A numerical perspective on Nature authors.

Founded in the late eighteenth century, Brazil's National Museum is the oldest scientific institution in Latin America. Now run by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, it houses more than 20 million specimens from around the world. Working at the museum, says Alexander Kellner, means a combination of curatorial and teaching work.

Like most museums in Brazil, Kellner says that the National gives its staff free rein to follow their research interests. For Kellner, this is the evolution of pterosaurs (flying reptiles), and on page 875 he and his team present their latest findings from China, where they discovered two new pterosaurs. The fossils show that some 120 million years ago, flying reptile groups were more diverse than expected. They also offer fresh insights into the competition between pterosaurs and birds.

2 papers in Nature this week have contributing authors who are working in Brazil.

54 submissions made to Nature so far this year have come from Brazil (total submissions to date=10,451).

6 Brazilian institutions have had papers published in Nature this year.

23,011 visits to http://www.nature.com were made, on average, each week from people based in Brazil during September 2005.