topic: Evolution

topic: Evolution

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Study identifies species with a long history but short future amid threats
- A new study analyzing human-driven extinction threats to jawed vertebrates warns that we could lose between 86 billion and 160 billion years’ worth of evolutionary history over the next 50-500 years without concerted conservation action to save unique species.
- The study is the latest in an increasing body of research that indicates evolutionarily distinctive species are frequently also those most at risk of extinction.
- Turtles and tortoises, sharks and rays, and ray-finned fish were identified as among the groups of species most at risk of extinction.
- Given that global targets under the U.N. Global Biodiversity Framework are based on safeguarding evolutionary history, the authors call on conservationists and policymakers to do more to protect such evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered species.

Study on evolution of same-sex animal behaviors underscores stigmas in research
- A new study tracing the evolution of same-sex sexual behavior in mammals, using phylogenetic analyses, suggests these behaviors may have evolved in part to strengthen social bonding and relationships.
- Same-sex sexual behavior was observed in 261 species, which constitutes 4% of all mammal species; the research adds to a growing list of some 1,500 animal species in which same-sex sexual behavior is documented.
- Interest in this research is expanding after a long history of stigma within the field that led some earlier scientists to withhold evidence of same-sex sexual behavior among animals; at the time, such behavior was considered an error in the research findings — or “perverted.”
- Researchers also note that stigmas have long prevented scientists from investigating same-sex sexual behaviors in animals or receiving funding to carry out such studies.

Clouded leopards face alarming decline amid ‘genetic crisis,’ study warns
- Supremely adapted to life in the forest canopy, clouded leopards have declined in recent decades due to habitat loss and fragmentation, indiscriminate snaring, and poaching for their patterned coats.
- New genomic evidence indicates that both species of the big cat have low levels of genetic diversity and high rates of inbreeding and negative genetic mutations — factors that could ultimately compromise their long-term survival in the wild.
- Conservationists working to maintain genetic diversity among both captive and wild populations may face an uphill struggle. Clouded leopards are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity, and forest loss has fragmented wild populations, limiting genetic mixing in the wild.
- The new insights could be used by conservationists to focus protected-area design and captive-breeding programs with a view to maximizing genetic diversity.

Ground-nesting chimps hold lessons for conservation — and for human evolution
- Eastern chimpanzees in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo frequently build nests and sleep overnight on the ground even in areas where predators are present, a recent study finds.
- The ability of these relatively small-bodied apes to sleep on the ground without fire or fortifications suggests that other hominids, including early humans, could have moved from the safety of trees earlier than thought.
- The study also found that chimpanzees were not deterred from ground nesting when they shared space with humans — as long as those humans were not hunting.
- This, the researchers say, suggests chimpanzee conservation and human use of forests can coexist.

Scientists make ‘rare’ new identification of snake family: Micrelapidae
- A multinational team of researchers has identified a new family of snakes, Micrelapidae, which live in East Africa and the Middle East.
- These small, rear-fanged venomous snakes are thought to have diverged from the rest of the evolutionary tree 50 million years ago and since evolved separately as a distinct family.
- Kenyan researchers hope the news will aid efforts to raise awareness of snakes and their importance to the ecosystem, as it is common for people in Kenya to fear – and kill – snakes.

Chimpanzee nut cracking leaves telltale marks on stones, providing clues to human evolution
- Groups of chimpanzees in West Africa use stone tools in distinctly different ways to crack open nuts.
- Researchers used 3D scans to trace wear patterns on the tools, called “hammerstones” and “anvils.”
- The different tool uses may help archaeologists identify signs of early stone tool technology in human ancestors more than 3 million years ago.

The slow, toxic and sleepy life of lorises is coded in their genes
- Lorises exhibit many quirky evolutionary adaptations, such as exceedingly slow locomotion, the ability to hibernate (which makes them unique among Asian primates), and their capacity to deliver a highly venomous bite.
- A new study probes the genetic underpinnings of some of these unique adaptations in pygmy lorises (Xanthonycticebus pygmaeus) to find clues to their evolution in the forests of Southeast Asia.
- Pygmy lorises are endangered due to threats from forest loss and capture for the illegal wildlife trade, fueled by a booming demand for exotic pets.
- The genetic insights could boost conservation efforts to reintroduce and translocate lorises in the wild, the researchers say, and could even pave the way for advances in human medical research into genetic disorders.

‘Strange’ giraffoid fossil shows giraffes evolved long necks to win mates: study
- The discovery of the fossil of Discokeryx xiezhi, an ancient cousin of the present-day giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) that roamed the earth around 17 million years ago, suggests long necks win giraffe mating wars.
- Evolutionary biologists have long debated which of the two processes —natural selection or sexual selection—plays a more important role in the evolution of the ungulate’s long necks.
- The new paper does not definitely settle the debate but adds more weight to the idea that longer necks evolved, in part, due to sexual competition and not just as a means to feed on taller trees.

Caribbean incursion into Amazon sparked a flurry of life, with lessons for the future
- The vast wetland that used to sit in the heart of where the Amazon lies today received a more recent pulse of seawater than previously thought, a new study confirms — a phenomenon that contributed to the region’s species richness, including its iconic river dolphins.
- The study also says the likeliest source of these marine incursions, some 23 million to 8.8 million years ago, was the Caribbean Sea, with the water surging inland down what is today the Orinoco River Basin in Venezuela.
- Researchers say investigating the distant past of the Amazon can yield clues about its near future, given that the late Miocene was a period of global warming, with temperatures far higher than the 2°C (3.6°F) rise that the Paris Agreement is trying to prevent.
- But the current rate of global warming is taking place on an exponentially shorter time scale, and combined with record rates of fires and deforestation, it gives animal and plant species no time to adapt, scientists say.

Podcast: Afield at last, researchers head out for a new season
- On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we check in with a couple field researchers to find out what they’ll be working on during the upcoming season.
- For many, it’s the first field season after a rather long hiatus due to the COVID pandemic.
- Meredith Palmer’s field work involves developing new prototypes for wildlife monitoring technologies like BoomBox, an open‐source device that turns camera traps into Automated Behavioral Response systems.
- We also speak with Ummat Somjee, a field researcher based out of the Smithsonian Tropical Institute in Panama who uses insects as models to understand the evolution of extreme structures in large animals, like the tusks of elephants and antelope horns.

E.O. Wilson’s last dream
- On December 26, 2021, biologist and author Edward O. Wilson died in Burlington, Massachusetts at the age of 92.
- Routinely compared to Darwin E.O. Wilson is renowned for his work on evolution, biogeography, sociobiology and myrmecology—the study of ants.
- Wilson devoted the last few years of this life to the concept of “Half-Earth”, which he saw as a way to stave off mass extinction, ecological collapse, and create a panacea for climate change.
- In this piece, author Jeremy Hance recounts a 2017 conversation with Wilson and what could be his greatest legacy: the idea of protecting half the planet in a natural or regenerating state for the benefit of people and nature.

Edward O. Wilson, prominent biologist and author, has died at 92
- Edward O. Wilson, a prominent biologist and prolific author who help raise global awareness and understanding about biodiversity and conservation, has died.
- Wilson began his career studying the biology and social structures of ants which led him to develop expansive theories on evolution and humanity’s relationship with the planet.
- While Wilson’s research was highly influential in scientific circles and won numerous recognitions, he was mostly widely known for his accessible writing, including articles and best-selling books which introduced concepts like biodiversity to the masses.
- Wilson was an outspoken advocate for global conservation efforts.

New study reveals globe-trotting pedigree of South Asian songbirds
- South Asia is home to 24 different species of bulbuls, a family of songbirds for which a new genetic analysis shows an evolutionary history stretching back to the Southeast Asian archipelago and forward into Africa and the Indian Ocean islands.
- In each region where the birds occur, climatic and environmental factors have shaped their evolution, leaving some species in India with more similarities to their Southeast Asian cousins than to their South Asian counterparts.
- This diversification in the bulbul family tree didn’t stop after they moved from Southeast Asia to South Asia, and in fact continued as they dispersed across the Middle East and into Africa, as well as “island-hopped” to Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands.

In Mozambique, mystery of tuskless elephant points to poaching as the culprit
- The civil war that caused a steep drop in elephant numbers in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park also led to tusklessness becoming the norm among its female elephants, a recent study found.
- Only about 200 of an estimated 2,500 elephants living there survived the ravages of the 15-year-long war during which poachers targeted tusked elephants for ivory.
- After the civil war, the number of tuskless females tripled in Gorongosa.
- Scientists agree on the far-reaching consequences of this “artificial selection,” but how the genetic trait is passed on from one generation to the next is still being investigated.

Low genetic diversity is part of rhinos’ long-term history, study says
- A new study that reconstructs the rhino family tree by analyzing the genomes of all five living rhino species and three extinct species has found that low genetic diversity is part of rhinos’ long-term history.
- The study also found evidence to support the geographic hypothesis of rhino evolution, which places the two African species in a separate group from the three Asian species.
- However, genetic diversity is lowest and inbreeding highest in present-day rhinos, suggesting that recent human-driven population declines have impacted rhino genetics.
- Nonetheless, the study says rhinos appear to have adapted well to low genetic diversity and small populations sizes and recommends conservation efforts focus on increasing rhino numbers.

In Indonesia, an unassuming brown bird is proof of turbo-charged evolution
- Scientists are proposing to add two new subspecies to four existing ones within the Sulawesi babbler (Pellorneum celebense) species.
- The team identified the new subspecies based on differences in DNA, body measurements and song recordings from dozens of babblers.
- Taxonomic implications aside, the study also sheds light on the phenomenon of rapid evolution, as the babblers’ genetic divergence occurred over just tens of thousands of years, rather than millions.
- But the nickel-rich soils believed to have given rise to the birds’ divergence could be hastening its demise, with mining companies eyeing their habitats for resource extraction.

Endangered bats are evolving to fight off an exotic fungal disease
- Little brown bats, an endangered species, have declined by more than 90% due to white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that causes bats to wake up from hibernation, and consequently drains their essential fat reserves.
- A new study uses genetics to determine that little brown bats with certain genetic traits are more likely to survive the disease.
- Research on genetically resistant bats could help inform conservation efforts to save the little brown bat and other bat species affected by the syndrome.

Climate tipping point ecosystem collapses may come faster than thought: Studies
- Two recent studies shine a light on a relatively new field of study: the means by which climate tipping points can lead to ecosystem collapse, and how quickly such crashes might occur.
- The first study modeled a database of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and found that large ecosystems, while seeming more stable, can collapse disproportionately faster than small ones due to a domino effect by which interrelated habitats and species within a system can impact each other, causing a rapid cascading collapse.
- Some scientists praised the study for being pathfinding, while others faulted it for looking at too few ecosystems, and then making overlarge generalizations about the crashing of large systems, like the Amazon rainforest, a biome which was not included in the study database.
- A second study found that even small changes in an ecosystem can, via evolution, ripple outward, creating bigger and bigger alterations leading eventually to a system collapse. Scientists agree that much more research will be needed to refine collapse forecasts.

A ‘crazy beast’ that coexisted with dinosaurs discovered from Madagascar
- Adalatherium hui, which in Malagasy and Greek translates into “crazy beast,” was discovered from the study of a 66 million-year-old fossil from Madagascar.
- An early mammal species, it has a peculiar anatomy and a mosaic of features that is distinct from other mammals, from its peculiar teeth to its curved leg bones.
- It is also unusually large, the size of a house cat, compared to other mammals that coexisted with dinosaurs, which were no bigger than present-day mice.
- The researchers believe it is key to understanding the early evolution of mammals in the southern hemisphere.

Shell of bioluminescent shrimp not only glows but detects light
- Many deep-sea creatures that emit light to help find prey or avoid predators do so using small organs called photophores.
- A recent study of deep-sea shrimp shows that photophores can also detect light, acting like rudimentary eyes all over the body.
- The finding adds to a growing body of research documenting photosensitive organs outside the eyes in a variety of animals, and is the first demonstration in deep-sea creatures.

Audio: David Quammen on ecological restoration, emerging diseases, evolutionary science, and more
- Today we speak with award-winning science writer, author, and journalist David Quammen about some of the most promising and fascinating trends in conservation and evolutionary science.
- In a recent piece for National Geographic, where he is a regular contributor, Quammen profiles Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. His 2014 book, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, looks at the science, history, and human impacts of emerging diseases. Quammen’s most recent book, 2018’s The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, explores the revolution in how scientists understand the history of evolution on Earth sparked by the work of Carl Woese.
- David Quammen appears on the Mongabay Newscast to discuss all of the above as well as what gives him hope that biodiversity loss and destruction of the natural world can be halted.

New species of ancient human found in a Philippine cave
- From a cave on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, researchers have unearthed fossils dating back more than 50,000 years ago, which they say belong to a new species of early human, now dubbed Homo luzonensis.
- H. luzonensis has a mix of ancient and modern traits: Most of its teeth are small and simple in shape, resembling those of modern humans, while its finger and toe bones have features similar to Australopithecus, ancestors of humans who are known to have last walked in Africa around 2 million years ago.
- The researchers involved in the current study are confident that H. luzonensis will hold up as a new species because its skeletal and dental elements “have no equivalents anywhere amongst the known Homo lineage.”

Unusual lizard lays eggs, then births a live baby — in the same pregnancy
- In a lab at the University of Sydney, a female yellow-bellied three-toed skink first laid eggs, then gave birth to a live baby, all part of the same pregnancy.
- This is the first time biologists have observed both egg-laying and live-bearing in a single litter of a vertebrate animal, researchers say in a new study.
- While the three-toed skink is known to have a dual mode of reproduction — some populations lay eggs, while others give birth to live babies — what mode the skink follows seems to be influenced by genetics and not environmental conditions, previous research has found.
- But the latest study suggests that individuals may be able to “switch” between reproductive modes depending on the situation, researchers say.

Super variable California salamander is ‘an evolutionist’s dream’
- The ensatina is a widespread salamander species that can be found in forests along the entire western coast of North America.
- It is one of only two species that broadly lives up to the “ring species” concept: the ensatina is considered to be a single species, but is characterized by a chain of interconnected populations around California’s Central Valley that can look strikingly different. While the intermediate populations can interbreed, the forms at the southern ends of the loop are so different that they can no longer mate successfully everywhere they meet.
- Ensatinas are among the key predators on the forest floors they occupy, and play a critical role in sequestering carbon.
- Researchers are now trying to figure out if ensatinas and other North American salamanders have any natural defenses against the deadly Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans fungus.

We know why zebras got their stripes, but how do they work?
- Scientists have long wondered why zebras wear striped coats and a 2014 study might have finally supplied the answer: biting flies like glossinids (tsetse flies) and tabanids (horseflies) appear to be the “evolutionary driver” of the zebra’s stripes.
- Finding the answer to how zebras got their stripes led to another question: How exactly do stripes help zebras avoid biting insects?
- Tim Caro, a professor of wildlife biology at the University of California, Davis in the US, and Martin How, a researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK, led a new study to examine how stripes might deter biting flies as they attempt to land on zebras.

Six new catfish species, facial tentacles and all, described in Amazon
- Researchers have described six new species of catfish from the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in South America.
- All six species belong to the genus Ancistrus, and have tentacles sprouting from their faces, spines sticking out from their heads, and armor-like bony plates covering their bodies.
- The newly described fish were once plentiful but are now scarce, the researchers say, largely due to habitat destruction from agricultural expansion, deforestation and gold mining.

New species of tree frog from Ecuador has a mysterious claw
- A team of biologists surveying a remote and largely unexplored part of the Andes in Ecuador have described a new species of tree frog that’s dark brown in color, with bright orange flecks dotting its body.
- The researchers have named the tree frog Hyloscirtus hillisi, after David Hillis, a U.S. evolutionary biologist known for his work on the Hyloscirtus genus of tree frogs.
- While the researchers don’t have an estimate of the frog’s population, they think its numbers are likely low.
- The species’ small habitat also lies near a large-scale mining operation, putting the frog at immediate risk of extinction.

New species of giant salamander described after decades of mystery
- Scientists have described a new species of giant salamander that grows up to 60 centimeters (2 feet) long and is a type of siren, a group of eel-like salamanders that have only front limbs, and large, frilled gills behind their heads.
- The formal description of the species, named the reticulated siren, comes after decades of surveys and exploration.
- The researchers do not have a complete understanding of the reticulated siren yet, but given that much of its habitat lies in wetlands within the endangered longleaf pine ecosystem, the species is of conservation concern, they say.

Africa’s slender-snouted crocodile is not one but two species
- The critically endangered slender-snouted crocodile is not one but two species, a new study has found.
- While the West African crocodile continues to retain its original name Mecistops cataphractus, the Central African species has been named Mecistops leptorhynchus.
- The description of M. leptorhynchus makes it the first new living crocodile species to be named and detailed in more than 80 years.
- As two species, the slender-snouted crocodiles are smaller in numbers and are at greater risk of extinction.

Hot pink swamp eel discovered in Indian rainforest
- Scientists from London’s Natural History Museum discovered a previously unknown species of swamp eel in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, India.
- The biologists found only a single specimen living in mud near a rainforest stream.
- Like other swamp eels, Monopterus rongsaw lives terrestrially, is blind, and has sharp teeth.
- There are some 25 species are known to science worldwide.

New tree species from Cameroon is possibly already extinct
- Nearly 70 years ago, Edwin Ujor of the Nigerian Forestry Service collected a specimen of a tree from a forest high up in the Bamenda highlands in Cameroon.
- Now, in a new study, researchers have formally described the Ujor specimen as a new species named Vepris bali.
- The researchers believe the species is either critically endangered or already possibly extinct, mainly because it has been found in only one location, and because the higher-altitude regions from which the Ujor specimen was collected have mostly been cleared for agriculture.

New species of neon-colored fish discovered off Brazil
- While diving in the waters surrounding Saint Paul’s Rocks, an archipelago off Brazil, in June last year, researchers discovered a stunning pink-and-white neon-colored fish that’s new to science.
- The researchers were so taken by the colorful fish that they did not notice a large six-gill shark swimming very close to them. For its “enchanting” beauty, they named the fish Tosanoides aphrodite, or the Aphrodite anthias, after the Greek goddess of love and beauty.
- Aphrodite anthias is the only known species of the genus Tosanoides found in the Atlantic Ocean. All the other known species of Tosanoides live in the Pacific Ocean.

New species of blood-red coral found off Panama coast
- Researchers have found a new species of bright red coral in Hannibal Bank, an underwater seamount off Panama’s Pacific coast.
- The new coral, Thesea dalioi, is only the second known species of Thesea found in the eastern Pacific, the researchers say.
- Researchers named the new coral after Ray Dalio, a U.S. philanthropist and hedge fund manager whose foundation supports ocean exploration.
- The reefs on Hannibal Bank, where T. dalioi was discovered, occur in low-light environments that are thought to be fragile habitats made of a high diversity of corals, algae and sponges.

A river runs through it — and keeps the Amazon’s bird species diverse
- A new genetic analysis shows that rivers in northeast South America rarely give rise to new bird species, but are important in maintaining existing biodiversity.
- Researchers found that 86 pairs of the more than 400 endemic bird species in the Rio Negro basin have range boundaries that meet but never overlap, many of them coinciding with either the Rio Negro or the Rio Branco.
- Amazonian rivers, they conclude, can play two distinct roles in species evolution: their formation may separate populations and create new species directly, and their presence can prevent hybridization or competition between related species that evolved independently and meet at the river.
- Understanding how the size of a barrier influences its ability to isolate populations genetically will have major implications for how conservationists try to mitigate the effects of habitat fragmentation caused by human activities.

New orchid species discovered in Peruvian Amazon
- SERNANP, Peru’s national parks service, announced that a new species of orchid was discovered on Bella Durmiente mountain, a prominent natural feature of Tingo Maria National Park in the Huánuco region of central Peru.
- About 240 orchid species are known to occur in Tingo Maria National Park. The new species, which was described to science in a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa last month, was given the scientific name Andinia tingomariana in honor of the park where it was discovered.
- A. tingomariana was found growing epiphytically — meaning it was growing on another plant, but not parasitically — among the mosses and vines on tree trunks in a humid forest at an elevation of 1,285 meters (about 4,216 feet).

Species evolve more than twice as fast at poles as in tropics: study
- Considering the swarming biodiversity at the equator, and the lack of diversity near the poles, scientists have long assumed that species evolve more rapidly in warm waters. But a new study of the evolutionary development of 30,000 fish species has turned that idea on its head.
- Biologists found that a fish species in the tropics split into a new species on average every 10 to 20 million years. But near the poles, that average rate is roughly every four million years – more than twice as fast.
- The reason may be the far more extreme and less stable climatic conditions found near the poles. This results in more frequent extinctions, which clears out species diversity and empties ecological niches, setting the stage for the next new burst of species formation in other groups of organisms.
- But if species form faster at the poles than in the tropics, why isn’t there greater biodiversity in the Arctic and Antarctic than at the equator? One possibility: while speciation is more rapid at the poles, extinctions may be more numerous too. But this still isn’t clear, and more research will be needed to find out.

How an island of mice is changing what we know about evolution
- Researchers have identified the smallest-known island where multiple species of mammals evolved from a single founding species. The Philippine island of Mindoro is the size of Yellowstone National Park and host to four species of earthworm mice.
- Genetic analysis indicates all members from these four species descended from just a few individuals that rafted to Mindoro from a neighboring island millions of years ago.
- Three of the species are endemic to Mindoro, and the researchers believe they evolved on different mountains. The study’s findings highlight the pivotal role mountains can play in speciation, and provide evidence that evolution can occur even in small areas.
- The researchers say this underlines the importance of protected areas not just for species preservation, but for species emergence as well. The apparent success of such a small founding population may also give hope for species currently hovering on the precipice of extinction.

Land plants may have evolved much earlier than we thought
- The results of a new study push back the date of emergence of land plants around 80 million years to approximately 500 million years ago.
- This new date coincides with the emergence of the first land animals.
- The study also finds the earliest land plants may have had roots. Plant roots are a powerful erosive force, and the researchers believe these plants could have had a big impact on the Earth’s climate.

Scientists find ‘surprising’ connections between tropical forests
- For a new study, researchers genetically analyzed the evolutionary relatedness of tree species that live in tropical and sub-tropical forests around the world.
- Their results indicate the world’s tropical forests are divided into two main “floristic regions,” one that comprises most of Africa and the Americas and another in the Indo-Pacific region.
- The analysis also indicates dry tropical forests around the world – from Madagascar and India to Africa and South America – are unexpectedly similar to one another.
- The findings go against traditional assumptions about the relationships between tropical forests, and the researchers believe they could aid the development of more region-appropriate responses to climate change.

New checklist catalogs every vascular plant in the Americas
- A team of 24 researchers pulled together information from plant checklists across the two continents and added it to the Tropicos database.
- With the details of all of the species in one place, scientists now have a public, searchable checklist with nearly 125,000 species.
- The authors note that having a checklist like this one to serve as a baseline is helpful to scientists and policymakers alike.

Seychelles home to new species of caecilian, a legless amphibian
- The Petite Praslin caecilian (Hypogeophis pti) is the world’s newest — and possibly the smallest — caecilian, a type of legless amphibian.
- Scientists discovered the animal on the island of Praslin in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
- The new species is the seventh caecilian species found in the Seychelles, where the amphibians have been evolving for 64 million years.

Bats key pollinators for durian production, camera traps confirm
- A new study employing camera traps indicates that flying foxes in Malaysia are important pollinators of commercially valuable durian fruit trees.
- The researchers set 19 traps in semi-wild durian trees.
- Their investigation revealed that the bats had a positive impact on the transformation of the flower to fruit.

New study: Bird species blossom in stable climates
- A team of scientists from Sweden and the United States found that more bird species inhabit stable climates.
- The finding runs counter the hypothesis that a changing climate induces the evolution of species.
- That could mean that these bird species will be less adapted to upticks in temperature as part of current climate change.
- But the stability of these climates could also protect the species living there since they’re not expected to warm as much as more seasonal areas.

New genetic analyses help scientists rethink the elephant family tree
- Paleogenomics, which studies molecular data from fossil bones, has shown that African forest elephants are more closely related to a now-extinct ancestor than they are to African savanna elephants.
- Recent advances in laboratory methods are enabling scientists to recover very old or degraded DNA sequences from warmer places, where DNA degrades at a much faster rate, and to reassess conclusions made using solely bone morphology.
- Scientists say results suggest a rework of the elephant family tree and greater consideration of how to conserve African forest elephants, populations of which have been decimated over the last 20 years.

How a mass extinction event gave us the majority of frogs alive today
- Based on fossil records and the available genetic data, scientists have generally estimated that modern frog species first began to appear at a steady pace between 150 million and 66 million years ago. But new research shows that the timeframe for the first appearance of modern frog species was significantly tighter than that.
- While most frogs alive at the time were also wiped out by the mass extinction event 66 million years ago, the researchers theorize that, with so many other species having disappeared, there were suddenly an abundance of new ecological niches that the surviving frogs could fill. Moving into all of those different habitats essentially jumpstarted the evolutionary process and allowed for rapid frog diversification.
- Nearly 90 percent of the short-bodied, tailless amphibians roaming our planet right now first appeared in the years following the cataclysmic event that caused all dinosaurs but birds to go extinct, according to the study.

Among their many impacts, roads are driving rapid evolutionary adaptation in adjacent populations
- The global road network covers close to 40 million miles, and is projected to grow by 60 percent by 2050.
- The field of road ecology, which has emerged over the past two decades, has looked at a variety of roads’ negative consequences, such as roadkill, contamination runoff, and forest and habitat fragmentation.
- As scientists continue to add to our understanding of the evolutionary dynamics that lead to adaptation and maladaptation in road-adjacent populations, our ability to predict and in turn reduce negative road effects will also increase, the authors argue.

‘Revolutionary’ new biodiversity maps reveal big gaps in conservation
- The research uses the chemical signals of tree communities to reveal their different survival strategies and identify priority areas for protection.
- Currently, the Carnegie Airborne Observatory’s airplane provides the only way to create these biodiversity maps. But the team is working to install the technology in an Earth-orbiting satellite.
- Once launched, the $200 million satellite would provide worldwide biodiversity mapping updated every month.

Field Notes: Can we alter endangered species to be more adaptable?
- Endangered species often don’t reproduce well in captivity or when reintroduced to the wild. Researcher Stephanie Courtney Jones believes that by studying the “pesty” traits that help invasive species reproduce well, and to be successful in multiple habitats, we might be able to help endangered species do the same.
- Courtney Jones is studying an invasive mouse species to see how wild and captive animals differ over generations. While, for example, there are no external difference between captive and wild mice, internally, the more generations mice spend in captivity, the more their spleens, kidneys and gut length shrinks.
- She wonders if such changes are plastic, and if by introducing challenges — different foods or behaviors — endangered species could be made to display more useful survival traits. Exploiting this plasticity might, for example, reactivate a latent trait that would allow a species that today lives in just one narrow habitat to live across a wide range of habitats, helping it adapt to climate change.
- The researcher recognizes the challenges in her work. There are, for example, massive numbers of variables involved, and changing one specific trait can also unintentionally trigger the manifestation of other traits. And no one knows how altered endangered species might then interact within the environment.

Hawaiian crow could help us learn about evolutionary origins of tool-using behavior
- The critically endangered Hawaiian crow (Corvus hawaiiensis) has now been found to be a “highly dexterous tool user,” say the authors of a Nature study, an international team of scientists and conservation experts.
- New Caledonian crows have previously been observed using tools with incredible proficiency in order to get at insects and other prey inside deadwood and vegetation, but scientists have never understood why they have evolved such skills when no other members of the crow family (known as ‘corvids’) have done so.
- Without other tool-using corvids for comparison, scientists have been unable to study the behavior in more depth. The New Caledonian crow and its skilled use of tools remained a puzzle.

A sex change phenomenon in fish suggests there is something in the water
- A new study published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety finds that male fish are turning into females – a phenomenon known as intersex – due to chemical pollution, specifically estrogenic endocrine disrupting chemicals or EEDCs.
- Researchers have found evidence of intersex in 85 percent of smallmouth bass and 27 percent of largemouth bass tested on 19 National Wildlife Refuges from Maine to Virginia.
- The varied and numerous sources of EEDCs make them difficult to track. Single-point sources, such as large buildings with obvious effluent pipes like waste water treatment plants and paper pulp mills, are of major concern.

An unconventional trinity: conservation, religion, and evolution
- Next year is the 100th Anniversary of the United States National Park Service, a branch of the Department of the Interior.
- The NPS largely owes its existence to one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints — a clear example of how religion and conservation, belief and science, though they might seem like strange bedfellows, have led directly to earth stewardship in our time.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author alone.

Are animals adapting to cities faster than we think?
- Cities are evolutionary hotspots, home to moths that changed color to camouflage themselves amongst pollution-stained trees, “superworms” that can munch on heavy metals, and birds that changed their tune to battle with noise pollution.
- A new paper indicates that cities may be causing these kinds of evolutionary changes to occur much faster than scientists thought was possible.
- If current evidence about the pace of change is correct there will be “significant implications for ecological and human wellbeing on a relatively short time scale,” the paper concludes.

How can a bat survive deforestation? Be small, mobile, and vegetarian
- Bats are under great pressure as the landscape changes around them and their homes become more and more fragmented.
- A recent study looked into how important functional traits are in enabling bats in the Amazon to survive in a human-modified landscape.
- Researchers found that not all bat species cope with habitat fragmentation equally and that bats that are small, mobile, and vegetarian adapt better to fragmentation.

New study argues ‘land sparing’ is better for the birds
- Land sharing vs. land sparing: scientists have been debating for decades whether it’s better to set aside huge blocks of wilderness and intensively farm the rest or create a more mosaic ecosystem where farms and forest coexist.
- This new study found forested land housed far more distinct bird families than those in small-scale farming communities, which may still contain a lot of species but not a lot of different groups.
- But critics say the study does not take into consideration future scenarios or migrations.

Scientists discover bird in Madagascar that evolved in reverse
- A team of scientists found multiple relatively old mitochondrial lineages of Spectacled Tetrakas living in the same location, making them suspect multiple species had merged back into one.
- Scientists with the Field Museum in Chicago sequenced the birds’ DNA and the mtDNA of their lice to determine that what they call “despeciation” had occurred.
- According to John Bates, associate curator of birds at the Field Museum, there might be some important lessons for conservationists in the team’s discovery.

Can we save the Sumatran rhino? Indonesia holds out hope

Can a sanctuary in Indonesia keep the world’s most imperiled rhino from extinction? “One percent of the world’s population,” veterinarian Zulfi Arsan says as he nods towards Bina, a 714-kilogram (1,574-pound), 30-year-old female Sumatran rhinoceros leisurely crunching branches whole. A gentle and easygoing rhino, pink-hued Bina doesn’t seem to mind the two-legged hominids snapping pictures […]
Halloween in the Amazon: baby bird dresses up like killer caterpillar

A cinereous mourner nestling that resembled a toxic caterpillar in the Megalopygidae family of moths. Photo by: Santiago David Rivera. “Mama, I wanna be a toxic caterpillar,” says the little bird. “Okay,” mamma answers, “but first you gotta study your Batesian mimicry.” Meet the cinereous mourner (Laniocera hypopyrra), an ash-colored, Amazonian bird that looks rather […]
Genetics study sheds light on Chile’s most endangered bird

When assessing the status of an endangered species, conservationists often take into account environmental factors, such as threats to habitat, and behavioral patterns of breeding and feeding. Increasingly, scientists also turn to genetic analysis to better understand threatened biodiversity. A recent study by Javier Gonzalez published in mongabay.com’s open-access journal, Tropical Conservation Science , explores […]
Lizard see, lizard do: scientists discover surprising behavior in reptiles

Imitation can be obnoxious. For those with siblings, imitating your brother’s or sister’s every word was a surefire way to steadily drive them toward insanity. Annoying it may be, imitation is also special; it’s a behavior long regarded to be uniquely human. The skill of imitation is a little less exclusive now, as reptiles join […]
One-two punch: farming, global warming destroying unique East African forests

A recent study examines the evolution of viper species in East Africa, highlighting the region’s mountaintop forests as among the most biodiverse in the world and calling for their protection. Atheris ceratophora enjoys a snack. Photo by Michele Menegon. East Africa is famous for its dry savannahs, sparse woodlands, and its “Big Five” animals: elephants, […]
New birds arise due to emigration not separation

A bird’s eye view of speciation in the Neotropics How long does it take for a new species to develop? Not long, it turns out. In fact, only a few thousand years — an evolutionary blink of an eye. A recent article published in Nature tracked neotropical bird speciation, or the process by which new […]
Jane Goodall joins mongabay

Jane Goodall. Photo by: Morten Bjarnhof/GANT. Famed primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall—whose image is known the world over—has joined the advisory board of mongabay.org. This is the non-profit branch of mongabay.com, an environmental and science website with a special focus on tropical forests. “I began visiting [Mongabay] when I was researching information for my books, […]
Outcompeted: Species competition may result in geographic isolation

Scientists have long believed that gene flow and species dispersal is only interrupted by physical barriers, like mountain ranges, rivers or even the complete disappearance of a suitable habitat. But new research into the distribution of two mouse opossum species in South America suggests that other factors may play a role as well, such as […]
Did the world’s only venomous primate evolve to mimic the cobra?

The slow loris may have evolved its venom as a mimic to deadly spectacled cobras A slow loris in a venom pose. Photo by: Andrew Walmsley. The bite of a slow loris can be painful, and sometimes even lethal. After all, this cute-looking YouTube sensation is the only known “venomous” primate in the world—a trait […]
Bizarre lizard newest victim of reptile pet trade

The earless monitor lizard (Lanthanotus borneensis). Barely seen since its description in 1878, the species has suddenly become a victim of wildlife trafficking for the pet trade. Photo by: Indraneil Das. If you’ve never heard of the earless monitor lizard, you’re not alone: this little-known, cryptic lizard has long-escaped the attention of the larger public. […]
Titanium vs. Millipedes: new species discovered in Madagascar threatened by mining

Researchers urge increased conservation attention for invertebrates, fragmented habitats A team of scientists from the United States and Germany has recently described seven new species of Malagasy giant pill-millipede. All but one of these species are considered “microendemics,” in that they have only been found in small, isolated forest patches. The study was published in […]
Forgotten species: the exotic squirrel with a super tail

Everyone knows the tiger, the panda, the blue whale, but what about the other five to thirty million species estimated to inhabit our Earth? Many of these marvelous, stunning, and rare species have received little attention from the media, conservation groups, and the public. This series is an attempt to give these ‘forgotten species‘ some […]
They think, therefore they spread: plants can make complex conditional decisions

Decision-making ability linked to success in colonizing new environments Strong memory, being able to predict the future, and acting based on one’s surroundings are traits typically associated only with the most advanced types of animals. However, a team of German and Dutch scientists from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the University of […]
Super cute, but tiny, elephant-relative discovered in Namibia

Meet the world’s newest elephant shrew: the Etendeka round-eared sengi. Photo by: Jack Dumbacher/California Academy of Sciences. Forget marsupials, the world’s strangest group of mammals are actually those in the Afrotheria order. This superorder of mammals contains a motley crew that at first glance seems to have nothing in common: from the biggest land animals […]
Scientists discover carnivorous water rat in Indonesia, good example of convergent evolution

Specimen represents entirely new genus Researchers have discovered a new carnivorous water rat on the island of Sulawesi that’s so unique it represents an entirely new genus. They believe many more rodent species await discovery in this relatively undisturbed part of Indonesia, but mining and other types of development may threaten vital habitat before it’s […]
Scientists uncover new marine mammal genus, represented by single endangered species

This is the story of three seals: the Caribbean, the Hawaiian, and the Mediterranean monk seals. Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the Caribbean monk seal was a hugely abundant marine mammal found across the Caribbean, and even recorded by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage, whose men killed several for food. Less than […]
Giant ibis, little dodo, and the kakapo: meet the 100 weirdest and most endangered birds

The kakapo, a flightless parrot from New Zealand, is number four on the EDGE Birds List. Photo by: Shane Mcinnes. The comic dodo, the stately great auk, the passenger pigeon blotting out the skies, the giant moas reigning over New Zealand: human kind has wiped out nearly 200 species of birds in the last five […]
Wonderful Creatures: life is a gamble (inside a caterpillar) for the trigonalid wasp

Among the huge diversity of insects there are some bewilderingly complex life cycles, but few can compete with the trigonalid wasps for the seemingly haphazard way they ensure their genes are passed to the next generation. In most cases, a female parasitoid wasp deposits her eggs on or in the host, but this is far […]
Sloths, moths and algae: a surprising partnership sheds light on a mystery

Sloths are famous for their exceptionally slow motor skills and petite faces that seem to beam with an almost natural smile. However, less commonly known is the unusual bathroom habit of certain sloth species. While spending the majority of their time in the safety of tree canopies, three-toed sloths regularly place themselves in mortal danger […]
Scientists discover single gene that enables multiple morphs in a butterfly

Scientists have discovered the gene enabling multiple female morphs that give the Common Mormon butterfly its very tongue-in-cheek name. doublesex, the gene that controls gender in insects, is also a mimicry supergene that determines diverse wing patterns in this butterfly, according to a recent study published in Nature. The study also shows that the supergene […]
Wonderful Creatures: meet the beetle-riding arachnid

Without wings, smaller terrestrial animals are really restricted when it comes to moving long distances to find new areas of habitat. However, lots of species get around this problem simply by clinging on to other, more mobile animals. The common, yet overlooked pseudoscorpions are among the most accomplished stowaways, one of which (Cordylochernes scorpiodes) has […]
Amazon trees super-diverse in chemicals

Rainforest canopy in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler In the Western Amazon—arguably the world’s most biodiverse region—scientists have found that not only is the forest super-rich in species, but also in chemicals. Climbing into the canopy of thousands of trees across 19 different forests in the region—from the lowland Amazon to high […]
Wonderful Creatures: the tiny, predatory penis-worm that lies in wait in the sand

The seabed is really where it’s at in terms of animal diversity. Of the 35 known animal lineages, representatives of all but two are found here. In contrast, the huge numbers of species that inhabit tropical rainforests represent a mere 12 lineages. One group of animals that illustrates the diversity of the seabed is the […]
The lemur end-game: scientists propose ambitious plan to save the world’s most imperiled mammal family

Verreaux’s Sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi), listed as Vulnerable, in a heated chase. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Due to the wonderful idiosyncrasies of evolution, there is one country on Earth that houses 20 percent of the world’s primates. More astounding still, every single one of these primates—an entire distinct family in fact—are found no-where else. The […]
Wonderful Creatures: the bizarre-looking marine worm with an incredibly important ecological role

Almost everyone knows what an earthworm is, but these very familiar animals are just one variation on a very rich theme that is at its most fabulously varied in the oceans. The mind-boggling appearances and lifestyles of the marine segmented worms are perfectly exemplified by this week’s animal. Looking like an intricately folded napkin or […]
Photos: mass turtle hatching produces over 200,000 babies

Biologists recently documented one of nature’s least-known, big events. On the banks of the Purus River in the Brazilian Amazon, researchers witnessed the mass-hatching of an estimated 210,000 giant South American river turtles (Podocnemis expansa). The giant South American river turtle, or Arrau, is the world’s largest side-necked turtle and can grow up to 80 […]
On edge of extinction, could drones and technology save the Little Dodo?

Little dodo baby found: conservationists boosted by discovery that species is breeding. Detail of new painting highlighting the Manumea or little dodo. Painting by: © Michael Rothman 2013. Almost nothing is known about the little dodo, a large, archaic, pigeon-like bird found only on the islands of Samoa. Worse still, this truly bizarre bird is […]
Scientists make one of the biggest animal discoveries of the century: a new tapir

Update: The classification of Tapirus kabomani as a distinct species was officially contested in 2014. In what will likely be considered one of the biggest (literally) zoological discoveries of the Twenty-First Century, scientists today announced they have discovered a new species of tapir in Brazil and Colombia. The new mammal, hidden from science but known […]
Odd porcupine hugely imperiled by hunting, deforestation

The thin-spined porcupine, also known as the bristle-spined rat, is a truly distinct animal: a sort of cross between New World porcupines and spiny rats with genetic research showing it is slightly closer to the former rather than the latter. But the thin-spined porcupine (Chaetomys subspinosus), found only in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, is imperiled by […]
Like ancient humans, some lemurs slumber in caves

Lemurs in a cave in Madagascar. Photo by Rhett A. Butler After playing, feeding, and socializing in trees all day, some ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) take their nightly respite in caves, according to a new study in Madagascar Conservation and Development. The findings are important because this is the first time scientists have ever recorded […]
Sky islands: exploring East Africa’s last frontier
- The montane rainforests of East Africa are little-known to the global public.
- The Amazon and Congo loom much larger in our minds, while the savannas of East Africa remain the iconic ecosystems for the region.
- However these ancient, biodiverse forests – sitting on the tops of mountains rising from the African savanna – are home to some remarkable species, many found only in a single forest.
- A team of international scientists – Michele Menegon, Fabio Pupin, and Simon Loader – have made it their mission to document the little-known reptiles and amphibians in these so-called sky islands, many of which are highly imperiled.

Dolphins, bats and the evolution of echolocation

A dolphin swimming through the world’s oceans after fish, and a bat flying through the air with its membranous wings to catch insects or eat fruit: at first glance, it looks like no two creatures could be more different. But it turns out they share a superpower – they hunt prey by emitting high-pitched sounds […]
Meeting the mammal that survived the dinosaurs

The female Hispaniolan solenodon caught by Nicolas Corona in the Dominican Republic. She’s awaiting being fitted with a radio collar. Photo by: Tiffany Roufs. So, here I am, running in a forest at night over 2,000 miles from home. This forest—dry, stout, and thorny enough to draw blood—lies just a few miles north of a […]
Featured video: ‘this is day one for the olinguito’

Last month scientists unveiled a remarkable discovery: a new mammal in the order Carnivora (even though it mostly lives off fruits) in the Andean cloud forests. This was the first new mammal from that order in the Western Hemisphere since the 1970s. The olinguito had long been mistaken for its closest relatives, olingos—small tree-dwelling mammals […]
Trinidad and Tobago: a biodiversity hotspot overlooked

How the biodiversity of Trinidad and Tobago have influenced everything from evolutionary science to tropical conservation. Sunset in Trindad and Tobago. Photo courtesy of Nigel Noriega. The two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean (just off the coast of Venezuela) may be smaller than Delaware, but it has had an outsized role in […]
Zoo races to save extreme butterfly from extinction

In a large room that used to house aquatic mammals at the Minnesota Zoo, Erik Runquist holds up a vial and says, “Here are its eggs.” I peer inside and see small specks, pale with a dot of brown at the top; they look like a single grain of cous cous or quinoa. Runquist explains […]
Scientists discover teddy bear-like mammal hiding out in Andean cloud forests (photos)

Teddy bear-like carnivorous creature discovered in South America (photos) While the olinguito looks like a wild, tree-climbing teddy bear with a cat’s tail, it’s actually the world’s newest mammalian carnivore. The remarkable discovery—the first mammal carnivore uncovered in the Western Hemisphere since the 1970s—was found in the lush cloud forests of the Andes, a biodiverse […]
Meet Thor’s shrew: scientists discover new mammal with a superior spine

In 1917, Joel Asaph Allen examined an innocuous species of shrew from the Congo Basin and made a remarkable discovery: the shrew’s spine was unlike any seen before. Interlocking lumbar vertebrae made the species’ spine four times strong than any other vertebrate on Earth adjusted for its size. The small mammal had been discovered only […]
Madagascar’s rate of speciation slowing down

While Madagascar is famous for its incredible diversity of plants and animals, a new study suggests that the island’s rate of speciation has slowed to a crawl. The research, published last week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B by Daniel Scantlebury of the University of Rochester, is based on analysis of evolutionary records […]
Vocal-sac breeding frog possibly extinct

Somewhere in the wet pine forests of Chile, a male frog is gulping-up a bunch of eggs. No he’s not eating them, he’s just being a good dad. Darwin’s frogs are known for their unique parenting-style: tadpoles are incubated in the vocal sac of the father. First recorded by Charles Darwin during his world famous […]
Why bioluminescent fungi glow in the dark

Aristotle (384–322 BC) reported a mysterious light, distinct from fire, emanating from decaying wood. Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) mentioned feasting on a glowing, sweet fungus found on trees in France and, in the late fifteenth century, a Dutch consul gave accounts of Indonesian peoples using fungal fruits to illuminate forest pathways. Bioluminescent fungi have […]
Common moth can hear higher frequencies than any other animal on Earth

A common little moth turns out to have the best ears in the animal kingdom. According to a new study in Biology Letters, the greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella) is capable of hearing frequencies up to 300,000 hertz (300kHz), which is 15 times the frequency humans can hear at their prime, around 20 kHz. “We […]
New insect discovered in Brazil, only third known in its bizarre family (photos)

A new species of forcepfly named Austromerope brasiliensis, was recently discovered in Brazil and described in the open access journal Zoo Keys. This is the first discovery of forcepfly in the Neotropics and only the third known worldwide. The forcepfly, often called the earwigfly because the male genital forceps closely resemble the cerci of the […]
The Role of Science for Conservation – book review

The Role of Science for Conservation, edited by Matthias Wolff and Mark Gardner, celebrates Charles Darwin’s Bicentennial and 50 years of research by the Charles Darwin Foundation in The Galápagos, Ecuador. Using The Galápagos as a case study, The Role of Science for Conservation communicates to a wide audience about themes from a broad range […]
Beyond the resorts: traveling the real and wild Dominican Republic (photos)

Rainforest-covered karst mountains with pristine mangroves beneath characterizes one of the most stunning protected areas in the Caribbean: Los Haitises National Park. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. For its stunning variety of ecosystems, the Dominican Republic is like a continent squished into half an island. Lowland rainforests, cloud forests, pine forests, dry forests, mangroves, savannah, coastal […]
Scientists nearly double the number of biogeographic realms

Wallace’s original map published in 1876, denoting six biogeographical realms. A recent study in Science extends Wallace’s findings, creating eleven realms (see below). Click to enlarge. In 1876, British biologist Alfred Russell Wallace published a map of the world that outlined how related animals were spread over the Earth. For example, Wallace was the first […]
New Guinea singing dog photographed in the wild for the first time

Cropped close-up of New Guinea singing dog. This is arguably the first time the dingo-like canine has been photographed in the wild. Photo by: Tom Hewitt. A rarely seen canine has been photographed in the wild, likely for the first time. Tom Hewitt, director of Adventure Alternative Borneo, photographed the New Guinea singing dog during […]
Scientists create ‘tree of life’ mapping all known bird species

Click image to enlarge Scientists have created an evolutionary maps for all the world’s nearly 10,000 bird species. The ‘tree of life’ is published in the current issue of the journal Nature. The international team researchers used DNA-sequencing data — when available — to show the evolutionary relationships between living bird species. It also shows […]
Endangered turtle urinates through its mouth

Chinese soft-shelled turtle in captivity. Photo by: Bastet78. One of China’s most commonly farmed turtles for consumption, the Chinese soft-shelled turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis), has a unique ability: it urinates out of its mouth. Researchers in Singapore, writing in The Journal of Experimental Biology, have discovered that the Chinese soft-shelled turtle excretes most of its urine […]
An interview with conservation writer David Quammen

David Quammen has done consistent and conscientious reporting from the trenches of ecological and evolutionary research for over thirty years now. Few in the world can claim as intimate and broad an understanding of conservation biology as he can. His books such as The Song of the Dodo and Monster of God match scientific and […]
Bizarre new rodent discovered in Indonesia has only 2 teeth

A rodent unlike any other: Paucidentomys vermidax. Photo from: Esselstyn et al. The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is a workshop of bizarre evolutionary experiments. Think of the babirusa, pig-like species with tusks that puncture their snouts; or the maleo, a ground-bird that lays its eggs in geothermal heated sand; or the anoa, the world’s smallest […]
Lonesome George passes, taking unique subspecies with him

Lonesome George, the last of his kind, has passed away. Lonesome George, the sole surviving member of the Pinta Island tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni), was found dead on Sunday by staff at the Galapagos National Park. With George’s passing, the Pinta Island tortoise subspecies officially falls into extinction. First found in 1972, Lonesome George became […]
New reptile discovered in world’s strangest archipelago

Trachylepis cristinae, a newly described skink that is only found on Abd Al Kuri Island. Photo by: Fabio Pupin. Few people have ever heard of the Socotra Archipelago even though, biologically-speaking, it is among the world’s most wondrous set of islands. Over one third of Socotra’s plants are found no-where else on Earth, i.e. endemic, […]
When giant coyotes roamed the Earth

Coyote feeding on elk carcass in Yellowstone National Park. Photo by: Jim Peaco/U.S. National Park Service. Not long ago, geologically speaking, coyotes (Canis latrans) were bigger and more robust than today’s animals. In the late Pleistocene, over 10,000 years ago, coyotes rivaled grey wolves (Canis lupus) in size. But, according to a new paper in […]
Photos: program devoted to world’s strangest, most neglected animals celebrates five years

One of EDGE’s focal mammals: the red slender loris (Loris tardigradus). Photo by: James T. Reardon/ZSL. What do Attenborough’s echidna, the bumblebee bat, and the purple frog have in common? They have all received conservation attention from a unique program by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) called EDGE. Five years old this week, the […]
Interview with conservation legend, Richard Leakey

Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey envisions the future with a view that remembers the past Looking Back: A family world famous for discovery. Richard Leakey and his parents, Louis and Mary Leakey. Time Magazine cover, featuring Dr Richard Leakey, courtesy of Time Warner. Leakey family photos courtesy of Academy of Achievement.org. Following in his family’s footsteps, […]
Photos: bizarre shell of new snail baffles researchers

Shell of the new micro-snail, Ditropopsis mirabilis. Photo by: Kristine Greke. A new species of snail with a bizarre shell has surprised scientists. Discovered near massive waterfalls in pristine lowland rainforest in New Guinea, the tiny new species’ shell is shaped like a cornucopia, spirals flying freely instead of fused together like most shells. Latvian […]
Forgotten species: the rebellious spotted handfish

Everyone knows the tiger, the panda, the blue whale, but what about the other five to thirty million species estimated to inhabit our Earth? Many of these marvelous, stunning, and rare species have received little attention from the media, conservation groups, and the public. This series is an attempt to give these ‘forgotten species‘ some […]
The value of the little guy, an interview with Tyler Prize-winning entomologist May Berenbaum

Honeybees in an apiary in Germany. Photo by: Björn Appel. May Berenbaum knows a thing or two about insects: in recognition of her lifelong work on the interactions between insects and plants, she has had a character on The X-Files named after her, received the Public Understanding of Science and Technology Award for her work […]
Cloud forest dung beetles in India point to ‘fossil ecosystem’

In the cloud forests and grasslands of India’s Western Ghats, known as sholas, researchers have for the first time comprehensively studied the inhabiting dung beetle populations. The resulting study in mongabay.com’s open access journal Tropical Conservation Science, has led scientists to hypothesize that the beetles in concordance with the sheep-like mammal, the nilgiri tahr (Nilgiritragus […]
Updating the top 100 weirdest and most imperiled mammals

A lot can change in three years. In January 2007, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) jumpstarted a program unique in the conservation world: EDGE, which stands for Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered, selects the species it works with not based on popularity or fund-raising potential but on how endangered and evolutionary unique (in laymen’s […]
‘New’ cat in Sumatra: clouded leopard is distinct subspecies

Just six years ago the beautiful medium-sized Asian cat, the clouded leopard, was considered a single species. Then in 2006 researchers announced that there were, in fact, two unique species of clouded leopard: one species (Neofelis nebulosa) that inhabited mainland Asia (from Nepal to China and south to peninsular Malaysia) and a more threatened species […]
Ancient bird evolved “clubs” to beat predators, each other

Researchers have discovered that the thick wing bones of an ancient flightless bird which once lived in Jamaica may have been used as clubs to beat predators and even members of its own species. A member of the ibis family, /i> are described in the paper as “grotesquely inflated”, with thick walls. Their “finger” bones, […]
Disappearance of arctic ice could create ‘grolar bears’, narlugas; trigger biodiversity loss

The melting of the Arctic Ocean may result in a loss of marine mammal biodiversity, reports a new study published in the journal Nature and conducted jointly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the University of Alaska, and the University of Massachusetts. The study is the first to project what might happen if […]
Extinct giant stork towered over ‘hobbits’ on Flores

Scientists have discovered an extinct massive stork, standing nearly 6 feet tall (1.8 meter) and weighing 35 pounds (15 kilograms), which would have shared the island of Flores with the ‘hobbits’—dwarf hominin species known as Homo floresiensis—reports the BBC. According to the researchers the meat-eating stork was big enough to prey on young Homo floresiensis, […]
Genetic analysis uncovers new parrot on the edge of extinction

Down to just over 100 individuals, DNA analysis has revealed one of the world’s most imperiled bird species: the western ground parrot Pezoporus flaviventris.. Genetic evidence collected from museums specimens, some well-over a century old, have led scientists to “cautiously suggest” that Australia’s ground parrot be split into two distinct species—the eastern and the western—and […]
Photographer discovers new species of meat-eating plant in Cambodia

British photographer Jeremy Holden recently discovered a new species of carnivorous pitcher plant in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains during a survey with Fauna & Flora International (FFI). “The Cardamom Mountains are a treasure chest of new species, but it was a surprise to find something as exciting and charismatic as an unknown pitcher plant,” Holden said […]
Amazon biodiversity older than believed

A new study in Science has found that the incredible biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest goes back much further than expected, perhaps upending old ideas about how the Amazon basin became arguably the world’s most biodiverse ecosystem. According to the study, the origin of rich biodiversity in the Amazon likely goes back more than 20 […]
The unruly evolution of island life

From the terrifying Komodo dragon to the diminutive hobbit Homo floresiensis, islands are home to some remarkable curiosities of size. Despite the fame of giant lizards and pygmy humans, a longstanding tenet of evolutionary biology suggests that the size of island animals moves towards the middle of the pack. A study published on 1 September […]
New blind snake discovery

World-traveling blindsnake points to Madagascar’s origins and great voyages across the Atlantic. Call them survivors: blindsnakes have been identified as one of the few groups of organisms that inhabited Madagascar when it broke from the Indian subcontinent around 100 million years ago. According to a new study in Biology Letters, blindsnakes not only survived the […]
Scientists discover world’s first amphibious insects: Hawaiian caterpillars
Scientists have never before discovered a truly amphibious insect until now: writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences researchers have announced the discovery of 4 species of Hyposmocoma moths in the Hawaiian islands which they consider truly amphibious—that is a species able to survive both on land and underwater indefinitely. Hyposmocoma moths […]
Extinction outpaces evolution

Extinctions are currently outpacing the capacity for new species to evolve, according to Simon Stuart, chair of the Species Survival Commission for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). “Measuring the rate at which new species evolve is difficult, but there’s no question that the current extinction rates are faster,” Stuart told the […]
Photos: Madagascar’s wonderful and wild frogs, an interview with Sahonagasy

New website works to save Madagascar’s incredible diversity of frogs. To save Madagascar’s embattled and beautiful amphibians, scientists are turning to the web. A new site built by herpetologists, Sahonagasy, is dedicated to gathering and providing information about Madagascar’s unique amphibians in a bid to save them from the growing threat of extinction. “The past […]
Prehistoric snake gobbled-up dinosaur babies

Sauropod babies for breakfast A fossilized snake has been discovered inside a titanosaur nest in India, leading researchers to conclude that the snake fed on newly-hatched dinosaur babies, rather than their eggs like modern snakes. Paleontologist and snake expert Jason Head says that the snake, known as Sanajeh indicus, lacked the wipe-jaws needed to swallow […]
Polar bears are newcomers on the world stage

One of the most well-known animals, the polar bear, is a newcomer on the world stage, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. By studying the DNA of an ancient polar bear jawbone uncovered in 2004 in Norway scientists have for the first time pinpointed the time when the […]
New study: why plants produce different sized seeds

The longstanding belief as to why some plants produce big seeds and others small seeds is that in this case bigger-is-better, since large seeds have a better chance of survival. However, Helene Muller-Landau, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and head of the HSBC Climate Partnership’s effort to quantify carbon in tropical forests, […]
After years of controversy: Flores ‘hobbits’ are a new species of humans
When the ‘hobbits’ were discovered in 2003 they made news worldwide, sparking visions of a world our small relations lived among giant rats, dwarf elephants, and lizards bigger than the Komodo dragon. The small hominin fossils discovered on the island of Flores in Indonesia proved just how little modern humans knew about our deep ancestry. […]
Extinct goat was “similar to crocodiles”

It sounds like something out of Greek mythology: a half-goat, half-reptilian creature. But researchers have discovered that an extinct species of goat, the Balearic Island cave goat or Myotragus balearicus, survived in nutrient-poor Mediterranean islands by evolving reptilian-specific characteristics. The goat, much like crocodiles, was able to grow at flexible rates, stopping growth entirely when […]
Present day tropical plant families survived in warmer, wetter tropics 58 million years ago

Fifty eight million years ago the tropical rainforests of South America shared many similarities with today’s Neotropical forests, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Looking at over 2,000 fossils in Colombia from one of the world’s largest open pit coal mines, scientists were able to recreate for the […]
Will tropical trees survive climate change?, an interview with Kenneth J. Feeley

Fifth in a series of interviews with participants at the 2009 Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) conference. One of the most pressing issues in the conservation today is how climate change will affect tropical ecosystems. The short answer is: we don’t know. Because of this, more and more scientists are looking at the […]
New species of ghostshark discovered off California’s coast

The discovery of Eastern Pacific black ghostshark Hydrolagus melanophasma is notable for a number of reasons. It is the first new species of cartilaginous fish—i.e fish whose skeletons are made entirely of cartilage, such as sharks, rays, and skate—to be described in California water since 1947. It is also a representative of an ancient and […]
Three new species discovered in mile-long underwater cave

The mysterious, fascinating, and lightning-quick mantis shrimp: An Interview with Maya deVries

Maya deVries is a graduate student studying integrative biology at Berkeley. Mongabay.com’s fourth in a new series of interviews with ‘Young Scientists’.
Tropical plant expert Stephen P. Hubbell wins this year’s Eminent Ecologist Award

Stephen P. Hubbell has won the 2009 Eminent Ecologist Award. Hubbell is a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA. Hubbell developed the Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography, which is a general theory to explain the diversity of life. Until Hubbell no […]
Fish take less than a decade to evolve

Evolution is often thought of being a slow-process, taking thousands, if not millions, of years. However a new study in The American Naturalist found that Trinidadian guppies underwent evolution in just eight years, or thirty generations. Less than a decade ago Swanne Gordon, a graduate student at UC Riverside, and her team introduced Trinidadian guppies […]
The unknown role of coextinctions in the current extinction crisis

Scientists have long recognized ‘coextinctions’ as a major concern when it comes to the current mass extinction crisis. Despite such recognition, however, the role of coextinctions remains largely mysterious and little-studied. A new paper attempts to address this by settling what is known (and unknown) about the phenomenon of coextinctions and where research needs to […]
Permian mass extinction caused by giant volcanic eruption
Two hundred and sixty million years ago the Earth experienced its worst mass extinction: 95 percent of marine life and 70 percent of terrestrial life vanished. Long a subject of dispute, researchers from the University of Leeds believe they have confirmed the reason behind the so-called Permian extinction. A giant volcanic eruption in what is […]
Rooks use tools in captivity rivaling ‘habitual tools users such as chimpanzees’
The rook, a member of the crow family, is the most recent bird to prove the ability to use tools, a capacity once thought to belong only to humans. Although rooks have never been observed using tools in the wild, researchers were astounded at how quickly—sometimes during the first try—rooks were able to employ tools […]
African pygmies diverged from other humans 60,000 years ago
Around 60,000 years ago the ancestors of modern African Pygmies, known worldwide for their small-stature, separated from local farmer populations, according to new genetic research published in PLoS Genetics. The geneticists, led by Lluis Quintana-Murci, looked at the genetic profiles of twelve populations and compared them with farmers across Africa. With the help of simulations […]
Fastest evolving bird family produces new species

Poison frog diversity linked to the Andes

Frogs can be used to predict biodiversity hotspots

Rediscovery of the solenodon, a rare venomous mammal, in Haiti

First film footage also released of the strange solenodon
Newly discovered pink iguana sheds light on Galapagos evolution

Did cheetah come from China?

New species of flying lemurs discovered

New species of flying lemurs discovered New species of flying lemurs discovered mongabay.com November 10, 2008
Missing link between fish and land animals discovered

Missing link between fish and land animals discovered Missing link between fish and land animals discovered By Morgan Erickson-Davis, special to mongabay.com November 7, 2008 New fossil brings more insight into vertebrates’ transition to life on land
Scientists discover 120 million year-old ant in the Amazon rainforest

Scientists discover 120 million year-old ant in the Amazon rainforest Scientists discover 120 million year-old ant in the Amazon rainforest mongabay.com September 17, 2008 Scientists have discovered a previously unknown species of ant in the Amazon that may shed light on the evolution of ants. The species is believed to be the oldest-known ant at […]
For Australian beetles bigger is better; while American beetles don’t care about size
For Australian beetles bigger is better; while American beetles don’t care about size For Australian beetles bigger is better; while American beetles don’t care about size Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com September 3, 2008 Researchers have discovered a dung beetle that may be evolving into separate species in a few decades rather than thousands or millions of […]
Aye-aye diverged from other lemurs 66M years ago

Aye-aye diverged from other lemurs 66M years ago Aye-aye diverged from other lemurs 66M years ago wildmadagascar.org February 25, 2008 The aye-aye — a bizarre, nocturnal lemur that taps on trees with its fingers to find its insect prey — was the first of its family to branch off from the rest of the lemur […]
Evolution of whales challenged

Evolution of whales challenged Origin of whales challenged mongabay.com December 19, 2007 Modern whales appear to have evolved from a raccoon-sized creature with the body of a small deer, according to scientists writing in the journal Nature. The results challenge the theory that cetaceans are descended from even-toed ungulates (artiodactyls) like hippos, as previous molecular […]
New theory on the evolution of pygmies

High death rates drove evolution of human pygmies New theory on the evolution of pygmies mongabay.com December 10, 2007 Early childbearing age in the face of high death rates, drove evolution of small stature of human pygmy populations The small body size of forest-dwelling “pygmies” evolved as a life history consequence of early death, not […]
Global warming may provoke evolution

Global warming may provoke evolution Global warming may provoke evolution mongabay.com November 26, 2007 Some 80 million years ago, during a period of global warming, a group of relatively immobile salamanders trekked from western North America to the continent that became Asia, report researchers writing in this week’s issue of the journal Proceedings of the […]
Missing link between humans and apes possibly discovered

Missing link between humans and apes possibly discovered Missing link between humans and apes possibly discovered mongabay.com November 12, 2007 A 10 million-year-old jawbone discovered in Kenya may represent a new species very close to the last common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans, report researchers writing in the current issue of the journal Proceedings […]
Flying lemurs are primates’ closest cousins

Flying lemurs are primates’ closest cousins Flying lemurs are primates’ closest cousins mongabay.com November 1, 2007 New molecular and genomic analysis shows that flying lemurs are the closest relatives of primates, according to research published in the journal Science. The question over which of several mammalian groups is the closest relative to primates has been […]
New software tracks individual global warming emissions
Software tracks personal global warming emissions Software tracks individual global warming emissions mongabay.com November 1, 2007 A new Windows software program called TerraCuro enables users to track their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. TerraCuro’s developers believe that “what gets measured gets results” and that the software will help users achieve “verifiably cleaner, lower cost, […]
Climate change did not cause extinction of Neanderthals

Climate change did not cause extinction of Neanderthals Climate change did not cause extinction of Neanderthals mongabay.com September 12, 2007 Researchers in Europe have found evidence that rules out a “single climatic event” as a factor in the extinction of Neanderthals. Mapping radiocarbon dates of Neanderthal bones from Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar directly onto a […]
Squid chasing drove evolution of whale sonar

Squid chasing drove eolution of whale sonar Squid chasing drove eolution of whale sonar University of California – Berkeley September 6, 2007 A University of California at Berkeley study argues that dolphins and other toothed whales developed sonar to chase schools of squid swimming near the ocean surface at night. Behind the sailor’s lore of […]
Toddlers have higher social cognition skills than apes

Toddlers have higher social cognition skills than apes Toddlers have higher social cognition skills than apes mongabay.com September 6, 2007 Toddlers have more sophisticated social learning skills than their closest primate relatives, researchers report in the 7 September issue of the journal Science. Comparing 230 subjects — chimps, orangutans and 2.5 year-old children — using […]
Climate change drove human evolution

Climate change drove human evolution Climate change drove human evolution mongabay.com September 3, 2007 Climate change appears to have been a significant driver of human evolution, report researchers writing in this week’s issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). Studying deep sediment cores from Lake Malawi in Africa, Syracuse University […]
Asians played larger role in colonization of Europe than Africans
Asians played larger role in colonization of Europe than Africans Asians played larger role in colonization of Europe than Africans mongabay.com August 6, 2007 Humans with Asian origins played a larger role than those from Africa in colonizing Europe millions of years ago, reports a paper published in the early online edition of the journal […]
Sea anemone genome provides insight on evolution

Sea anemone genome provides insight on evolution Sea anemone genome provides insight on evolution mongabay.com July 5, 2007 The sea anemone genome is far more complex and vertebrate-like than the fruit fly or nematode genomes, reports a study published in the July 6th issue of the journal Science. The analysis provides insights into the common […]
Rainforest trees colonized Africa from the Amazon

Rainforest trees colonized Africa from the Amazon Rainforest trees colonized Africa from the Amazon mongabay.com June 24, 2007 A giant rainforest tree is helping scientists understand similarities between African and South American rainforests, reports research published in the journal Molecular Ecology. Kapok dispersal illustration (Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation) (top), a giant kapok tree arising […]
Mother lizards select color patterns of offspring

Mother lizards select color patterns of offspring Mother lizards select color patterns of offspring mongabay.com June 13, 2007 Mother lizards can induce different color patterns in their offspring in response to social cues, reports research published June 10 in the online early edition of the journal Ecology Letters. Female side-blotched lizards determine the patterns “most […]
Frogs rafted from South America to the Caribbean 29M years ago
Frogs rafted from South America to the Caribbean 29M years ago Frogs rafted from South America to the Caribbean 29M years ago Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com June 4, 2007 Large populations of frogs in Central America and the Caribbean “rafted” over the ocean from South America more than 29 million years ago, reports a new […]

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