The special exhibition „Hotspot Mur. Concealed emeralds“ in the Natural History Museum in Graz presents a wide variety of partly quite rare species of animals and plants. All of them inhabit the waters, banks and floodplains of the River Mur. An exciting example of the tremendous biodiversity of the river is the discovery of the “emerald-Gressling”, a fish species known exclusively from the River Mur. This discovery is the starting point for an exhibition dealing with a river ecosystem increasingly at risk. Space is given to explain DNA barcoding, which was also performed during the discovery of the “emerald-Gressling”, as an efficient new approach in monitoring biodiversity. Likewise ABOL, the Austria-wide initiative on biodiversity and DNA barcoding, is presented to the visitors.

Curators: Ursula Stockinger (Universalmuseum Joanneum), Stephan Koblmüller (University Graz), Wolfgang Paill (Universalmuseum Joanneum)