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Jaws: Four Million BC Pisa, Italy (SPX) Mar 19, 2010
It might sound like a mashup of monster movies, but palaeontologists have discovered evidence of how an extinct shark attacked its prey, reconstructing a killing that took place four million years ago.
Such fossil evidence of behaviour is incredibly rare, but by careful, forensic-style analysis of bite marks on an otherwise well-preserved dolphin skeleton, the research team, based in Pisa, ... read moreNo trade reprieve for polar bears
Doha (AFP) March 18, 2010Polar bears, the global mascot in the fight against climate change, were denied a reprieve Thursday when a UN body shot down a US proposal to ban cross-border trade in the animals or their parts. In a vote at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meeting in Doha through March 25, the measure fell far short of the required two-thirds majority. The United Sta ... more
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Iceland flights resume after volcanic eruption
Locals flee as Iceland volcano erupts Red, pink coral left unprotected at wildlife trade meet Iceland volcano evacuation completed after eruption Precious corals up for protection at UN wildlife meeting Strong winds buffet Japan, killing one Cyclone hits Australian resort coast Haiti's cultural heritage faces quake extinction Nearly 100 kgs ivory seized in Vietnam: report Hundreds evacuated after Iceland volcano erupts
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E-commerce in protected wildlife booming
Doha (AFP) March 17, 2010From ivory trinkets to live parrots, the Internet has become a virtual supermarket in imperilled species that is hard to track and even harder to crack, say experts. With a quarter of humanity coming online over the last 15 years, the scale of the problem has caught global wildlife police offguard, according to the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), m ... more Habitat loss wipes out dragonfly, butterfly, beetle species
Doha (AFP) March 16, 2010The destruction of natural habitats in Europe is wiping out butterfly, beetle and dragonfly species across the region, the updated European "Red List" of endangered species showed Tuesday. "When a Red List like this raises the alarm, the implications for our own future are clear. This is a worrying decline," said EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik. Scientists examining Europe's 4 ... more Molecular Study Could Push Back Angiosperm Origins
Durham, NC (SPX) Mar 17, 2010Flowering plants may be considerably older than previously thought, says a new analysis of the plant family tree. Previous studies suggest that flowering plants, or angiosperms, first arose 140 to 190 million years ago. Now, a paper to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences pushes back the age of angiosperms to 215 million years ago, some 25 to 75 million years ... more Myanmar a gateway for wildlife trade to China: report
Doha (AFP) March 16, 2010Demand in China is stoking a black market in neighbouring Myanmar in tiger-bone wine, leopard skins, bear bile and other products made from endangered species, a report released on Tuesday said. "China's border areas have long been considered a hotbed for illegal trade, with remote locations often making surveillance difficult in sparsely populated areas," Xu Hongfa, top China investigator f ... more |
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Musk Ox Population Decline Due to Climate Not Humans
University Park PA (SPX) Mar 10, 2010A team of scientists has discovered that the drastic decline in Arctic musk ox populations that began roughly 12,000 years ago was due to a warming climate rather than to human hunting. "This is the first study to use ancient musk ox DNA collected from across the animal's former geographic range to test for human impacts on musk ox populations," said Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Career Development ... more New Sensor Array Detects Single Molecules For The First Time
Cambridge, MA (SPX) Mar 09, 2010MIT chemical engineers have built a sensor array that, for the first time, can detect single molecules of hydrogen peroxide emanating from a single living cell. Hydrogen peroxide has long been known to damage cells and their DNA, but scientists have recently uncovered evidence that points to a more beneficial role: it appears to act as a signaling molecule in a critical cell pathway that s ... more Linking Larger Animals To Colder Climates
Houston TX (SPX) Mar 05, 2010Thanks to a pair of University of Houston researchers who found a possible new solution to a 163-year-old puzzle, ecological factors can now be added to physiology to explain why animals grow bigger in the cold. Their results were published in the February issue of the American Naturalist, offering new insight to Bergmann's rule that animals grow larger at high, cold latitudes than their c ... more El Nino And Pathogen Killed Costa Rican Toad
New York NY (SPX) Mar 05, 2010Scientists broadly agree that global warming may threaten the survival of many plant and animal species; but global warming did not kill the Monteverde golden toad, an often cited example of climate-triggered extinction, says a new study. The toad vanished from Costa Rica's Pacific coastal-mountain cloud forest in the late 1980s, the apparent victim of a pathogen outbreak that has wiped ou ... more |
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