Articles tagged "extinction"

Between direct man-made causes like habitat loss and climate change at large, this mass extinction is moving quickly.

The leopard was Taiwan's top predator, and as such habitat loss (and the resulting prey depletion) was likely a large factor in its demise.

Just a few days ago, people were wondering whether this was a good idea. Too late.

The mice are a clever effort to curb an invasive snake species that has eliminated almost all bird life on the island.

Twenty years ago at the Rio Earth Summit, 150 countries signed the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was meant to lay out guidelines, based on the U.N.‘s Agenda 21, for sustainable development and the protection of the world’s valuable biodiv…

Those of us who are into this sort of thing have gotten pretty familiar with the Anthropocene; that epoch following the Holocene that defines the time where man began to fundamentally change the face of the planet. When biologists talk about the unpr…

When we talk about the sixth great extinction event—the humankind-induced mass die-off that we're in the early stages of at the moment—we talk about climate change. We talk about vanishing habitats, we talk about biodiversity loss, and we talk about…

Lonesome George is dead, long live Lonesome George. The 100 year-old icon, the last Pinta Island tortoise, has gone to some great, sparsely vegetated island in the sky. His loss was mourned across the blogosphere. The news brings sad tidings, to b…

The population rebound of the California Condor stands as one of the great conservation stories, with the species surviving whilst on the brink of destruction. At one point, there were only 22 of the birds left. Now there are nearly 400. So, while it…

When it comes to hypothetical questions, “What if a giant asteroid (or whatever) hadn’t killed off all the dinosaurs?” is one of my favorites, mostly because I imagine living in Bedrock and driving a brontosaurus for a living.

Memories aren’t immutable, recalled moments from your past just sitting on the dusty shelves of your brain. They are fluid impressions, and each time you retrieve a memory you alter it. Current research into how memory retrieval works is allowing sci…

Tropical birds are noted for their broad diversity, wonderful plumage, and passing similarities to Juggalos. In short, they're amazing. A whole lot of them are also going to disappear, if the models from new research "published in the Biological Cons…

In a great example of life's ability to flourish anywhere, a group of Antarctic fish evolved "anti-freeze" proteins that help them survive the frigid temperatures of the coldest continent's waters. Now those fish are under threat from a problem they'…

As cute as they are, especially compared to their tornado-like cartoon brother, Tasmanian devils are dastardly little shrieking beasts with skull-crushing jaws. Following the extinction of the Tasmanian tiger in 1936, they're now the largest carnivor…

A new review in Nature argues that the earth’s sixth “mass extinction event” may have already started. Bummer.

Now that the fittest have survived, their genes will destroy us. So says Nobel winning biologist Christian de Duve who believes that an innate unerring will to survive is the ultimate foundation of human extinction -- we are myopic victims of our own…