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Creating knowledge since 1502
Fossil discovery in the Geiseltal Collection: researchers identify unique bird skull
Around 45 million years ago, a 4.6 feet-tall (1.40 metres) flightless bird called Diatryma roamed the Geiseltal region in southern Saxony-Anhalt. An international team of researchers led by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt report on the bird's fully preserved skull in the scientific journal "Palaeontologia Electronica". The fossil was unearthed in the 1950s in a former lignite mining area in the Geiseltal in Germany. It was initially misclassified and thus led a shadowy existence until its rediscovery. The only other place that a similar skull fossil has been found is the USA.
Ecosystems: new study questions common assumption about biodiversity
Plant species can fulfil different functions within an ecosystem, even if they are closely related to each other. This surprising conclusion was reached by a global analysis of around 1.7 million datasets on plant communities. The study was led by MLU and the University of Bologna. Their findings overturn previous assumptions in ecology. The study was published in "Nature Ecology & Evolution" and offers insights for nature conservation.
Clay minerals: Researchers observe for the first time how sediment particles align during deposition
Clay minerals are a major constituent of the earth's surface and are mainly found in the sediments of lakes, rivers and oceans. The properties of clay and claystone crucially depend on how the tiny sediment particles are orientated. Using the European Synchrotron particle accelerator in Grenoble (France), a research team from the MLU has succeeded for the first time in observing in detail how some of the processes work. The study was published in the journal "Communications Earth & Environment" and provides researchers with insights into the structure and properties of sediments.