Showing 20 articles starting at article 1481

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Environmental: Ecosystems, Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Almost 80 years after its discovery, a large shell from the ornate Marsoulas Cave in the Pyrenees has been studied by a multidisciplinary team: it is believed to be the oldest wind instrument of its type.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Love them or hate them, there's no doubt the European Starling is a wildly successful bird. A new study examines this non-native species from the inside out to learn what exactly happened at the genetic level as the starling population exploded across North America?

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

First ever in-depth analysis of ECMWF's latest seasonal forecasting system shows it accurately predicts Indian monsoon onset and rainfall, and could be used to avoid crop losses.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

This new paper shows that melanin is more than just something that gives colour to the body. It played an important role in the evolution of warm-blooded animals and helped defined what birds and mammals look like today. By studying where melanin occurs in the body in fossils and modern animals researchers have produced the first model for how melanin has evolved over the last 500 million years.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study challenges the 'Field of Dreams' hypothesis in restoration ecology, which predicts that restoring plant biodiversity will lead to recovery of animal biodiversity. The study of restored tallgrass prairie found the effects of management strategies (specifically controlled burns and bison reintroduction) on animal communities were six times stronger on average than the effects of plant biodiversity.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A four-year study concludes that the fungal disease, white-nose syndrome, poses a severe threat to many western North American bats.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Three studies uncovered the unusual sex chromosomes of platypus, emu and Pekin duck. Platypus have five pairs of sex chromosomes forming an unusual chain shape, while the sex chromosomes of emu and duck are not as different between sexes as those of human.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research explains how a 'stop-start' pattern of evolution, governed by environmental change, could explain why crocodiles have changed so little since the age of the dinosaurs.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Grasslands are managed worldwide to support livestock production, while remaining natural or semi-natural ones provide critical services that contribute to the wellbeing of both people and the planet. Human activities are however causing grasslands to become a source of greenhouse gas emissions rather than a carbon sink. A new study uncovered how grasslands used by humans have changed our climate over the last centuries.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Over 40 years of monitoring, an endangered bunchgrass prairie became hotter, drier and more susceptible to fire annually -- but dramatic seasonal changes (not annual climate trends) seem to be driving the biggest changes in plant production, composition, and summer senescence.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have found the most elaborately dressed-to-impress dinosaur ever described and say it sheds new light on how birds such as peacocks inherited their ability to show off.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Molting is thought to be unorganized in the first feathered dinosaurs because they had yet to evolve flight, so determining how molting evolved can lead to better understanding of flight origins. Recently researchers discovered that the earliest record of feather molting from the famous early fossil bird Archaeopteryx found in southern Germany in rocks that used to be tropical lagoons ~150 million years ago.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Bird species that have lost the ability to fly through evolution have become extinct more often than birds that have retained their ability to fly, according to new research.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research sheds light on the production of an 800-year-old turkey feather blanket and explores the economic and cultural aspects of raising turkeys to supply feathers in the ancient Southwest.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Air pollution experts have found that green infrastructure (GI), such as trees, can help reduce temperatures in many of Europe's cities and towns.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Fossil bones collected in the early 1990s on Henderson Island, part of the Pitcairn Group, have revealed a new species of Polynesian sandpiper. The Henderson Sandpiper, a small wading bird that has been extinct for centuries, is formally named Prosobonia sauli after Cook Islands-based ornithologist and conservationist Edward K Saul.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Recent cave exploration has turned up a tiny, top-heavy snail that glistens under the light of the microscope lens. Only 1.80 mm tall, this transparent snail bulges at the middle, giving a natural appearance to the ''muffin-top'' waistline. The article reveals new biodiversity from the seldom explored caves of central Laos.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Three new articles present major advances in understanding the evolution of birds and mammals, made possible by new methods for comparing the genomes of hundreds of species. Researchers developed a powerful new genome alignment method that has made the new studies possible, including the largest genome alignment ever achieved of more than 600 vertebrate genomes.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Diversifying agricultural systems beyond a narrow selection of crops leads to a range of ecosystem improvements while also maintaining or improving yields, according to a new study that analyzed thousands of previously conducted experiments. Diversification practices such as crop rotations and planting prairie strips can lead to 'win-win' results that protect the environment without sacrificing yields, according to the analysis.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A 14,000-year paleoecological reconstruction of the sub-Antarctic islands done by an international research team including HKU has found that seabird establishment occurred during a period of regional cooling 5,000 years ago. Their populations, in turn, shifted the Falkland Island ecosystem through the deposit of high concentrations of guano that helped nourish tussac, produce peat and increase the incidence of fire.