New owl species discovered in Brazil
...orest, with 17 globally threatened species and one extinct in the wild, the Mitu mitu. The region has one of the highest numbers of threatened species in all of South America. "Urgent conservation action is needed if we are to save the pygmy-owl and the other species in this forest," said Marcelo Tabarelli, ...Manatee's cousin faces extinction on Tanzanian coast
...se relative of the manatee may soon become locally extinct without measures to protect it where it still persists along the Tanzanian coastline, according to a new report from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other groups. "It is clear that dugongs are now critically endangered here, and certainly...Long-term decline of coral reef ecosystems reported
...stent criteria, grading the reefs from pristine to extinct for seven categories of biota: large herbivores, large carnivores, small herbivores, small carnivores, corals, suspension feeders, and seagrass. The authors used "cultural periods rather than calendar years because the magnitude of human impacts dep...Research: Coral reefs' decline actually began centuries ago
...efforts. She noted that, with the exception of the extinct Caribbean monk seal and a handful of other top pre... reef organisms have been depleted but are not yet extinct offering at least some hope for the future. "If we could step back in with strong management decis...Historical coral reef declines featured in this week's Science
...rom 14 reef ecosystems on a scale from pristine to extinct for each of seven different periods of human culture: prehuman, hunter-gatherer, agricultural, colonial occupation, colonial development, early modern, late modern, to present. Richard Cooke, archaeologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Reseach Institut...How many fish in the sea? Census of Marine Life launches first report
...ous to one side of the Atlantic Ocean may be using extinct undersea volcanoes as stepping stones to migrate to the other side. Exploring the Bear Seamount, the westernmost underwater peak just off Georges Bank, CoML scientists identified at least 17 species of fish, including eight from the eastern Atlantic ...Specialized brain helped ancient reptiles fly and hunt
...n the air." The brains of the modern birds and the extinct flying creatures bore some similarities, but the pterosaur had a much larger flocculus, which is part of the portion of the brain that controls movement. The flocculus processes information on body, neck and head position and then relays this data to...Scientists believe ancient arachnids may have spun silk like modern spiders
...e, silk-spinning has never been demonstrated in an extinct fossil group. This would be a first, he said. This... for silk-spinning could one day be found in other extinct arachnids, too. What was special about this area of Ohio that it preserved fine details? Easterday e...Marine scientists discover nutrient pollution boosts fungi, bacteria killing Caribbean reefs
... bottom were just wiped out, becoming functionally extinct and changing possibly forever the structure of those marine communities. It was analogous to losing all the pine trees in the Carolinas down into Georgia." Since no one had gone into the field to test the nutrient hypothesis about what was happening...Climate change may threaten more than one million species with extinction
...." These forecasts are for species predicted to go extinct eventually based on climate change between now and...050, but do not suggest that these species will go extinct by then. The study concluded that the minimum expected, or inevitable, climate change scenarios for ...New study finds evolutionary diversification in Hawaiian spiders
...ognition of this role, these species may easily go extinct without people knowing what was there, or why it was so special." ...Scientists discover where snakes lived when they evolved into limbless creatures
...lived in the ocean when snakes evolved--the giant, extinct mosasaur lizards," Vidal says. "While we can't analyze the genes of the extinct mosasaurs, we can use the genes of their closest living cousins, monitor lizards like the giant Komo...Scientists at Scripps Research Institute describe structure of receptor on surface of 1918 flu virus
...ic" surface protein is the first structure of this extinct virus to be solved. Their research will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Science . A Devastating Infection Influenza is a common viral infection of the lungs that affects millions of people annually and is a leading cause of dea...Researchers determine reason for deadly spread of 1918 influenza
...as necessary because the virus had apparently gone extinct and had not been preserved in specimens from that era. Using this sequence data, Wiley, Skehel, and their colleagues synthesized the gene for the H1 hemagglutinin and used it to produce the protein itself. They then crystallized the protein and used ...Asia's biodiversity vanishing into the marketplace
... 40 years, 12 species of large animals have become extinct or virtually extinct in Vietnam due mainly to hunting and wildlife trade. Even protected areas are losing their wildlife...DFG establishes 14 new research units
...f why the bodies of these dinosaurs that have been extinct for more than 65 million years could have assumed such gigantic dimensions and how these bodies functioned. The project sections of the Research Unit entitled "Biology of the Sauropod Dinosaurs: The Evolution of Gigantism" are located at seven differ...Pacific leatherback turtle could go extinct in 10 years
...easuring eight feet (2.4 meters) in length, may be extinct within a decade in the Pacific Ocean. The news was released at the 24th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Conservation and Biology, a weeklong conference in San Jose, Costa Rica attended by more than 1,000 experts from 70 countries. Named for its smoot...Warning to preserve 'unique' red squirrel from extinction
A unique type of squirrel could become extinct within the next 20 years unless extra conservation measures are taken, say the authors of a new study. Scientists from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne's School of Biology have found that small number of red squirrels found in Cumbria, North We...Long-forgotten samples may help save species
...ore than 30 years may hold keys to rescuing nearly extinct Tahitian land snails. The snails, famous since the late 1800s as classic examples of species that had rapidly diversified in an isolated environment, later became victims of a "spectacularly inept attempt at biological control," said U-M mollusk e...... natural history museum in Frankfurt, Germany. The extinct European hummingbirds were endowed with long, nectar-sucking beaks and wings designed for feeding while hovering, Mayr explained. Mayr named the new hummingbird species Eurotrochilus inexpectatus , which means an "unexpected European version of Tr...