Lisa successfully defended her Master’s work titled The evolution of the early archosauromorph brain at the Museum für Naturkunde / Humboldt University on July 4th, receiving a grade of summa cum laude. Supervisor was Johannes Müller. Congratulations Lisa!

Kheloud successfully defended her Master’s thesis on A 3D Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Hippopotamid Crania at the Museum für Naturkunde / Potsdam University in January (yes we’re a bit late announcing it, but it was covid and all that, sorry Kheloud!). Examiners included Faysal Bibi, Ralph Tiedemann, and Jean-Renaud Boisserie. Nice job Kheloud, and congratulations! … More Kheloud El Eshraky defends Master’s thesis

Fernando Blanco successfully defended his PhD thesis Major Factors controlling Diversity in Cenozoic Terrestrial Mammals on July 1st. Examiners included his supervisor Johannes Müller, Nadia Fröbisch, and Manuel Hernandez-Fernandez. One of the chapters from Fernando’s PhD was published in Science last year: https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.abd5110 CONGRATULATIONS Dr. Blanco!!

Press release, 17-03-2022 The ERC, the most important European funding organisation for excellent frontier research, has announced this year’s ERC prizewinners. One of them is the palaeontologist Faysal Bibi from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin with the project PALEONILE. It is the first large-scale systematic palaeontological project to be carried out in Sudan with Sudanese researchers. The … More Faysal awarded ERC Consolidator Grant

Johannes did three nights with our museum’s scientific variety show, Glitzern und Denken, discussing the definitions of life and death, complete with orchestra! https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/press/press-releases/immortal-finale-science-variety-show-glitzern-denken In English: In German:

Johannes talks to Radio Eins about parthenogenesis in lizards https://www.radioeins.de/programm/sendungen/die_profis/archivierte_sendungen/beitraege/waranweibchen-bringt-ohne-befruchtung-nachwuchs-zur-welt.html

Despite a global pandemic, political uncertainty, snowstorms, and lost luggage, Faysal and team made it out to the Middle Atbara River for a fourth field season in Jan-Feb 2022. After having had to miss the 2021 season due to covid lockdowns, it was so great to be out in the field with everyone again. This … More Fieldwork in eastern Sudan

After Johannes, now it’s Faysal’s turn to appear on the Beast and Bones podcast, this time talking about all the things that make humans peculiar. Episode description: Big brains, dexterous hands and an upright gait – we humans were on the fast track to evolution. How this was possible and why sex and social interaction … More Beats and Bones – Homo sapiens

Shrimp, beef, pork, chicken, crab, fish, tofu, mushrooms – sampling a significant portion of the tree of life in hot pots at Nin Hao Chinese restaurant (chosen by our resident hot pot expert Jijia).

In August our entire group took part in an outdoor first aid course with the Johanniter, and which was held in Volkspark Friedrichshain. Broken bones, severed fingers, or heart attack in the field? We’re on it.