Research institutes
Museum am Löwentor
Rosenstein 1 (Kreuzung Ehmann-, Nordbahnhofstraße)
70191 Stuttgart
Schloss Rosenstein
Rosenstein 1
70191 Stuttgart
State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (SMNS)
The State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (SMNS) with its two locations, Museum am Löwentor and Schloss Rosenstein, is one of the largest natural history museums in Germany. The SMNS follows the tradition of the Natural History Collection founded in 1791, which was based on the Ducal Cabinet of Curiosities of 1600. Today, the museum holds a total of over 12 million objects including 4.1 million fossils from significant Lagerstätten including Kupferzell, Holzmaden, Nusplingen and Randecker Maar; 5.5 million pinned insects plus a significant ethanol collection; 830.000 plants (excluding fungi and lichens); vertebrates (154.000 of which are birds); molluscs and minerals. These valuable archives of life and biodiversity form the basis for the museum’s excellent biodiversity research as well as the multifarious exhibition and outreach activities at the SMNS and its six branch museums. The collections are expanded continuously under the central aspects of research and education.
The overarching framework of research at the SMNS encompasses the holistic examination of biodiversity throughout time and space. Palaeontology adds a temporal dimension to extant biological research, thereby enabling the exploration of fossil taxa and the reconstruction of paleohabitats and past ecosystems. The synergy of palaeontology and biology enables significant research into the evolution of biodiversity through time and space. A network of taxonomists and ecologists covering the entire spectrum of botany, entomology, and zoology facilitates the comprehensive investigation of cross-taxon research questions across multiple trophic levels.
Long-term monitoring projects such as the LUBW Fluginsektenmonitoring add over a million insects to the collection each year. These samples, originating from both agricultural and grassland areas, as well as nature reserves, have not only led to the discovery of new species but also play a significant role in our understanding of how environmental factors influence species composition. The Floristische Kartierung Baden-Württemberg, a citizen science monitoring scheme that started in 1970, provides high-resolution data of flowering plants, which allows for uncovering drivers of biodiversity change and modelling future scenarios of biodiversity change.
SMNS has been a partner of all of the German Barcode of Life Projects. In the 3rd phase of GBOLIII: Dark Taxa four PhD students are focusing on the taxonomy and systematics of four hyperdiverse groups of parasitoid wasps and flies. The SMNS is also a strategic partner in the SMART-Morph and KI-Morph Projects alongside the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and University of Heidelberg, working towards developing automated solutions for scanning and processing of uCT data for fossil material and small arthropods. There is a close collaboration with the University of Hohenheim. Joint professorships as well as the Center for Biodiversity and Integrative Taxonomy (KomBioTa) with its PhD programme “Biodiversity throughout time” provide focused training of the next generation of scientists.
The communication strategy of SMNS combines traditional museum outreach activities with innovative digital opportunities. Citizen science projects actively engage citizens in natural history research, thereby strengthening societal participation. As an open communication and research platform, the SMNS makes a central contribution to researching and preserving biodiversity in times of biodiversity loss and climate change.
State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (SMNS) Researchers
Prof. Dr. Ricardo J. Pereira
Ricardo Pereira is an evolutionary biologist leading the Department of Biodiversity Monitoring at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart. His research focuses on understanding genomic diversity within species and its critical role in maintaining species and ecosystem biodiversity in the face of environmental change. Utilizing museum and monitoring collections, his research group employs genomic tools to explore how present-day genetic diversity influences resilience and adaptability. Committed to training the next generation of scientists, he collaborates extensively with the University of Hohenheim and other international partners to address pressing biodiversity conservation challenges.
Dr. Michael Orr
My research program on bee biodiversity and systematics revolves around how and where bees evolved, and how this influences their present distribution, with the ultimate goal of conserving them and the invaluable pollination services that they provide. As an interdisciplinary systematist, I address these questions through highly-integrative, collaborative methods founded in modern collections-based taxonomic and systematic practices extended outward into the fields of ecology, evolution, and beyond. Guided by invaluable natural history collections data, I merge phylogenetics and other molecular approaches with morphological analysis, behavioral observation, and spatial modeling to map out their history and safeguard the future of bees on Earth.
MSc Cristina Vasilita
My main research interest is the diversification and evolution of hyperdiverse groups of arthropods, such as the parasitoid wasps of the superfamily Platygastroidea. I work on next generation taxonomy tools to tackle hyperdiverse groups by developing best practices for complex questions regarding the diversity, life history and evolution trends in these groups of organisms. My focus is to expand the understanding and knowledge we possess by combining performant imaging techniques (CLSM, microphotography, micro-CT) with a next generation molecular approach (megabarcoding, nanopore sequencing).
