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Centre for Taxonomy and Morphology (ztm)

The majority of global biodiversity is insufficiently known. However, we need comprehensive and reliable data so that we can protect biodiversity in a targeted and comprehensive manner. Discovering, describing, distinguishing and characterising species is a prerequisite for understanding the evolution of life on Earth and recognising ecological relationships. Our researchers at the Centre for Taxonomy and Morphology (ztm) pursue these core tasks.

Collections as a store of knowledge

Using taxonomic-systematic, morphological and molecular analyses, they generate knowledge about biological diversity, which they interpret using objects from the collections. The scientific collections form the heart of the ztm and provide the information basis for understanding changes and formulating forecasts.

Digitised data accessible to all

The staff at the ztm are continuously developing this "library of life" and making it accessible to researchers from all over the world and to the public. At the ztm, scientists develop strategies for the expansion and digitisation of the collections. They pass on their knowledge of the species to schoolchildren, students, the interested public and members of international co-operation projects.

Sections | of 24

Prof. Dr. Mariella Herberstein

  • Head of Centre for Taxonomy & Morphology

E-Mail: m.herberstein@leibniz-lib.de

Contact for enquiries in Hamburg

Contact for enquiries in Bonn

Gizella Nett

  • Centre assistance

Phone: +49 228 9122 191
E-Mail: g.nett@leibniz-lib.de

Publications

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    2025

  • 2025/8

    Harms, D., Hagen, M., Kotthoff, U., Loria, S.

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    New species of Lechytia Balzan, 1892 (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones) from Burmese amber highlights 99 million years of morphological stasis

    Cretaceous Research, 127

  • 2025/5

    Lehmann, H., Neiber, M.T., Hausdorf, B.

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    Caucasian/Pontic–Mediterranean disjunction and recolonization of Europe by Pomatias (Hyrcania) species (Caenogastropoda, Pomatiidae)

    Zoologica scripta, 3, 54

  • 2025/5

    Peters, R.

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    Hymenoptera evolution: A long and winding road

    Current Biology, 9, 35

  • 2025/5

    Scholten, C., Richter, A., Lin, A., Thura, M.K., Rauhaus, A., Grismer, L., Ziegler, T., Rödder, D.

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    Gaps in the Protection of the Reptiles of Myanmar—Threat Status, Endemism, Protected Area Coverage, and One Plan Approach Conservation

    Integrative Conservation

  • 2025/5

    Hofmann, S., Ohler, A., Baniya, C.B., Dubois, A., Flecks, M., Jablonski, D., Schmidt, J., Dufresnes, C.

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    Resolving taxonomic ambiguities in extant Himalayan lazy toads: A new species of the genus Scutiger (Anura, Megophryidae) from eastern Nepal

    European Journal of Taxonomy, 989

  • 2025/5

    Auliya, M., Nijman, V., Altherr, S., Aguilera, W.T., Ariano-Sanchéz, D., Cantu, J.C., Colosimo, G., Gentile, G., Gerber, G., Grant, T., Henningheim, E., Hughes, A., Knapp, C.R., Lieberman, S., Malone, C., Pasachnik, S.A., Petrossian, G., Sevilla, C., Sosnowski, M., Weissgold, B.

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    Trafficking of Galápagos iguanas as an example of a global problem: CITES permits, laundering and the role of transit countries in Europe and Africa

    Biological conservation, 305

  • 2025/5

    Herrera‐Lopera, J.M., Solé, M., Cultid‐Medina, C.A.

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    Mapping the Missing: Assessing Amphibian Sampling Completeness and Overlap With Global Protected Areas

    Ecology and Evolution, 5, 15

  • 2025/5

    Peters, R.S.

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    Hymenoptera evolution: A long and winding road

    Current Biology, 9, 35

  • 2025/5

    Tiutenko, A., Maliuk, A., Koch, C.

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    Generic affinities of African house snakes revised: a new genus for Lamprophis inornatus (Serpentes: Lamprophiidae: Lamprophiinae: Boaedontini)

    Salamandra, 2, 61

  • 2025/5

    Schwabe, R.C., Wagner, P., Rödder, D., Rauhaus, A., Ziegler, T.

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    Agamidae in zoos: assessment of the threat status worldwide and their distribution patterns in zoological collections

    Salamandra, 2, 61

  • 2025/5

    MIRA-MENDES, C.V.D., NETO, E.M.D.S., DIAS, I.R., COSTA, R.N., CAMPOS, Y.P.P., SOLÉ, M., WEBER, L.N.

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    The tadpole of Stereocyclops histrio (Carvalho, 1954) (Anura: Microhylidae), a poorly known amphibian from northeastern Brazil

    Zootaxa, 1, 5636

  • 2025/5

    Letsch, H., Greve, C., Hundsdoerfer, A.K., Irisarri, I., Moore, J.M., Espeland, M., Wanke, S., Arifin, U., Blom, M.P.K., Corrales, C., Donath, A., Fritz, U., Köhler, G., Kück, P., Lemer, S., Mengual, X., Salas, N.M., Meusemann, K., Palandačić, A., Printzen, C., Sigwart, J.D., Silva-Brandão, K.L., Simões, M., Stange, M., Suh, A., Szucsich, N., Tilic, E., Töpfer, T., Böhne, A., Janke, A., Pauls, S.

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    Type genomics: a Framework for integrating Genomic Data into Biodiversity and Taxonomic research

    Systematic Biology

  • 2025/5

    Krämer, J., Lüddecke, T., Harms, D., Hurka, S., Predel, R.

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    Toxins Under a Rock: Proteo-transcriptomic Analysis Reveals the Venom Composition of the Pseudoscorpion Ammogarypus lawrencei (Pseudoscorpiones: Garypidae)

    Toxicon

  • 2025/5

    Brown, S.D., Terraneo, T.I., Moore, J., Paulay, G., White, K.N., Berumen, M.L., Benzoni, F.

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    The Diversity and Phylogenetic Relationships of a Chaetopterus Symbiont Community in Djibouti, with Redescription of Chaetopterus djiboutiensis Gravier, 1906 Stat. Nov. (Annelida: Chaetopteridae)

    Diversity, 5, 17

  • 2025/4

    Hadrava, J., Klečka, J., Moran, K., Klečková, I., Kelso, S., Etzbauer, C., Skevington, J.H., Mengual, X.

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    The evolution of wasp mimicry and biogeography in the genus Temnostoma (Diptera: Syrphidae)

    Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 205

  • 2025/4

    Hausdorf, B.

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    Species Delimitation Using Genomic Data: Options and Limitations

    Molecular Ecology, 8, 34

  • 2025/4

    Thapa, A., Baral, S., K. C., R.B., Paudel, R.P., Thapa, G.J., Basnet, H., G. C., R., Khanal, K., Dhakal, M., Jnawali, S.R., Thapa, K., Khanal, L.

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    Differential vulnerability of key threatened mammals to climate and land cover changes in the Central Himalayas

    Ecosphere, 4, 16

  • 2025/4

    Yousefkhani, S.S.H., Naser, M., Yaser, A., Essl, F., García-Rodríguez, A., Faizi, H., Qasimova, G., Rödder, D.

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    Integrating Spatially-Explicit and Genetic Analyses to Identify Conservation Priorities for Bufo eichwaldi (Amphibia: Anura) in the Hyrcanian Forest

    Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, 2025

  • 2025/4

    Decher, J., Schlitter, D., Adu-Tutu, P., Gazzard, A.

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    Baers’s Wood Mouse - Hylomyscus baeri

  • 2025/4

    Ahissa, L., Decher, J., Gazzard, A.

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    Wimmer’s Shrew - Crocidura wimmeri

  • 2025/4

    Alves-Ferreira, G., Heming, N.M., Talora, D., Keitt, T.H., Solé, M., Zamudio, K.R.

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    Climate change is projected to shrink phylogenetic endemism of Neotropical frogs

    Nature communications, 1, 16

  • 2025/4

    Matushkina, N., Gorb, S.N., Krings, W.

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    Material composition of the endophytic ovipositor in the damselfly, Calopteryx splendens (Odonata, Calopterygidae)

    Journal of Insect Physiology

  • 2025/4

    Denzer, W., Kaiser, H.

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    Nomenclature protects stability only when supported by good science: a response to Frétey’s (2024) list of turtle genus-series nomina

    Bionomina, 1, 41

  • 2025/4

    De Keyzer, E.L.R., Herder, F., Böhne, A., Campuzano Jiménez, F., Burskaia, V., Kukowka, S., Tracey, A., Denton, A., Oatley, G., Wellcome Sanger Institute Tree of Life programme, ., Wellcome Sanger Institute Scientific Operations: DNA Pipelines collective, ., Tree of Life Core Informatics collective, ., Mokodongan, D.F., Wowor, D., Svardal, H.

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    Multiple instances of river-lake introgression in the adaptive radiation of sailfin silversides in Wallace’s Dreampond

  • 2025/4

    Secondi, J., Altenhofen, J., Vimercati, G., Rödder, D.

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    The relative influence of habitat density, landscape configuration and spatial sorting on population expansion: a simulation test

    Landscape Ecology, 5, 40

  • 2025/4

    Duperre, N.

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    “Out of the blue”, a new species of the monotypic genus Kinku Simon, 1889

    Zootaxa, 5636, 3

  • 2025/3

    Raeker, J., Lord, A., Herranz, M., Giribet, G., Worsaae, K., Schmidt-Rhaesa, A.

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    The big, the small and the weird: A phylogenomic analysis of extant Priapulida

    Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 204

  • 2025/3

    Moore, J., Garilao, C., Kerbl, A.

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    An annotated catalog of Annelida types at the Museum of Nature Hamburg, Zoology. Part I: Annelida: Errantia: Aciculata: Eunicida, Myzostomida, Aciculata incertae sedis, and Errantia: Protodriliformia

    Evolutionary Systematics, 1, 9

  • 2025/3

    CHÁVEZ-LÓPEZ, Y., ALVESTAD, T., Moore, J.

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    A review of Anobothrus Levinsen, 1884, restricted, with reinstatement of Anobothrella Hartman, 1967 and Melythasides Desbruyères, 1978, and redescription of seven species (Annelida, Ampharetidae)

    Zootaxa, 2, 5601

  • 2025/3

    HUANG, S., HORIE, K., MARTIN, G., ESPELAND, M.

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    Taxonomic notes on the genus Himantopterus Wesmael (Lepidoptera, Zygaenoidea, Himantopteridae) with descriptions of three new taxa

    Zootaxa, 2, 5601

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