Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

Maintaining a high level of preparedness is essential for all Belgian Coastguard partners when facing maritime pollution threats. During POLEX 2025, Belgium’s national marine pollution response exercise near Zeebrugge that took place this summer, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) contributed with two key assets: ✈️ our aerial surveillance aircraft, providing coordination and real-time monitoring from above 🖥️ model simulations developed by the Marine Forecasting Centre of RBINS to support decision-making at sea These capabilities complemented the vessel Interballast III (chartered by the European Maritime Safety Agency), Belgian partners, and the French Navy vessel Argonaute in a simulated oil spill scenario near offshore wind farms. By combining on-site response, satellite imagery, and scientific input, RBINS helped strengthen situational awareness and response coordination in this complex environment. POLEX 2025 was part of the ongoing Multipurpose Maritime Operation in Belgium and France, and was coordinated by the FOD Volksgezondheid, Veiligheid van de Voedselketen en Leefmilieu. Exercises like POLEX 2025 are crucial to ensure that, when needed, science and operational capacity come together to protect the marine environment. #MarineScience #MaritimeSafety #OilSpillResponse #CoastalProtection #POLEX2025 #EnvironmentalMonitoring #CrossBorderCooperation #CleanSeas

Een nieuwe raptor! #sciencenews Aan de kant, Velociraptor, hier is Shri rapax! De zopas beschreven roofdinosauriër uit het late krijttijdperk van Mongolië kon met zijn krachtige handen en uitzonderlijk lange klauw grotere prooien aan dan andere raptors die toen in dezelfde woestijn leefden. Lees 👉 https://lnkd.in/e653QyNw *** [FR] Un nouveau raptor ! #sciencenews Place au Shri rapax ! Ce nouveau dinosaure prédateur, datant du Crétacé supérieur en Mongolie, possédait des mains puissantes et une griffe exceptionnellement longue, lui permettant de s’attaquer à des proies plus grandes que les autres raptors vivant dans le même désert. Lisez 👉 https://lnkd.in/eshVhMhc *** [EN] A new raptor! #sciencenews Step aside, Velociraptor — here comes Shri rapax! This newly described predatory dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia had powerful hands and an exceptionally long claw, allowing it to tackle larger prey than other raptors living in the same desert. Read 👉 https://lnkd.in/exhaD8M8 #naturalsciencesbelgium #palaeontology #dinosaurs

🌊 New report: ‘Washed ashore. Marine mammals in Belgium in 2024’ 🐬 What do 36 harbour porpoises, 72 seals, and one very young minke whale have in common? They all washed ashore on the Belgian coast in 2024. The new annual report by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences offers a comprehensive overview of marine mammal strandings in Belgium, along with remarkable sightings at sea and notable whale-related events on land. 📉 The number of stranded harbour porpoises remains low, with only 36 recorded — the second-lowest number in 22 years. 🦭 Seals continue to be a common sight, with the second-highest number of strandings in 30 years — a reflection of increasing populations in neighbouring countries. 🐋 The stranding of a young minke whale in Ostend was a rare event. Meanwhile, live sightings of humpback whales, minke whales, bottlenose, common and white-beaked dolphins hint at the biodiversity offshore. 🎨 On land, whales took centre stage in several public events — from a life-sized blue whale installation in Antwerp to the reopening of the NAVIGO museum in Koksijde, where sperm whale Valentijn’s skeleton is now on display. 📘 The report (available in Dutch and French) continues a tradition of monitoring and sharing knowledge since 2014. 👉 More info at https://lnkd.in/eTZZvssz. Read previous reports at https://lnkd.in/eurR6M_T. 📷 B. Vanslembrouck, A. Deboosere, J. Haelters #Marinemammals #NorthSea #Porpoise #Seals #Whales #Strandings #Belgium #MarineBiodiversity #MarineResearch

Kringwinkel Stroom kreeg recent iets ongewoons binnen: een fossiel! Het bleek na vergelijking met onze collectiestukken een deel van een mammoetbekken. 🦣 Op het etiketje dat op het exemplaar was gekleefd – de enige info die we tot nu toe hebben – staat ‘Noordzee Nederland’ en ‘100.000 jaar oud’. Tijdens de laatste ijstijd (116.000 tot 12.000 jaar geleden) lagen grote delen van de huidige Noordzee inderdaad droog en vormden ze een uitgestrekt toendralandschap. Daarin graasden onder meer mammoeten, wolharige neushoorns en reuzenherten. 🦏 🦌 🙏 We zijn dankbaar dat Kringwinkel Stroom besloot het fossiel aan onze collecties te schenken. Op die manier is het stuk ‘voor de eeuwigheid’ beschikbaar voor onderzoek. Interessant is alvast dat sporen in het bekken doen vermoeden dat het dier ziek of gekwetst was. *** [FR] La boutique de seconde main à but social Kringwinkel Stroom a récemment reçu un objet inhabituel : un fossile ! Après comparaison avec les pièces de notre collection, il s’est avéré qu’il s’agissait d’une partie d’un bassin de mammouth. 🦣 Sur l’étiquette collée à l’exemplaire — pour le moment notre seule source d’information — on peut lire « Mer du Nord Pays-Bas » et « 100 000 ans ». Durant la dernière période glaciaire (de 116 000 à 12 000 ans avant aujourd’hui), de vastes zones de ce qui est aujourd’hui la mer du Nord étaient effectivement à sec et formaient un vaste paysage de toundra. Des mammouths, des rhinocéros laineux et des cerfs géants y paissaient. 🦏 🦌 🙏 Nous sommes reconnaissants à l’ASBL Kringwinkel Stroom d’avoir décidé de faire don du fossile à nos collections. De cette manière, cette pièce sera disponible « pour l’éternité » à des fins de recherche. Fait intéressant : des traces observées sur le bassin laissent supposer que l’animal était malade ou blessé. [Photo: Ilse Top (Kringwinkel Stroom asbl), la conservatrice Annelise Folie et David Standaert (Kringwinkel Stroom asbl), avec au centre le fossile de mammouth offert. À titre de comparaison, un bassin d’un autre mammouth (à gauche) et celui d’un rhinocéros laineux (à droite). (c) Institut des Sciences naturelles]

🔵⚪️🟡🟠🔴 Tomorrow, 21st June, is #ShowYourStripes Day and here at the Belgian Climate Centre, we're proud to be part of this growing global movement. 👀 Created by Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading, the ‘𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐬’ are a simple but powerful way to visualise the change in average temperatures over the last 170+ years. Each stripe represents a single year, with blue for cooler-than-average years and red for warmer-than-average years, clearly showing the rapid heating of our planet. 🇧🇪 We are taking this opportunity to focus on the 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐠𝐢𝐮𝐦. These stripes represent our nation's own climate story, showing how the 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 ↗️ with the warmest years (dark red lines) falling in the last decade. The Belgian stripes use the robust, long-term data collected by the Institut Royal Météorologique (IRM) in Uccle, 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬, 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 190 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 1833. It's a powerful example of the crucial work national scientific institutions do to help us all understand and communicate climate change. 📣 Want to help spread the word? Feel free to share the Belgian stripes we've posted here. To find the graphic for your own region, visit the official #ShowYourStripes website and help start a conversation online: showyourstripes.info #ClimateChange #WarmingStripes #ClimateAction #Belgium #ClimateScience #Dataviz | World Meteorological Organization

✨🤩 Nerdland Festival, je was weer geweldig! En bedankt, Raphaël Liégeois, voor je bezoek aan onze stand! 🚀 #naturalsciencesbelgium #nerdlandfestival #nerdlandbe

🪲 🐞 België telt maar liefst 4.672 keversoorten, blijkt uit een nieuwe inventaris door entomologen en burgerwetenschappers. ‘Er zijn nieuwkomers, zoals vele soorten glanskevers, maar ook soorten die lokaal zijn uitgestorven, vooral schrijvertjes en mestkevers’, zegt Wouter Dekoninck, conservator van de insectencollecties van het Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen. 👉 https://lnkd.in/gs__n2jw [FR] 🪲 🐞 La Belgique ne compte pas moins de 4 672 espèces de coléoptères. C'est ce qui ressort d'une nouvelle liste établie par des entomologistes et des citoyens scientifiques. « Il y a des nouveaux venus, comme de nombreuses espèces de coléoptères nitidulides, mais aussi des espèces qui ont disparu localement, en particulier chez les gyrins et les bousiers », dit Wouter Dekoninck, conservateur des collections entomologiques à l'Institut des Sciences naturelles. 👉 https://lnkd.in/g7ThFjWq [EN] 🪲 🐞 Belgium is home to no fewer than 4,672 beetle species, according to a new checklist compiled by a team of entomologists and citizen scientists. “There are newcomers, such as many species of sap beetles, but also species that have become locally extinct—mainly whirligig beetles and dung beetles,” says Wouter Dekoninck, curator of the 👉 https://lnkd.in/gM42PjbK [Photo: The minotaur beetle or three-horned dung beetle (Typhaeus typhoeus) is found in Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels. However, other dung beetle species have become extinct in our country. (c) Erwin Derous] #biodiversity #taxonomy #collections #naturalsciencesbelgium #natuurwetenschappen #naturalsciences #sciencesnaturelles #citizenscience

Two remarkably well-preserved Ice Age pups have been identified as wolf pups rather than early domesticated dogs, thanks to an international study involving researchers from the Institute of Natural Sciences. The so-called “Tumat Puppies,” discovered in the Siberian permafrost in 2011 and 2015, were found with their skin and black fur intact, offering an exceptional glimpse into life more than 14,000 years ago. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ek-6ddHU Images (c) Sergey Fedorov, Mammoth Museum of North-Eastern Federal University (c) Jonathan Brecko, Institute of Natural Sciences