extinction
Why humanity will likely be around for a long time
Will our species go extinct? The short answer is yes. The fossil record shows everything goes extinct, eventually. Almost all ...
Why evolution always goes in one direction
The diversity and complexity of life on Earth is astonishing: 8 million or more living species – from algae to ...
Estimated 140,000 plants facing extinction, report finds, threatening progress in medicine, farming
Plants and fungi hold promise as future medicines, fuels and foods, according to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. But opportunities ...
Real life Jurassic Park? Recovered prehistoric DNA raises prospect of resurrecting species
Even before Jurassic Park became a staple of pop culture in the early 1990s, geneticists have been on the hunt ...
How humans might play a role in our own extinction
[W]hat if human extinction was less a cinematic scenario, and instead, a looming reality? That might seem like a sensational ...
350 million years ago, a thinning atmosphere sparked a mass extinction. We’re headed in the same direction
Scientists noticed that around the time of the Hangenberg Crisis, [fern] spores began to look strange. Some were much darker ...
Global temperature modeling suggests dinosaurs were wiped out by asteroid strike
A massive asteroid impact is likely to blame for the extinction event that marks the end of the Cretaceous period, ...
How did early humans avoid being wiped out by tuberculosis?
Tuberculosis is responsible for as many as one billion deaths in the last 200 years alone, but its murderous history ...
Chicxulub asteroid impact sparked mammal growth surge, fossil ‘trove’ shows
After an asteroid crashed into what is now Chicxulub, Mexico 66 million years ago, a chain of events occurred that ...
Infographic: How an asteroid killed the dinosaurs
The Cenozoic is the name geologists give to the era spanning the last 66 million years, and it started with the mass ...
Making the case for a sixth major mass extinction–the end-Guadalupian event
Life on Earth has diversified into countless forms over the course of billions of years, but it hasn’t always been ...
Podcast: Why did we survive, when the Denisovans and Neanderthals did not?
The Denisovans have long been one of the most elusive ancient human cousins, until now. In May 2019, scientists revealed ...
Why scientists are hesitant to declare a species extinct
If so many species are going extinct, why don’t we hear about new extinctions every day? The answer to that ...
Nature’s Viagra? Seahorse’s future threatened by Chinese sex drug obsession
In Chinese medicine, seahorses are believed to have Viagra-like powers. Hong Kong is the world's largest trading hub for the ...
This tech start-up wants to ‘hack’ efforts to save endangered species, ecosystems
After an unorthodox career in science that has included setting up a national park in an active war zone in ...
How did this bird evolve into existence again after disappearing 136,000 years ago?
The Aldabra white-throated rail, a flightless bird that lives on its namesake atoll in the Indian Ocean, doesn’t look like ...
Conservation genomics: Better understanding of DNA could save some species from extinction
Disease, predators and shrinking habitats led to a complete loss of Hawaii’s only remaining lineage of the crow family, the ...
Oxford zoologists: Insect decline studies could erode confidence in science if not held to rigorous standards
Global rates of insect decline will be very hard to measure. Conclusions regarding drivers and rates of declines can be ...
Were Neanderthals doomed by their inbreeding?
Mounting evidence suggests Neanderthals also had a habit of inbreeding, or conceiving with close relatives. Several studies have now reported ...
Destructive diets: Are we eating Earth’s large animals to extinction?
In new research published [February 6] in the journal Conservation Letters, scientists surveyed the populations of nearly 300 species of megafauna ...
Intensive agriculture driving insects towards extinction, threatening “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems,” study claims
The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems,” according to the ...
60 percent of wild coffee species at risk of ‘extinction’
More than half of the world’s 124 wild coffee plant species meet the criteria for inclusion on the International Union ...
Why did dinosaurs thrive for so long, while other ancient species faced extinction?
Everybody knows about the K/Pg Mass Extinction. As soon as we learn about dinosaurs, and demand to know why we ...
Why humans may not be to blame for ancient African mammal extinction
New research has disputed a longstanding view that early humans helped wipe out many of the large mammals that once ...
Let’s say we can force the mosquito into extinction — should we do it?
Not many people like mosquitoes. So why not eliminate them? Newer techniques like CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing may make this possible ...
No, humans haven’t wiped out 60 percent of animals since 1970. But things still look ugly
Since [October 29], news networks and social media have been abuzz with the claim that, as The Guardian among others ...
Earth’s carrying capacity and why the status quo ‘could be collectively suicidal’
The co-founder of the Breakthrough Institute has a cheery vision of the future. If only that vision were plausible ...
Were Neanderthals wiped out by icy climate change?
About 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals began disappearing from Europe, but exactly why they died out is a mystery. … Researchers propose ...
