Showing 20 articles starting at article 501

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Ecology: Research, Paleontology: Fossils

Return to the site home page

Ecology: General Ecology: Research Ecology: Trees Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Research supports use of managed and prescribed fires to reduce fire severity      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists found that fires in America's dry conifer forests are burning hotter and killing more trees today than in previous centuries. The main culprit? Paradoxically, a lack of fires.

Ecology: Endangered Species Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Spurge purge: Plant fossils reveal ancient South America-to-Asia 'escape route'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Newly identified plant fossils found in Argentina suggest that a group of spurges long thought to have Asian origins may have first appeared in Gondwanan South America.

Ecology: General Ecology: Research
Published

Road salt pollution in many US lakes could stabilize at or below thresholds set by the EPA      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

For lakes in areas with light to moderate road density, the authors found that holding road salt application rates steady could help lakes stabilize below 230 mg/l of chloride per liter of water, the threshold designated by the EPA to protect aquatic life. Reducing application could yield additional environmental and economic benefits without threatening road safety.

Biology: Marine Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Research Ecology: Sea Life
Published

Scientists discover new isopod species in the Florida Keys      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have discovered a new species of marine cryptofauna in the Florida Keys. Cryptofauna are the tiny, hidden, organisms that make up the majority of biodiversity in the ocean. The tiny crustaceans are the first new gnathiid isopod to be discovered from the Floridian ecoregion in 100 years and are named after singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett.

Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Trees Environmental: Ecosystems Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Miocene period fossil forest of Wataria found in Japan      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An exquisitely preserved fossil forest from Japan provides missing links and helps reconstruct a whole Eurasia plant from the late Miocene epoch.

Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Paleontologists identify two new species of sabertooth cat      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Sabertooth cats make up a diverse group of long-toothed predators that roamed Africa around 6-7 million years ago, around the time that hominins -- the group that includes modern humans -- began to evolve. By examining one of the largest global Pliocene collections of fossils in Langebaanweg, north of Cape Town in South Africa, researchers present two new sabertooth species and the first family tree of the region's ancient sabertooths. Their results suggest that the distribution of sabertooths throughout ancient Africa might have been different than previously assumed, and the study provides important information about Africa's paleoenvironment.

Ecology: General Ecology: Research Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Picturing where wildlands and people meet at a global scale      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have created the first tool to map and visualize the areas where human settlements and nature meet on a global scale. The tool could improve responses to environmental conflicts like wildfires, the spread of zoonotic diseases and loss of ecosystem biodiversity.

Ecology: General Ecology: Research Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Understanding the many different ways animals are evolving in response to fire could help conservation efforts      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In our modern era of larger, more destructive, and longer-lasting fires -- called the Pyrocene -- plants and animals are evolving quickly to survive. By synthesizing the wide body of research about rapid animal evolution in response to fire, a multidisciplinary team of ecology experts hopes to leverage what we already know to help foster evolution-informed conservation plans. In this way, they suggest, we can try to harness the ways in which fire impacts animals to protect vulnerable species -- working with evolution instead of against it.

Ecology: Extinction Ecology: General Ecology: Research Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Some corals may survive climate change without paying a metabolic price      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

If, as the saying goes, 'nothing in life is free,' then corals might pay a price for being resilient to climate change. Indeed, the prevailing belief among scientists has been that corals must suffer reduced growth or other tradeoffs when they partner with symbiotic algae that help them tolerate warmer water. Yet, new research demonstrates that certain corals can have their cake and eat it too, and as a result, these coral-symbiont partnerships may come to dominate reef ecosystems in a climate-changed future.

Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Paleontology: Dinosaurs Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Unusual fossil shows rare evidence of a mammal attacking a dinosaur      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have described an unusual fossil from around 125 million years ago in China that shows a dramatic moment in time when a carnivorous mammal attacked a larger plant-eating dinosaur. The two animals are locked in mortal combat, and it's among the first evidence to show actual predatory behavior by a mammal on a dinosaur. The fossil's presence challenges the view that dinosaurs had few threats from their mammal contemporaries during the Cretaceous, when dinosaurs were the dominant animals.

Paleontology: Fossils
Published

Life on Earth didn't arise as described in textbooks      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

No, oxygen didn't catalyze the swift blossoming of Earth's first multicellular organisms. The result defies a 70-year-old assumption about what caused an explosion of oceanic fauna hundreds of millions of years ago.

Ecology: General Ecology: Research Environmental: Ecosystems Space: Exploration
Published

Into the unknown: NASA space laser provides answers to a rainforest canopy mystery      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The space laser GEDI has allowed researchers to 3D map Earth's rainforests for the first time ever, helping us understand the forest canopy and providing vital information for understanding Earth's carbon cycle and how it is changing.

Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

New fossil flying reptile 'Elvis' takes flight      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In an exciting scientific development, an international team of researchers have officially named a newly discovered 145-million-year-old pterosaur. The animal had enormous 2-meter wingspan and was nicknamed 'Elvis' when the fossil was first unearthed in Bavaria, Germany because of the giant pompadour-like bony crest on its skull. Now the animal has been given a formal scientific name of Petrodactyle wellnhoferi. The name translates as 'Wellnhofer's stone-finger' honouring legendary German palaeontologist Peter Wellnhofer who spent his career working on German pterosaurs. Petrodactyle is a very complete skeleton with nearly every bone preserved and in remarkable detail.

Archaeology: General Paleontology: Fossils
Published

Hidden details of Egyptian paintings revealed by chemical imaging      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Portable chemical imaging technology can reveal hidden details in ancient Egyptian paintings, according to new research.

Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Ice Age saber-tooth cats and dire wolves suffered from diseased joints      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Ice Age saber-tooth cats and dire wolves experienced a high incidence of bone disease in their joints, according to new research.

Ecology: Invasive Species Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Marine fossils are a reliable benchmark for degrading and collapsing ecosystems      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Humans began altering environments long before records were kept of the things that lived in them, making it difficult for scientists to determine what healthy ecosystems should look like. Researchers show the recent fossil record preserves a reliable snapshot of marine environments as they existed before humans.

Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Scientists discover 36-million-year geological cycle that drives biodiversity      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Movement in the Earth's tectonic plates indirectly triggers bursts of biodiversity in 36 million-year cycles by forcing sea levels to rise and fall, new research has shown.

Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Discovery of 500-million-year-old fossil reveals astonishing secrets of tunicate origins      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers describe a 500 million-year-old tunicate fossil species. The study suggests that the modern tunicate body plan was already established soon after the Cambrian Explosion.

Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Paleontology: Dinosaurs Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
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      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

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.

Biology: Marine Biology: Zoology Ecology: Sea Life Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Paleontology: Dinosaurs Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Newly discovered Jurassic fossils in Texas      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

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.