The conspicuous capsules of Proboscidea louisianica travel in animal cabs to disperse their seeds over long distances. The flowers of the plant are extremely tasty for bees and bumblebees, the fruits are initially edible and later lignify into the distinctive devil’s claw shape. They stick to the hooves or paws of larger mammals to be carried further way. The involuntary dispersers trample the capsule fruits and thus release the individual seeds. Shepherds are sceptical about the plant though: sheep love to eat the shrub, but thanks to small barbs the fruits become so entagled in the sheep’s fur that the wool might loose its value.

Bild Credits: Roger Culos – CC BY-SA 3.0

About 150 years ago, coffee cultivation in Sri Lanka came to an end – a rust fungus was to blame. At that time, coffee was the national drink of the British. And the then British crown colony of Ceylon – today’s Sri Lanka – was one of the most important coffee exporters. Then a fungus appeared that caused a devastating leaf disease: the coffee rust Hemileia vastatrix. But the tea plants flourished all the more splendidly. The coffee farmers switched to tea. The English did the same and became enthusiastic tea drinkers.

The most widely consumed coffee in the world is Coffea arabica. However, its low genetic diversity has its downsides. Meanwhile, remedies have long been available to combat the destructive coffee rust, so that coffee is always available as a morning awakener. However, coffee growers have to be prepared for new diseases and constantly adapt their cultivation methods to protect their harvests.

So many different birds, so many different eggs. Galliformes probably lay the most eggs. The largest, however, comes from the ostrich. The emu’s egg is also quite large and sturdy. After all, the shell has to withstand the rather heavy male that incubates the dark green eggs. With the martineta tinamou and tataupa tinamou the males also take care of the offspring. The shell of the eggs looks almost lacquer-ish and does reflect light in a special way. In contrast, the bluish guira cuckoo eggs look rather rough and cracked. In this species, the females breed together in a common nest. The willow grouse lays light brown eggs with dark brown spots – the perfect camouflage on moorland or in the tundra. The raven eggs also match the nest environment, green with irregular brown spots. The cream-colored eggs of the pearl-spotted owlet look very simple. In their natural hiding place – surrounded by wood and shade – they are almost invisible.

Specimens in the Bionicum: Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB)

Bird feathers are fascinating structures that fulfill numerous functions: They protect, insulate and enable flight by directing the flow of air. Each feather is made of keratin and grows out of the feather sac. There are different types: Contour feathers for body covering, down for insulation and flight feathers for flight. In flightless birds such as ostriches and emus, feathers are mainly used to regulate heat and protect against environmental influences.

Feathers in display: Nuremberg Zoo

Bild Credits: Thomas Hahn

Which mushrooms can you pick and eat? Beginners are well advised to concentrate on boletes first, as there are no deadly poisonous species among them. The only poisonous one, the Satan‘s bolete, is fairly easy to distinguish from the other edible species. Boletes are mushrooms whose fruiting bodies have a stem and a cap. There are no lamellae on the underside of the cap, but a spongy tubular layer. Very popular edible boletes are red caps, porcini and bay boletes.

When raw, the witch’s bolete is inedible. When cooked, however, it is delicious and similar in consistency to porcini mushrooms. The devil‘s bolete, on the other hand, is always slightly poisonous and causes unpleasant diarrhea. It can be distinguished from the witch’s bolete by its light gray to whitish cap.

Model in the Bionicum: Thomas Müller ceramic mushrooms

Shimmers beautifully and comes in all kinds of colours – sea glass. But, the pretty stones from the sea are not a natural product. What nature washes up at our feet is actually rubbish. Over many years, old glass and fragments are polished and satinised by the sea and sand. The artefacts are highly prized by collectors worldwide. A lot can be read from the shards. They tell the knowledgeable finder „stories in the sand“ about their origin and age. You can see them in the Bionicum.

The age of the dinosaurs spanned an impressive 200 million years. During this enormous period of time, countless species populated the earth one after the other and then disappeared again. We have compiled six of them here. But did they ever really meet?

Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops were actually face to face. This is proven by 70 million-year-old fossils from the Upper Cretaceous of North America, with skeletons wedged into each other. Velociraptor also lived in the Upper Cretaceous, but in Asia. It did not come to North America without an airplane or train. Although Utahraptor was North American, it was 60 million years too early for T-rex and Triceratops. 150 million years ago, another 20 million years earlier, Stegosaurus and Brachiosaurus roamed the same landscapes in the Upper Jurassic of North America. However, there is no evidence that they ever met. 

A big dino party with everyone together? Unfortunately not – they would probably never have received the invitation to the same epoch! But at least they didn’t have to fight over the crisps… 😉

Bats are the only flying mammals and amazing acrobats in the dark. They use echolocation to find their way around at night: By emitting high-frequency sounds, they can detect the echoes of objects, such as insects, and thus precisely locate their prey. This ability makes them excellent insect catchers that devour large numbers of pests. However, there are also species that eat nectar, fruit or even small vertebrates such as fish or birds. Despite their reputation as “scary” animals, bats are extremely valuable from an ecological point of view. Not only do they help control insects, but they also contribute to the pollination of plants and the dispersal of seeds. The horseshoe bat is native to Europe, Asia and Africa and prefers hidden, safe roosts such as caves, crevices or abandoned buildings. It feels particularly at home in warm, well-protected environments where it can sleep peacefully during the day before going hunting at night.

Specimen in the Bionicum: Nuremberg Zoo

Bild Credit: Prof. emeritus Hans Schneider (Geyersberg), CC BY 3.0