Climate change threatens Komodo dragons
The world’s largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, could be driven to extinction by climate change unless significant measures to intervene are taken soon.
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Extinction
Discovery of a new mass extinction
It’s not often a new mass extinction is identified; after all, such events were so devastating they really stand out in the fossil record. In a new paper, published today in Science Advances, an international team has identified a major extinction of life 233 million years ago that triggered the dinosaur takeover of the world. The crisis has been called the Carnian Pluvial Episode.
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Fossil Pollen Record Suggests Vulnerability to Mass Extinction Ahead
Reduced resilience of plant biomes in North America could be setting the stage for the kind of mass extinctions not seen since the retreat of glaciers and arrival of humans about 13,000 years ago, cautions a new study published August 20 in the journal Global Change Biology.
Read moreMankind is the problem, and we appear to be hastily destroying life around us, says a Washington University in St. Louis biodiversity expert about new research with a WashU connection.
Mankind is the problem, and we appear to be hastily destroying life around us, says a Washington University in St.
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Scientists resurrect mammoth’s broken genes
Woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island may have been the last of their kind anywhere on Earth. To learn about the forces that contributed to their extinction, scientists have resurrected a Wrangel Island mammoth’s mutated genes. The goal was to study whether the genes functioned normally. They did not.
Read moreLights out? Fireflies face extinction threats of habitat loss, light pollution, pesticides
Habitat loss, pesticide use and, artificial light are the three most serious threats endangering fireflies across the globe, raising the spectre of extinction for certain species whose features render them more vulnerable to specific threats. Impacts range from loss of biodiversity to ecotourism.
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What Is An Endangered Species?
What makes for an endangered species classification isn’t always obvious.
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