When aliens or our distant progeny sift through layers of sediment 500,000 years from now to decode the Earth's past, they will find unusual evidence of the abrupt change that upended life half-a-million years earlier: chicken ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 10, 2023
0
29
Many native animals that disperse plant seeds on the island of Mauritius have gone extinct during the past centuries. This includes iconic species such as the dodo and giant tortoises, now replaced by non-native fruit-eating ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 13, 2023
0
49
Modern birds capable of flight all have a specialized wing structure called the propatagium without which they could not fly. The evolutionary origin of this structure has remained a mystery, but new research suggests it ...
Evolution
Feb 24, 2023
2
1140
A new study published in PeerJ has provided crucial insights into the factors that affect the fertility of the critically endangered kākāpō, a flightless parrot species native to New Zealand.
Plants & Animals
Feb 3, 2023
0
16
Satellite mapping technology has discovered another new colony of the highly threatened Emperor penguins in Antarctica, researchers revealed Friday.
Ecology
Jan 20, 2023
0
4
Once hunted to the brink of extinction, the thousands of king penguins that densely congregate on the remote Possession Island each year now face a new threat: climate change.
Plants & Animals
Dec 29, 2022
0
45
Big bones from the extinct "thunder bird" or dromornithid, excavated in the northern reaches of the Flinders Ranges and near Alice Springs, have yielded new insights into their slow breeding patterns.
Evolution
Aug 23, 2022
0
839
There are roughly 50 billion individual birds in the world, a new big data study by UNSW Sydney suggests—about six birds for every human on the planet.
Ecology
May 17, 2021
0
107
The rapid extinction of giant animals including wombat-like creatures as big as cars, birds more than two meters tall, and lizards more than seven meters long that once roamed the Australian continent is a puzzle that has ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 13, 2021
2
296
There would be at least four times as many flightless bird species on Earth today if it were not for human influences, finds a study led by UCL researchers.The study, published in Science Advances, finds that flightlessness ...
Evolution
Dec 2, 2020
2
389
