Using state-of-the-art technology, a Bulgarian-German research team established the first fossil representative of the Callipodida order. The new, unknown to science type of millipede with a size of only 8.2 millimeters is found in 99 million-year-old amber. The new species of arthropod who lived in the Cretaceous period along with the dinosaurs is much smaller than all the known representatives of its group and differs significantly from all the species known so far which is why the scientists have separated it in a specially created new family and suborder. During the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era, extending from 145 to 70 million years ago, the Earth was populated with various giants - from dinosaurs to centipedes with the size of a person. It turns [...]

Easily accessible internet-based platforms describing model invertebrate genera of the Balkan Peninsula as spiders and rove beetles are being developed by scientists from the National Museum of Natural History at BAS. They will collect and analyze data from molecular, statistical and morphological studies in order to lay the foundations for research on the invertebrate fauna of the peninsula. The results will be presented on the platforms: http://balkan-spiders.com for spiders and http://coleoptera-bulgaria.myspecies.info – for beetles. […]