A public discussion of the Environmental Assessment Report (EAR) of NRRP was held on 21 October 2022 in “Prof. Marin Drinov” Hall of BAS. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Council of Ministers - Mr. Ivan Ivanov (Director of the "Central Coordination Unit" in the Council of Ministers) and Ms. Tsvetelina Hinkova (expert "Central Coordination Unit"). Mr. Ivanov expressed special thanks to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences for lending a hand and for the considerable efforts made in the preparation of the EAR. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ina Aneva, Project Coordinator and Scientific Secretary of the Biodiversity, Bioresources and Ecology division, emphasized that BAS was the leading scientific, spiritual and expert center of Bulgaria and as such, one of the priorities was to be [...]

Prehistoric Panda In the article „A late Turolian giant panda from Bulgaria and the early evolution and dispersal of the panda lineage“ published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Prof. Nikolai Spassov from the National Museum of Natural History of BAS and his Chinese colleague Qigao Jiangzuo describe a new species of fossil giant panda (Agriarctos nikolovi) that inhabited Bulgaria about 6 million years ago, at the end of the Miocene. The description of the species is based on the finding of fossil teeth stored in the collection of NMNHS - BAS. The evolution of the panda is poorly known due to very limited fossil remains. It is assumed that the direct ancestor of today's panda is the fossil Chinese genus Ailuraerctos which lived 8-6 [...]