating back 12 million years are the oldest known preserved dyes from the polyene group, as scientists from the Natural History Museum Vienna and the University of Göttingen have now demonstrated.

The Austrian Mint is dedicating a new coin series to “White Gold from the Salzkammergut” and we invite you to a press conference given by Münze Österreich AG and the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna on 13 February 2024 at 10:30 am in the Hallstatt Hall of the NHM Vienna. The images on the exhibited series of coins are also dedicated to Hallstatt’s rich archaeological heritage.

As part of a two-year EU-funded project, archaeometallurgist Mathias Mehofer from the University of Vienna, together with colleagues from the Natural History Museum Vienna, was able to systematically research the Iron Age metal trade in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria and the Eastern Alps for the first time. The scientific analyses show that copper was not only brought to Hallstatt from Salzburg, but also from the Southern Alps, where it was made into jewellery, weapons and tools.

Researchers from the Universities of Basel, Zurich and Sao Paulo and the NHM Vienna have discovered the genetic material belonging to the pathogen Treponema pallidum in the bones of people who died in Brazil 2,000 years ago. This is the oldest confirmed discovery of the pathogen to date and proves that people were dying from syphilis-like diseases, so-called treponematoses, long before Columbus sailed to the Americas. The new findings, published in the scientific journal Nature, call into question previous theories on the spread of syphilis by the Spanish conquistadors.

Palaeontological research team furnishes new and better insights into the biology of one of the largest marine carnivores ever to have existed.
Scientists from the University of Vienna and the Natural History Museum Vienna are members of an international research team that is currently making waves in the expert community: the team was able to demonstrate that – contrary to previous assumptions – the iconic megalodon shark (Otodus megalodon) was markedly more slender than a white shark and also had a different lifestyle. The researchers' findings have now been published in the Palaeontologia Electronica journal.

The Natural History Museum Vienna and Stadtkino Filmverleih are pleased to extend an invitation to the press screening of the new film
 
ARCHIV DER ZUKUNFT by Joerg Burger
AT I 2023 I 92 minutes
 
on Thursday, 18 January 2024, at 12:30 pm in the Stadtkino
 
2024 Outlook presented by CEO Dr. Katrin Vohland

Genetic diversity is crucial if species are to adapt to climate change. An international study co-conducted by the Natural History Museum Vienna shows that current efforts to monitor genetic diversity in Europe are incomplete and insufficient. Researchers particularly focused on those regions that will be especially relevant for adaptation to increasing heat and aridity.