Topic description and stories

First Australians ate giant eggs of huge flightless birds

25 May 2022

Scientists settle debate surrounding 'Thunder bird' species, and whether its eggs were exploited by early Australian people around 50,000 years ago.

Read more
Chimpanzee

Tree-dwelling mammals survived after asteroid strike destroyed forests

14 Oct 2021

An asteroid strike 66 million years ago wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs and devastated the Earth’s forests, but tree-dwelling ancestors of primates...

Read more

Pollinators: first global risk index for species declines and effects on humanity

16 Aug 2021

The Global South may have most to lose from pollinator loss, with Latin America at particular risk due to crop exports and indigenous cultures.

Read more

Deccan Traps, India

Scientists zero in on the role of volcanoes in the demise of dinosaurs

29 Mar 2021

Researchers have uncovered evidence suggesting that volcanic carbon emissions were not a major driver in Earth’s most recent extinction event.

Read more
Light microscope image of the five tentacle temnocephalan Temnosewellia c.f rouxi from cultured redclaw crayfish

A 100 million-year partnership on the brink of extinction

25 May 2016

A symbiotic relationship that has existed since the time of the dinosaurs is at risk of ending, as habitat loss and environmental change mean that a...

Read more
The Deccan Traps in western India

Did dinosaur-killing asteroid trigger largest lava flows on Earth?

12 May 2015

The asteroid that slammed into the ocean off Mexico 66 million years ago and killed off the dinosaurs probably rang the Earth like a bell, triggering...

Read more

Himalayan Shaman

Economic success drives language extinction

03 Sep 2014

Thriving economies are the biggest factor in the disappearance of minority languages and conservation should focus on the most developed countries...

Read more
Thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger

Scientists highlight the resurrection of extinct animals as both a strong possibility and a major potential conservation issue

23 Dec 2013

Scientists from across the world have “scanned the horizon” in order to identify potentially significant medium and long-term threats to conservation...

Read more
Elephants at Kruger National Park, South Africa

Demise of large animals caused by both man and climate change

05 Mar 2012

Research provides new insights about what caused the extinction of many of the world’s big animals over the last 100,000 years.

Read more

Tigers

Scientists plot key sites for tiger’s last stand

14 Sep 2010

Efforts to protect the wild tiger should be intensively focused on a few key sites if conservationists are to have any chance of saving it from...

Read more