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Categories: Anthropology: General, Ecology: Endangered Species

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Primate social organization is more flexible than previously assumed. According to a new study, the first primates probably lived in pairs, while only around 15 percent of individuals were solitary.

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Forests on the west slope of Oregon's Cascade Range experienced fire much more often between 1500 and 1895 than had been previously thought.

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Barley seedlings grow on average 50% more when their root system is stimulated electrically through a new cultivation substrate. Researchers have now developed an electrically conductive 'soil' for soil-less cultivation, known as hydroponics.

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A lot has changed in the world since the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was enacted 50 years ago in December 1973. Experts are now discuss how the ESA has evolved and what its future might hold. 

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An archaeological find in the Huescan Pyrenees allowed researchers to identify for the first time livestock management strategies and feeding practices which demonstrate how the first high mountain societies, at the start of the Neolithic period, were already carrying out complex livestock and farming activities, instead of being limited to the transhumance of sheep and goats.

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Scientists have discovered that plants send tiny, innocuous-seeming lipid 'bubbles' filled with RNA across enemy lines, into the cells of the aggressive mold. Once inside, different types of RNA come out to suppress the infectious cells that sucked them in.

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Insect decline is being driven by losses among the locally more common species, according to a new study. The meta-analysis of 923 locations around the world notes two significant trends: 1) the species with the most individuals (the highest abundance) are disproportionately decreasing in number, and 2) no other species have increased to the high numbers previously seen. This likely explains the frequent observation that there are fewer insects around now than ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. 

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Focusing on the Lake Titicaca Basin in the Andes mountains, anthropologists found through analysis of 1,179 projectile points that the rise of archery technology dates to around 5,000 years ago. Previous research held that archery in the Andes emerged around 3,000 years ago. The new research from UC Davis indicates that the adoption of bow-and-arrow technology coincided with both the expansion of exchange networks and the growing tendency for people to reside in villages.

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Scientists have discovered that flowering plants growing in farmland are increasingly doing without insect pollinators. As reproduction becomes more difficult for them in an environment depleted in pollinating insects, the plants are evolving towards self-fertilization.

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A study appearing in Nature Communications based on field and greenhouse experiments at the University of Kansas shows how a boost in agricultural yield comes from planting diverse crops rather than just one plant species: Soil pathogens harmful to plants have a harder time thriving. While crop rotation and other farming and gardening practices long have reflected benefits of a mix of plants, the new research puts hard data to one important mechanism underpinning the observation: the numbers of microorganisms in the soil that eat plants.

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Plants often develop communities with microorganisms in their roots, which influences plant health and development. Although the recruitment of these microbes is dictated by several factors, it is unclear whether the genetic variation in the host plants plays a role.

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Humans have wiped out around 1,400 bird species -- twice as many as previously thought -- with major implications for the ongoing biodiversity crisis, a new study has found. The estimated extinctions would mean almost 12 per cent of bird species have died out over modern human history, since the Late Pleistocene around 130,000 years ago, with the vast majority of them becoming extinct directly or indirectly due to human activity.

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A new analysis sheds light on the ancestry and genetics of woolly dogs, a now extinct breed of dog that was a fixture of Indigenous Coast Salish communities in the Pacific Northwest for millennia. Anthropologists and biologists analyzed genetic clues preserved in the pelt of 'Mutton,' the only known woolly dog fleece in the world, to pinpoint the genes responsible for their highly sought-after woolly fur. The study's findings include interviews contributed by several Coast Salish co-authors, including Elders, Knowledge Keepers and Master Weavers, who provided crucial context about the role woolly dogs played in Coast Salish society.

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A new study of the remains of prehistoric and modern African antelopes found that AI technology accurately identified animals more than 90% of the time compared to humans, who had much lower accuracy rates depending on the expert.

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And after nearly two years of fighting, war is destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage on a scale not seen since World War II, according to new research.

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Plants emit odors for a variety of reasons, such as to communicate with each other, to deter herbivores or to respond to changing environmental conditions. An interdisciplinary team of researchers carried out a study to investigate how biodiversity influences the emission of these substances. For the first time, they were able to show that species-rich forests emit less of these gases into the atmosphere than monocultures. It was previously assumed that species-rich forests release more emissions. The Leipzig team has now been able to disprove this assumption experimentally.

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Accurately counting manatee aggregations within a region is crucial yet challenging. Harnessing the power of AI, researchers are using a deep learning-based crowd counting approach to automatically count the number of manatees in a designated region, using images captured from CCTV cameras, which are readily available, as input. The pioneering study not only addresses the technical challenges of counting in complex outdoor environments but also offers potential ways to aid endangered species. 

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In a comparative analysis across vertebrates of the many cell types in the retina -- mice alone have 130 types -- researchers concluded that most cell types have an ancient evolutionary history. Their remarkable conservation across species suggests that the retina of the last common ancestor of all mammals, which roamed the earth some 200 million year ago, must have had a complexity rivaling the retina of modern mammals.

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Simulations integrate historical records, fossils, and ancient DNA to reveal why the European bison nearly went extinct, and pinpoint optimal areas for conservation.   Since the near-extinction of the European bison, enormous conservation efforts have helped to restore wild populations, and its numbers are on the rise. However, the study authors argue that ensuring the species's long-term protection and recovery requires understanding why they nearly went extinct in the first place.    'Our study also suggests areas where rewilding attempts are most likely to be successful,' said lead author July Pilowsky, currently a disease ecologist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Pilowsky completed the research while working on their PhD at University of Adelaide and University of Copenhagen.   

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Recovered from looters, a new archaeological discovery from a cave in western Mongolia could change the story of the evolving relationship between humans and horses around the world.