Sara Motaghian

Sara Motaghian, a PhD student at the Natural History Museum, talks to Sue Bowler about her research and outreach, and her 2021 Institute of Physics Award, the Jocelyn Bell Burnell Medal and Prize.

The historical relics in Chongqing Natural History Museum: An annotated checklist of original materials for 37 names of Chinese seed plants

A catalogue of type specimens deposited at the herbarium of Chongqing Natural History Museum (CQNM) is carried out. A total of 62 specimens belonging to 56 gatherings concerning 37 valid published names in 23 families of Chinese seed plants are documented as original materials. They include seven isotypes, 21 syntypes, of which 16 of them are isolectotypes and 34 paratypes. A checklist of the 37 names is presented with annotations on the typification, authorship citation, type localities and other taxonomic issues. Eight names were lectotypified, and one name’s second-step lectotype is proposed. Additionally, Distylium lanceolatum Chun, which is invalid pending for further study, and which has long been treated as a synonym of D. dunnianum H.Lév., is listed after the 37 names.

First Description of the Female of the Trinidadian Theraphosine Spinosatibiapalpus trinitatis (Pocock, 1903) (Araneae: Theraphosidae)

The hitherto unknown female of the theraphosine Spinosatibiapalpus trinitatis (Pocock, 1903) is herein described based on the paralectotype series of the schismatotheline Neoholothele incei (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1899) housed in the collections of the Natural History Museum, London.

Franz Tappeiner (1816–1902): The physician who became headhunter. Portrait of a leading figure in 19th Century anthropology

Franz Tappeiner (1816, Laas – 1902, Merano) was an Austrian physician and anthropologist. He studied at the universities of Prague, Padua and Vienna and in 1846 he moved to Merano. Tappeiner investigated the transmission of pulmonary tuberculosis in animal models and he dealt with public health. As an anatomist, he performed thousands of craniometrics measurements, creating a huge skull collection later donated to the Natural History Museum in Vienna. In 1878, Tappeiner turned to archeology and palaeoanthropology, with the aim of clarifying the origins of the Alpine population of Tyroleans. He was also active as a botanist.

New population of mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa) discovered

For the first time in nearly 50 years, a population of a nearly extinct frog has been re-discovered in the San Bernardino National Forest’s San Jacinto Wilderness. Biologists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessing suitability of sites tore-establish frogs and scientists from the San Diego Natural History Museum retracing a 1908 natural history expedition both rediscovered the rare Mountain Yellow-legged Frog (Rana muscosa) in the San Jacinto Wilderness near Idyllwild, California.

EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF G.I. FISCHER VON WALDHEIM IN THE MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY’SEARTH SCIENCE MUSEUM

The article describes the exposition dedicated to the 250th anniversary of G. I. Fischer von Waldheim, the eminent naturalist, head of the Natural History Museum of Moscow University, founder of the Moscow Society of Naturalists. The exposition is located in the MSU Earth Science Museum’s rotunda.