Category Archives: News & Archives

Neanderthals walked upright just like the humans of today

Neanderthals are often depicted as having straight spines and poor posture. However, these prehistoric humans were more similar to us than many assume. University of Zurich researchers have shown that Neanderthals walked upright just like modern humans -- thanks to a virtual reconstruction of the pelvis and spine of a very well-preserved Neanderthal skeleton found…

The viceroy butterfly is a mimic, modeling its orange-and-black colors after the queen butterfly, a bug that tastes so disgusting predators have learned not to eat it or anything that looks like it, including viceroys. The apparent dependence of mimics on their models made biologists wonder if the fates of the two species are forever…

Continued sea-level rise on East and Gulf coasts detailed

Researchers at William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science have issued the first annual update of their sea level "report cards," marking 50 years of water-level observations from 1969 through 2018. These web-based charts -- available online at https://www.vims.edu/research/products/slrc/index.php -- project sea level out to the year 2050 based on an ongoing analysis of tide-gauge records…

Massive restoration of world’s forests would cancel out a decade of CO2 emissions, analysis suggests

Replenishing the world’s forests on a grand scale would suck enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to cancel out a decade of human emissions, according to an ambitious new study. Scientists have established there is room for an additional 1.2 trillion trees to grow in parks, woods and abandoned land across the planet. If such a goal were…

Great whites may have wiped out the biggest shark that ever lived

The megalodon -- also known as the biggest shark ever -- became extinct a million years earlier than previously thought, due to competition from much smaller great white sharks, according to new research. The full paper is published in the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences. A team of scientists claim that the giant prehistoric predator,…

Butterflies Vs. Border Wall: National Butterfly Center Seeks Restraining Order

The National Butterfly Center, in danger of losing access to most of its wildlife nature preserve along the Rio Grande, is asking a court to stop federal officials from building a border wall across its land. The North American Butterfly Association first sued more than a year ago after government officials allegedly cut down trees and cleared…

For Darwin Day, 6 facts about the evolution debate

Today is the 210th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, a day now celebrated by some as Darwin Day. Darwin is best known for his theory of evolution through natural selection. When Darwin’s work was first made public in 1859, it shocked Britain’s religious establishment. And while today it is accepted by virtually all scientists, evolutionary theory…

Why are insects in decline, and can we do anything about it?

What is the sixth mass extinction? Many scientists think the current worldwide annihilation of wildlife is the beginning of a huge loss of species on Earth. It has happened five times in the last 4bn years, as a result of meteorite impacts, long ice ages and huge volcanic eruptions. But this one is the result not of…

Scientists Find a Possible Link Between Gut Bacteria and Depression

The human microbiome—a collection of bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses commingling in the gut and intestines—has been linked to a wide range of human health conditions, including digestive health and the prevention of autoimmune diseases. Some research has even identified a possible link between gut health and brain function. Building on this work, a study…

The Wild Experiment That Showed Evolution in Real Time

In the fall of 2010, Rowan Barrett was stuck. He needed a piece of land, one with plenty of mice, and after days of futile searching, he found himself at a motel bar in Valentine, Nebraska, doing what people do at bars: telling a total stranger about his problems. A young evolutionary biologist, Barrett had…