Wilderness areas, long known for intrinsic conservation value, are far more valuable for biodiversity than previously believed, and if conserved, will cut the world's extinction risk in half, according to a new study.
Read moreCoastal birds survive because their populations can absorb impacts and recover quickly from hurricanes — even storms many times larger than anything previously observed.
Read moreResearch by ecologists shows strong evidence in a freshwater lake of 'fishing down the food web' – the deliberate shift away from top predatory fish on the food chain to smaller species closer to the base. While the effect has historically been observed almost exclusively in marine ecosystems and ocean fisheries, there has been little evidence of the effect in freshwater ecosystems.
Read moreA new study conducted in songbirds demonstrates that what at first appear to be genetic constraints on birds' song learning abilities could be largely eliminated by tailoring instruction to better match the birds' inborn predispositions.
Read moreThe ancestor of some of the largest flying birds ever has been found in Waipara, New Zealand.
Read moreA new study seeks to understand the type and magnitude of gaps in scientific information as a way to improve conservation planning.
Read moreNew study on guppies shows that animals evolve in response the the environment they create in the absence of predators, rather than in response to the risk of being eaten.
Read moreIn just five generations, an altered microbiome can lead to genome-wide evolution in fruit flies, according to new research.
Read moreA new article presents 19 high-coverage penguin genome sequences. Adding this to the two previously published penguin genomes, there are now genome sequences available for all living penguin species. Here, the Penguin Genome Consortium, made up of researchers from 10 countries, has produced an unparalleled amount of information that covers an entire biological order. Research from evolution, the impact of human activities impact, and environmental changes, will benefit from this work.
Read moreNear an old mining town in Central Europe, known for its picturesque turquoise-blue quarry water, lay Rudapithecus. For 10 million years, the fossilized ape waited in Rudabánya, Hungary, to add its story to the origins of how humans evolved. What Rudabánya yielded was a pelvis — among the most informative bones of a skeleton, but one that is rarely preserved.
Read more