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Categories: Ecology: General, Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology
Published Why there are no kangaroos in Bali (and no tigers in Australia)



Researchers are using a new model to clarify why millions of years ago more animal species from Asia made the leap to the Australian continent than vice versa. The climate in which the species evolved played an important role.
Published Giant stone artefacts found on rare Ice Age site in Kent, UK



Researchers have discovered some of the largest early prehistoric stone tools in Britain.
Published Fossils reveal how ancient birds molted their feathers -- which could help explain why ancestors of modern birds survived when all the other dinosaurs died



Birds are the only group of dinosaurs that survived the asteroid-induced mass extinction 66 million years ago. But not all the birds alive at the time made it. Why the ancestors of modern birds lived while so many of their relatives died has been a mystery that paleontologists have been trying to solve for decades. Two new studies point to one possible factor: the differences between how modern birds and their ancient cousins molt their feathers.
Published Apex predator of the Cambrian likely sought soft over crunchy prey



Biomechanical studies on the arachnid-like front 'legs' of an extinct apex predator show that the 2-foot (60-centimeter) marine animal Anomalocaris canadensis was likely much weaker than once assumed. One of the largest animals to live during the Cambrian, it was probably agile and fast, darting after soft prey in the open water rather than pursuing hard-shelled creatures on the ocean floor.
Published How urea may have been the gateway to life



Urea reacts extremely quickly under the conditions that existed when our planet was newly formed. This new insight furthers our understanding of how life on Earth might have begun.
Published Newly discovered Jurassic fossils in Texas



Scientists have filled a major gap in the state's fossil record -- describing the first known Jurassic vertebrate fossils in Texas. The weathered bone fragments are from the limbs and backbone of a plesiosaur, an extinct marine reptile.
Published New research finds that more than 90% of global aquaculture faces substantial risk from environmental change



Many of the world's largest aquatic food producers are highly vulnerable to human-induced environmental change, with some of the highest-risk countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa demonstrating the lowest capacity for adaptation, a landmark study has shown.
Published Research questions value of sagebrush control in conserving sage grouse



Sagebrush reduction strategies, including mowing and herbicide application, are often employed to enhance habitat for the greater sage grouse and other sagebrush-dependent species.
Published Megalodon was no cold-blooded killer



How the megalodon, a shark that went extinct 3.6 million years ago, stayed warm was a matter of speculation among scientists. Using an analysis of tooth fossils from the megalodon and other sharks of the same period, a study suggests the animal was able to maintain a body temperature well above the temperature of the water in which it lived. The finding could help explain why the megalodon went extinct during the Pliocene Epoch.
Published How coral reefs can survive climate change



Similar to the expeditions of a hundred or two hundred years ago, the Tara Pacific expedition lasted over two years. The goal: to research the conditions for life and survival of corals. The ship crossed the entire Pacific Ocean, assembling the largest genetic inventory conducted in any marine system to date. The team's 70 scientists from eight countries took around 58,000 samples from the hundred coral reefs studied.
Published Human impact on wildlife even in protected areas



The largest long-term standardized camera-trap survey to date finds that human activity impacts tropical mammals living in protected areas and sheds light on how different species are affected based on their habitat needs and anthropogenic stressors.
Published 'We're all Asgardians': New clues about the origin of complex life



According to a new study, eukaryotes -- complex life forms with nuclei in their cells, including all the world's plants, animals, insects and fungi -- trace their roots to a common Asgard archaean ancestor. That means eukaryotes are, in the parlance of evolutionary biologists, a 'well-nested clade' within Asgard archaea, similar to how birds are one of several groups within a larger group called dinosaurs, sharing a common ancestor.
Published Traditional methods cannot give us the insights we need to understand changing ecosystems



If we want to face up to the challenges posed by climate change and other global environmental changes, we need to bring complexity science into the mix with ecology and biodiversity conservation.
Published Caribbean seagrasses provide services worth $255B annually, including vast carbon storage, study shows



Caribbean seagrasses provide about $255 billion in services to society annually, including $88.3 billion in carbon storage, according to a new study. The study has put a dollar value on the many services -- from storm protection to fish habitat to carbon storage -- provided by seagrasses across the Caribbean, which holds up to half the world's seagrass meadows by surface area and contains about one-third of the carbon stored in seagrasses worldwide.
Published Scientists unearth 20 million years of 'hot spot' magmatism under Cocos plate



A team of scientists has observed past episodic intraplate magmatism and corroborated the existence of a partial melt channel at the base of the Cocos Plate. Situated 60 kilometers beneath the Pacific Ocean floor, the magma channel covers more than 100,000 square kilometers, and originated from the Galápagos Plume more than 20 million years ago, supplying melt for multiple magmatic events -- and persisting today.
Published Face of Anglo-Saxon teen VIP revealed with new evidence about her life



The face of a 16-year-old woman buried near Cambridge (UK) in the 7th century with an incredibly rare gold and garnet cross (the 'Trumpington Cross') has been reconstructed following analysis of her skull. The striking image is going on public display for the first time on 21st June, with new scientific evidence showing that she moved to England from Central Europe as a young girl, leading to an intriguing change in her diet.
Published New research reveals the impact of different species and their traits on human wellbeing



New research has revealed that well-functioning ecosystems are crucial to human health and wellbeing, with human-biodiversity interactions delivering wellbeing gains equating to substantial healthcare cost-savings, when scaled-up across populations.
Published Supersized fruit eater database on climate change frontline



To conserve precious and fragile biodiversity hotspots, a crucial step is knowing how the fruit eaters are doing. To assist in that, scientists and students have supersized a database to keep track of such animals and birds.
Published These long-necked reptiles were decapitated by their predators, fossil evidence confirms



In the age of dinosaurs, many marine reptiles had extremely long necks compared to reptiles today. While it was clearly a successful evolutionary strategy, paleontologists have long suspected that their long-necked bodies made them vulnerable to predators. Now, after almost 200 years of continued research, direct fossil evidence confirms this scenario for the first time in the most graphic way imaginable.
Published New dinosaur discovered: Ankylosaurs may have been far more diverse than originally thought



First armoured dinosaur to be described from the Isle of Wight in 142 years, shows Ankylosaurs may have been far more diverse than originally thought