American Museum of Natural History

New species from the cradle of biodiversity inventories: cryptic diversity within Lamellariinae in the European Atlantic and Mediterranean (Gastropoda: Velutinidae)

The Mediterranean, despite a long tradition of naturalist observation dating back to Aristotle, is still home to undisclosed cryptic species complexes. The gastropod subfamily Lamellariinae d’Orbigny, 1841 (Velutinidae Gray, 1840) is composed of benthic sea slug-like species with...

Coordinated transformations of the labyrinth and occiput during the dinosaur–bird transition

Evolutionary shape changes of the vertebrate semicircular canals (SCCs) are often ascribed to evolutionary transitions in locomotion, including the origin of flight during the dinosaur–bird transition. However, the potential for transformations of braincase architecture to influe...

In silico experiments uncover a novel mechanism underlying mutation rate evolution in sexually reproducing populations

Abstract Natural selection is believed to universally work to lower mutation rates (MR) due to the negative impact of mutations on individual fitness. Mutator alleles can be co-selected by genetic linkage with adaptive alleles in asexual organisms. However, sexual reproduction di...

Mimicry of mantis and Selaginella from Cretaceous provides new evidence for the deep‐time co‐evolution of insects and plants

Summary Mimicry between insects and plants represents sophisticated survival strategies. Their long‐term evolutionary interactions led to mutual adaptation, creating a complex ecological symbiosis. However, the deep‐time ecological associations of mimicry between insects and plan...

A new albertosaurine from the Oldman Formation, Alberta, Canada, illuminates ambiguity between albertosaurine and tyrannosaurine characteristics

Tyrannosaurid species have often been considered to have high longevity and low diversity relative to contemporaneous megaherbivores. Recent chronospecies assertions around tyrannosaurid lineage evolution have reinforced this idea. An albertosaurine, Tromerosaurus solumons, from...

Validating Wing Biopsies for Blood‐Borne Pathogen Characterization in Bats

Wildlife surveillance is critical for tracking disease emergence, characterizing pathogen diversity, and assessing spillover risks. Blood-borne pathogens are of particular interest for such efforts due to their global distribution, broad host taxa, and zoonotic potential. Despite...

Children’s perceptions of natural history museums: Insights from the “Young Naturalists” program in Portugal

Children and adolescents are a key audience for scientific and cultural outreach and literacy. As future citizens, voters, and taxpayers, their education—carried out in formal, informal, and non-formal contexts—is crucial for societal development. In this context, scientific cult...

Mapping the nuclear environments of extreme coronal line emitting galaxies

Abstract Extreme coronal line emitters (ECLEs) are a rare class of galactic nuclei exhibiting unusually strong high-ionisation forbidden emission lines, and several ECLEs have been linked to tidal disruption events (TDEs). In this work, we compile and analyse optical spectra of 3...

Early-life colonization with Clostridioides difficile remodels the developing gut

Clostridioides difficile causes severe disease in adults but commonly colonizes infants asymptomatically. The consequences of early-life colonization on host development remain unknown. In a neonatal mouse model, C. difficile colonization drove proinflammatory and tissue repair r...

The genome sequence of Dermanura phaeotis (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae, Stenodermatinae; Miller, 1902)

We present a genome assembly from an individual male Dermanura phaeotis (Chordata; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Phyllostomidae). The genome sequence is 2.2 Gb in span. The majority of the assembly is scaffolded into 30 chromosomal pseudomolecules, with the X and Y sex chromosomes assemb...

Benchmark Brown Dwarfs as Chemical Laboratories: Linking System Bulk Properties to Atmospheric Retrievals

Abstract We present the first atmospheric retrieval analysis of two compositional benchmark mid-L dwarfs – SDSSJ141659.78+500626.4 and GJ 499 C – using the Brewster retrieval framework, where the wide benchmark nature of these systems provides independent constraints on age and b...

A Darwin Core dataset of scorpions (Arachnida, Scorpiones) from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) Collections

This data paper details the publication of a dataset derived from the scorpion (Order Scorpiones C.L. Koch, 1850) collections preserved at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Brussels. The dataset includes all 3,652 specimens mostly identified to genus or spe...

Ryugu and Bennu preserve primordial isotopic heterogeneity absent from the meteorite record

Ivuna-type (CI) carbonaceous chondrites are commonly used as proxies for the composition of the planet-forming disk because their chemical abundances resemble those of the solar photosphere. However, their isotopic uniformity may reflect pervasive alteration and isotopic averagin...

Genome evolution and long-term demographic history in true crocodiles

Abstract Reference-quality genomes remain scarce for true crocodiles (Crocodylus), limiting comparative analyses of genome evolution and demographic history. Here, we generated and analyzed 2 long-read genomes, 1 for Crocodylus intermedius and 1 for C. niloticus, to investigate g...