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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?s=&#038;type=post&#038;topic=evolution" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/evolution/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 05 Sep 2026 07:43:31 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Evolution</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/evolution/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Daniel Janzen and the long work of bringing back a forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 14:48:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/21213756/Dan-Janzen-color-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327012</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Biology, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Dry Forests, Ecology, Environment, Evolution, Forests, Insects, Landscape Restoration, Research, Restoration, Science, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In northwestern Costa Rica, the forest did not return all at once. First the cattle were removed. Then the fires had to be stopped. Introduced grasses made the old ranchlands burn too easily. Fence lines had to be watched. Seeds had to arrive by wind, birds, bats, and the stomachs of passing animals. People had [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In northwestern Costa Rica, the forest did not return all at once. First the cattle were removed. Then the fires had to be stopped. Introduced grasses made the old ranchlands burn too easily. Fence lines had to be watched. Seeds had to arrive by wind, birds, bats, and the stomachs of passing animals. People had to believe the land could become something other than pasture, and then stay long enough to see it happen. A park on paper can still burn. It can still be poached, logged, ignored, or resented. The work requires science, salaries, political agreements, national investment, school programs, local trust, and daily maintenance. It requires people who remain after the first burst of money and attention has passed. Popular accounts sometimes reduced the story to a solitary figure: an American ecologist with a beard, a camera, a theory, and a park. It was never that simple. For more than half a century, Daniel Hunt Janzen has worked in tandem with Winnie Hallwachs, his wife, scientific partner, and frequent interpreter to the human world. Around them grew a larger Costa Rican undertaking, carried by park leaders, field staff, parataxonomists, teachers, donors, government ministers, neighbors, and families who turned a conservation idea into a working landscape. Janzen is now 87. His field work has slowed, and he has stepped back from university teaching to focus on his role as Chief Scientist of the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund (GDFCF), the nonprofit conservation organization he and Hallwachs founded with his&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327012</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Robert Ricklefs, ecologist who helped generations understand nature, has died at 83</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/robert-ricklefs-ecologist-who-helped-generations-understand-nature-has-died-at-83/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/robert-ricklefs-ecologist-who-helped-generations-understand-nature-has-died-at-83/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2026 00:42:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/13004208/Robert_Eric_Ricklefs_v2-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321120</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Ecology, Environment, Evolution, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the mouth of the Carmel River, a teacher set up a spotting scope and let a boy look through it. The birds were the first thing he saw. The habit of looking came next. He saw that the world could be understood, though not quickly, and that its order did not reveal itself to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At the mouth of the Carmel River, a teacher set up a spotting scope and let a boy look through it. The birds were the first thing he saw. The habit of looking came next. He saw that the world could be understood, though not quickly, and that its order did not reveal itself to those in a hurry. Later he would say he never recovered from that experience. The remark was light, but also true. A childhood near Monterey, with woods behind the house and the Pacific within walking distance, gave him the subject of his life. Robert “Bob” Ricklefs, who died on June 7, a day after his 83rd birthday, spent that life asking how living things came to be where they are, and why they lived as they did. He became one of the most influential ecologists of his generation: an ornithologist, biogeographer, theorist, teacher, author and member of the National Academy of Sciences. His textbooks, Ecology and The Economy of Nature, shaped how thousands of students first encountered the field. Their authority came from clarity. He could take a tangled subject and find a usable path through it. Birds were his beginning. As a boy he joined weekend outings with the local Audubon Society and gained the status, modest but real, of a child with a serious interest. At Stanford he briefly followed the spirit of the space age into engineering, then returned to biology. At the University of Pennsylvania he entered the circle of Robert&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/robert-ricklefs-ecologist-who-helped-generations-understand-nature-has-died-at-83/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/robert-ricklefs-ecologist-who-helped-generations-understand-nature-has-died-at-83/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321120</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Up close with Mexico’s fish-eating bats: Interview with researcher José Juan Flores Martínez</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 17:54:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30230254/murcielago-pescador-cover3-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312388</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Coastal Ecosystems, Deserts, Ecology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Fishing, Green, Interviews, Invasive Species, Islands, Mammals, Marine, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, José Juan Flores Martínez was studying for a bachelor’s degree in biology and working as a volunteer in a program designed to control invasive rodents on islands in the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, which are home to several seabird colonies. On one of those expeditions, his group traveled to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, José Juan Flores Martínez was studying for a bachelor’s degree in biology and working as a volunteer in a program designed to control invasive rodents on islands in the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, which are home to several seabird colonies. On one of those expeditions, his group traveled to Isla Partida Norte near the city of La Paz, where something surprised them: they heard bats. Accustomed to seeing them in caves, Flores Martínez was intrigued when he saw them coming out from between the rocks and making clicking sounds under his feet. “It surprised me to find out that they were on an island, in the middle of the desert, under extreme conditions: They can resist sub[-freezing] temperatures and heat above 50 degrees [Celsius, or about 122° Fahrenheit],” said Flores Martínez, now an academic technician at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s (UNAM) Institute of Biology. “But it was much more surprising to me that, when I began to ask questions, I was told that they feed on fish.” They were fish-eating bats (Myotis vivesi), and they fascinated Flores Martínez. This fascination led him, along with researcher Gerardo Herrera Montalvo, to embark on a scientific journey that has lasted a quarter of a century and counting. The fish-eating bat is the largest bat in its genus, reaching up to 16 centimeters (about 6 inches) in length. Its long, shiny fur is waterproof, which comes in handy as it maneuvers above the surface of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312388</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Evolution in overdrive as Baltic cod shrink due to fishing pressure, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/evolution-in-overdrive-as-baltic-cod-shrink-due-to-fishing-pressure-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/evolution-in-overdrive-as-baltic-cod-shrink-due-to-fishing-pressure-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jul 2025 19:49:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/18175800/atlantic-cod-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302816</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean and Europe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Evolution, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Food Industry, Genetics, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Overfishing, Research, Saltwater Fish, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The eastern Baltic cod has shrunk dramatically in size in recent decades due to rapid evolution — changes at the genetic level — caused by decades of intensive fishing, a new study says. It’s one of the first studies to show that a marine species has evolved in response to fishing pressure. Sampled Eastern Baltic [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The eastern Baltic cod has shrunk dramatically in size in recent decades due to rapid evolution — changes at the genetic level — caused by decades of intensive fishing, a new study says. It’s one of the first studies to show that a marine species has evolved in response to fishing pressure. Sampled Eastern Baltic cod, which are a distinct subpopulation of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), lost nearly half of their length from 1996 until 2019, according to the study, which was published in the journal Science Advances on June 25. The data collected for the study also showed that the fish lost nearly four-fifths of their weight over the same period. “If you just see the data, it’s crazy,” the study’s first author, Kwi Young Han, told Mongabay. Han is a postdoctoral researcher in marine evolutionary ecology at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany; the study emerged from her Ph.D. work. Han’s Ph.D. supervisor and co-author on this paper, Thorsten Reusch, said the findings had disturbing implications. “When the largest individuals are consistently removed from the population over many years, smaller, faster-maturing fish gain an evolutionary advantage,” Reusch said in a press release. “What we are observing is evolution in action, driven by human activity. This is scientifically fascinating, but ecologically deeply concerning.” (Left) A map of the Baltic Sea showing Bornholm Basin, the main spawning site for eastern Baltic cod. The fish historically also spawned in the Gotland Basin and Gdansk Deep, but no&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/evolution-in-overdrive-as-baltic-cod-shrink-due-to-fishing-pressure-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/evolution-in-overdrive-as-baltic-cod-shrink-due-to-fishing-pressure-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302816</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A new and improved bird family tree shows rapid post-dinosaur evolution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-new-and-improved-bird-family-tree-shows-rapid-post-dinosaur-evolution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-new-and-improved-bird-family-tree-shows-rapid-post-dinosaur-evolution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Apr 2024 12:15:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/11230624/peru_167513-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280856</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Environment, Evolution, Genetics, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Raptors, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have created the largest and most detailed bird family tree ever, showing how various species are related to each other and how they evolved over the past 93 million years. The study, published in Nature, looked at the genomes of 363 bird species, representing 92% of all bird families. &#8220;Our goal is to reconstruct [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have created the largest and most detailed bird family tree ever, showing how various species are related to each other and how they evolved over the past 93 million years. The study, published in Nature, looked at the genomes of 363 bird species, representing 92% of all bird families. &#8220;Our goal is to reconstruct the entire evolutionary history of all birds,&#8221; said study co-author Siavash Mirarab, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, San Diego. To build this family tree, the team used genomic data from more than 60,000 genomic regions, cutting-edge computational methods developed by engineers at UC San Diego, and a supercomputer. Scientist have created the most complete bird tree of life to date. 10,135 bird species are shown here on a draft phylogeny. Figure from Stiller et al 2024. Modern bird groups, it turns out, appeared within a small window of 5 million years after the mass extinction of dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The researchers found that these early birds experienced rapid increases in population size, evolution speed and brain size during this time. &#8220;After an asteroid hit the Earth, birds made the most of the opportunities that opened up after these extinctions to become one of the most diverse and successful groups of animals,&#8221; study co-author Jacqueline Nguyen, a paleontologist at Flinders University in Australia, told Mongabay. The scientists also found it was more important to study many genes from each bird species than to study fewer genes from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-new-and-improved-bird-family-tree-shows-rapid-post-dinosaur-evolution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280856</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study identifies species with a long history but short future amid threats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/study-identifies-species-with-a-long-history-but-short-future-amid-threats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/study-identifies-species-with-a-long-history-but-short-future-amid-threats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Mar 2024 09:05:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/28085326/Shoebill-c-ZSL-Claudia-Gray-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280376</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America, South America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Elasmobranchs, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Extinction, Fish, Fisheries, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Overexploitation, Overfishing, Reptiles, Research, Turtles And Tortoises, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past 4 billion years, lifeforms have evolved into the spectacular array of species that now inhabit the planet. While many species radiated into extensive families of closely related species, others are so unique that they alone embody millions of years of evolutionary history — sole representatives of entire lineages of the tree of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past 4 billion years, lifeforms have evolved into the spectacular array of species that now inhabit the planet. While many species radiated into extensive families of closely related species, others are so unique that they alone embody millions of years of evolutionary history — sole representatives of entire lineages of the tree of life. Weird and wonderful species, such as the finger-probing aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) of Madagascar; the bulbous-snouted gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) of South Asia; and the prehistoric-looking shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) of Africa, fall into this latter category. But an increasing body of evidence indicates these evolutionarily distinctive species are frequently also those most at risk of extinction. Now, a new study estimates that the loss of such unique and threatened species from the jawed vertebrates alone could eliminate between 86 billion and 160 billion years’ worth of evolutionary history over the next 50-500 years. It’s an almost inconceivable amount of history to lose, according to Rikki Gumbs, a research fellow at the Zoological Society of London and lead author of the study. “The universe itself is only around 14 billion years old,” Gumbs said. “But [species are] so varied that it all adds up once you start combining all the evolution that has happened concurrently during our planet’s history.” Gharials diverged from other crocodilians more than 40 million years ago. This one was photographed in Nepal, where numbers have been slowly recovering in recent years. Image courtesy of Rikki Gumbs/ZSL. To arrive at their assessment, Gumbs and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/study-identifies-species-with-a-long-history-but-short-future-amid-threats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280376</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study on evolution of same-sex animal behaviors underscores stigmas in research</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/study-on-evolution-of-same-sex-animal-behaviors-underscores-stigmas-in-research/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/study-on-evolution-of-same-sex-animal-behaviors-underscores-stigmas-in-research/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2023 01:30:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Swati Thapa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/12152721/mallard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276622</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Evolution, Fellows, Research, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The study of animals has always been a point of curiosity for many scientists across disciplines and has contributed to our understanding of the world. While many scientists in evolutionary biology have questioned different animal behaviors, same-sex sexual behavior in animals is a topic that is seeing increasing interest. This growing field of research has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The study of animals has always been a point of curiosity for many scientists across disciplines and has contributed to our understanding of the world. While many scientists in evolutionary biology have questioned different animal behaviors, same-sex sexual behavior in animals is a topic that is seeing increasing interest. This growing field of research has amassed a list of 1,500 animal species exhibiting same-sex sexual behavior. Now, a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications has traced the evolution of same-sex sexual behavior in all mammals, using phylogenetic analysis, a method that traces evolutionary relationships among biological entities. Such behavior, which is common in mammals, may have evolved in part “to establish, maintain and strengthen social relationships that may increase bonds and alliance between members of the same group,” the authors write. &#8220;Our study has tested for the first time two adaptive hypotheses on the origin and maintenance of same-sex sexual behavior using a large group of animals, the class Mammalia,” says José Maria Gómez, an evolutionary biologist at the Experimental Station of Arid Zones in Almería, Spain, and an author of the study. “In this sense, our study provides strong evidence that this sexual behavior is functional and plays an important role, at least in this group of animals.” In their study, Gómez says the scientists conclude that social behavior that helped maintain positive social relationships and mitigate intrasexual aggression were two factors shaping the evolution of these behaviors. The former factor did so for both males and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/study-on-evolution-of-same-sex-animal-behaviors-underscores-stigmas-in-research/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276622</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Clouded leopards face alarming decline amid ‘genetic crisis,’ study warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/clouded-leopards-face-alarming-decline-amid-genetic-crisis-study-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/clouded-leopards-face-alarming-decline-amid-genetic-crisis-study-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Nov 2023 03:26:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/23030010/Banner_RAB-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275817</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, DNA, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Forests, Genetics, Habitat Loss, Poaching, Predators, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With their camouflaged coats, impossibly long tails, and extraordinary tree-climbing skills, clouded leopards are evolutionary marvels. They’re beautifully adapted to a feline life in the trees. But what evolution hadn’t reckoned on was us. A new genetic study indicates that the one-two punch of habitat loss and poaching has dealt the genetic diversity of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With their camouflaged coats, impossibly long tails, and extraordinary tree-climbing skills, clouded leopards are evolutionary marvels. They’re beautifully adapted to a feline life in the trees. But what evolution hadn’t reckoned on was us. A new genetic study indicates that the one-two punch of habitat loss and poaching has dealt the genetic diversity of the medium-sized cats a severe blow, compromising their long-term survival in the wild. The genomic analysis, published in Science Advances, found high levels of inbreeding, limited genetic diversity, and the presence of mutations that could impair reproduction. The authors say the accumulation of these negative genetic features over thousands of years has likely been exacerbated by recent steep population declines triggered by human activity. “Severe habitat fragmentation has probably accelerated the accumulation of deleterious mutations due to high levels of inbreeding,” the study says. “High levels of inbreeding and deleterious genes are key indicators of the genetic crisis affecting clouded leopard conservation and highlight the need for urgent action for the survival of these imperiled big cat species.” The Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) has a slightly darker coat than the mainland clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa). Image by Spencer Wright via Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0 DEED) Smallest big cat  Clouded leopards were considered a single species up until 2006, when DNA evidence revealed that the populations living on the Asian mainland were sufficiently distinct from those on the Southeast Asian islands for scientists to reclassify them as separate species. The mainland clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/clouded-leopards-face-alarming-decline-amid-genetic-crisis-study-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/clouded-leopards-face-alarming-decline-amid-genetic-crisis-study-warns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275817</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ground-nesting chimps hold lessons for conservation — and for human evolution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/ground-nesting-chimps-hold-lessons-for-conservation-and-for-human-evolution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/ground-nesting-chimps-hold-lessons-for-conservation-and-for-human-evolution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Apr 2023 14:42:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ini Ekott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/27114302/Pan-troglodytes-schweinfurthii-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267952</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Chimpanzees, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Great Apes, Mammals, Primates, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Chimpanzees tend to sleep more on the ground than previously thought, a behavior that has implications for their conservation and could help explain how and when early humans abandoned trees to set up home on the ground, a new study says. Until now, nesting on the ground was considered rare in most populations of chimpanzees. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Chimpanzees tend to sleep more on the ground than previously thought, a behavior that has implications for their conservation and could help explain how and when early humans abandoned trees to set up home on the ground, a new study says. Until now, nesting on the ground was considered rare in most populations of chimpanzees. It’s known to be typical of gorillas, in part because of their weight. Fully grown gorillas can weigh more than 200 kilograms (440 pounds), making it difficult to find trees that will support a nest. A new study found that relatively small-bodied eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in northern Democratic Republic of Congo frequently build nests and sleep overnight on the ground. The study also found this behavior continued even when the chimps share their territory with humans, or with powerful predators like lions, leopards or hyenas; what does keep them off the ground is human hunting. The findings have implications for the conservation of chimpanzees. More profoundly, the researchers say their findings suggest that humankind&#8217;s ancestors could have moved from the trees to the ground earlier than previously believed. “We have shown that ground nesting is not only common in gorillas, but also in our closer cousins chimpanzees, across a large part of their range (Northern DR Congo),” said study lead author Toni Romani, a researcher at the University of Warsaw. “This has relevance to our understanding of the factors that drove our own ancestors to become fully terrestrial.” A flimsy chimpanzee ground nest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/ground-nesting-chimps-hold-lessons-for-conservation-and-for-human-evolution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/ground-nesting-chimps-hold-lessons-for-conservation-and-for-human-evolution/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267952</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists make ‘rare’ new identification of snake family: Micrelapidae</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/scientists-make-rare-new-identification-of-snake-family-micrelapidae/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/scientists-make-rare-new-identification-of-snake-family-micrelapidae/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Apr 2023 09:15:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mactilda Mbenywe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/21075655/Micrelaps-vaillanti_KomboyoTsavo-West-NP_By-PK-Malonza-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267719</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, East Africa, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Evolution, Fellows, Herps, Reptiles, Research, Snakes, Species, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a rare turn of events, scientists have classified a new family of snakes. Just three known species belong to the newly identified Micrelapidae family. Scientists say these reptiles are thought to have slithered off the snake evolutionary tree 50 million years ago. They were previously considered part of the largest snake family, Colubridae, but [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a rare turn of events, scientists have classified a new family of snakes. Just three known species belong to the newly identified Micrelapidae family. Scientists say these reptiles are thought to have slithered off the snake evolutionary tree 50 million years ago. They were previously considered part of the largest snake family, Colubridae, but DNA tests in recent years showed otherwise. The snakes have slender, cylindrical bodies with smooth scales in regular rows and a short, pointed tail. They also feature small heads that blend with the neck, and often, black and yellow rings. The size of these snakes also varies depending on the species, but most are relatively small, ranging from about 15-60 cm (6-23 inches) in length. &#8220;Today we tend to assume that most large groups of animals, such as families, are already known to science, but sometimes we still encounter surprises, and this is what happened with Micrelapid snakes,&#8221; Professor Shai Meiri of Tel Aviv University&#8217;s School of Zoology says in a news release. Tel Aviv University researchers hailed these findings as a rare advance in modern science. They were part of a multinational team from Finland, the United States, Belgium, Madagascar, Hong Kong and Israel, including Meiri, who identified the Micrelapidae family. Their findings were published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution in March. &#8220;As far as we know the new family includes only three species, one in Israel and neighboring countries, and two in East Africa,&#8221; Tel Aviv University scientists say in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/scientists-make-rare-new-identification-of-snake-family-micrelapidae/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/scientists-make-rare-new-identification-of-snake-family-micrelapidae/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267719</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chimpanzee nut cracking leaves telltale marks on stones, providing clues to human evolution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2022 07:02:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kate Hull]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/09013520/Hull-1_NutCracking_upscale-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263415</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Archeology, Chimpanzees, Culture, Environment, Evolution, Great Apes, Primates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The dents and dings on the surfaces of rocks used by chimpanzees to crack open nuts preserve a history of how the animals used the tools and how those patterns change from one troop to the next, researchers reported recently in Royal Society Open Science. This archaeological data can offer insights into the ways similar [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The dents and dings on the surfaces of rocks used by chimpanzees to crack open nuts preserve a history of how the animals used the tools and how those patterns change from one troop to the next, researchers reported recently in Royal Society Open Science. This archaeological data can offer insights into the ways similar stone tool technology arose millions of years ago among hominins, the ancestors of humans. Scientists examined nut-smashing rocks used by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Taï National Park, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. Measurements and 3D scans of the tools revealed distinct patterns of damage related to how the animals wielded the rocks. Geographic locations of Djouroutou and Bossou chimpanzee sites in West Africa. Purple shading marks their distribution. Map Credit: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) 2018. Pan troglodytes. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2022-1 The team then compared these marks to those from prior study that described nut-cracking tools used by chimpanzees about 300 kilometers away in Bossou, Guinea — the only other study to examine tools in this way. Even though the Guinea chimps used their stone tools for the same purpose, differences in the damage patterns clearly showed which tools came from which troop. The study focused on “percussive” tools used for hitting or pounding. Most archaeological research on tool use has focused on “flake” technology — tools used for cutting and slicing. However, percussive tools probably came first, researchers believe. Example of an anvil&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The slow, toxic and sleepy life of lorises is coded in their genes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/the-slow-toxic-and-sleepy-life-of-lorises-is-coded-in-their-genes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/the-slow-toxic-and-sleepy-life-of-lorises-is-coded-in-their-genes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Oct 2022 11:09:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/11103954/2021-23030-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261337</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, China, Laos, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, DNA, Endangered Species, Evolution, Genetics, Illegal Trade, Pet Trade, Primates, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Wide-eyed, slow-moving and roughly the bulk of a small loaf of bread, pygmy lorises seem fairly unassuming at first glance. They spend their slow, nocturnal lives meticulously picking through the forests of Southeast Asia, feeding on a diet of gums and saps, invertebrates and fruit. Yet beneath this benign outward appearance and simple lifestyle, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Wide-eyed, slow-moving and roughly the bulk of a small loaf of bread, pygmy lorises seem fairly unassuming at first glance. They spend their slow, nocturnal lives meticulously picking through the forests of Southeast Asia, feeding on a diet of gums and saps, invertebrates and fruit. Yet beneath this benign outward appearance and simple lifestyle, the species sports some weird and wonderful evolutionary adaptations. Perhaps most notably, pygmy lorises (Xanthonycticebus pygmaeus) are unique among all primates outside of Madagascar in their ability to hibernate. Primate specialists have long known that three species of lemur hibernate during Madagascar’s dry season to conserve water, but it was only in 2015 that teams in Vietnam discovered that pygmy lorises can also shut down their bodies for several days at a time to see out cold snaps and periods of food scarcity. Other curious characteristics include their ability to digest astonishing concentrations of dietary toxins. And, like slow lorises from the genus Nycticebus, in which they were also thought to belong until this year, pygmy lorises can deliver a highly venomous bite of such potency to cause anaphylactic shock in humans (although they most often use their bite to ward off one another). Biologists have also long noted their exceptionally slow locomotion and bizarrely low metabolic rate. To date, however, scientists have known surprisingly little about how or why the species evolved such unusual traits. Now, a team of researchers from China, Denmark and the U.K. have used comparative genomics and functional tests to investigate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/the-slow-toxic-and-sleepy-life-of-lorises-is-coded-in-their-genes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/the-slow-toxic-and-sleepy-life-of-lorises-is-coded-in-their-genes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261337</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>&#8216;Strange&#8217; giraffoid fossil shows giraffes evolved long necks to win mates: study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/strange-giraffoid-fossil-shows-giraffes-evolved-long-necks-to-win-mates-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/strange-giraffoid-fossil-shows-giraffes-evolved-long-necks-to-win-mates-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2022 17:59:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/06170000/Figure-0-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256836</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Evolution, Fossils, Giraffes, Research, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have puzzled over the distinctive form of giraffes at least since Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (figuratively) butted heads over how the towering ungulates got their long necks. The Darwinian theory still prevails, but which of the two processes —natural selection or sexual selection—plays a more important role still divides evolutionary biologists. A new [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have puzzled over the distinctive form of giraffes at least since Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (figuratively) butted heads over how the towering ungulates got their long necks. The Darwinian theory still prevails, but which of the two processes —natural selection or sexual selection—plays a more important role still divides evolutionary biologists. A new study led by scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences published in the journal Science adds weight to the sexual selection hypothesis. The discovery of the fossil of Discokeryx xiezhi, an ancient cousin of present-day giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) that roamed the earth around 17 million years ago, suggests long necks win giraffe mating wars. “Their simple message is that sexual selection played a big role in one of the ancestors of the present-day giraffe, and thus it opens the door for other members of this diverse lineage to show sexually selected necks and heads,” said Rob Simmons, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Giraffes are found only in east and southern Africa. Simmons, along with Lue Scheepers, put forward the sexual selection hypothesis back in 1996. The leading explanation at that time was straightforward: long necks allow giraffes to feed on tall trees and outcompete other browsers. It improves the animal’s chances of survival, so the trait is passed on to future generations. But, certain characteristics also make males more attractive to females and ensure greater reproductive success. In giraffes, the reasoning goes,  longer necks were more efficient in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/strange-giraffoid-fossil-shows-giraffes-evolved-long-necks-to-win-mates-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/strange-giraffoid-fossil-shows-giraffes-evolved-long-necks-to-win-mates-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256836</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Caribbean incursion into Amazon sparked a flurry of life, with lessons for the future</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/caribbean-incursion-into-amazon-sparked-a-flurry-of-life-with-lessons-for-the-future/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/caribbean-incursion-into-amazon-sparked-a-flurry-of-life-with-lessons-for-the-future/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 May 2022 21:42:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/19140632/amazon-frog-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256028</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Earth Science, Environment, Evolution, Forests, Marine, Rainforests, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists already knew that where the western Amazon rainforest sits today was once a vast wetland, almost four times the size of Texas and periodically flooded by pulses of seawater. Now, a new study posits that the source of these pulses was most likely the Caribbean Sea, and that there was another — later and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists already knew that where the western Amazon rainforest sits today was once a vast wetland, almost four times the size of Texas and periodically flooded by pulses of seawater. Now, a new study posits that the source of these pulses was most likely the Caribbean Sea, and that there was another — later and much more significant — episode of marine incursions that contributed to the species richness of the region as we know it today, including its iconic river dolphins. &#8220;This new paper goes to great lengths to confirm this link between the Caribbean and the Amazon,&#8221; Carina Hoorn, a researcher from the University of Amsterdam, who in the 1990s was the first to suggest the idea of marine incursions in the western Amazon, told Mongabay in a video call. Previous research by Hoorn and other scientists dates these episodes to the early Miocene epoch (23 million to 16.3 million years ago) and the middle Miocene (14.9 million to 12.9 million years ago). Since then, these &#8220;sea invasions&#8221; have been the subject of several studies trying to delve into their timing, duration, intensity and origin. The latest study, published in March by researchers from Brazil and the United States, makes the case for a much more intensive period of marine incursions during the late Miocene (11.1 million to 8.8 million years ago). It also uses fossil evidence to show that the source of this flooding was the Caribbean, with the water flowing down what is today the Orinoco&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/caribbean-incursion-into-amazon-sparked-a-flurry-of-life-with-lessons-for-the-future/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/19131140/3.-GIFF-incursions.mp4" length="145463" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256028</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>E.O. Wilson’s last dream</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/e-o-wilsons-last-dream/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/e-o-wilsons-last-dream/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jan 2022 00:36:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/01/03002708/eo_wilson_header_v1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251405</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Evolution, Extinction, Fragmentation, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Obituary, Other effective conservation measures (OECMs), Saving Rainforests, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Update 2/2022: In late January, correspondence found among the late E.O. Wilson&#8217;s papers connected him with J. Phillipe Rushton, whose research in the 1980s and 1990s has been linked with white supremacy. The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation has now issued a statement. In January 2017, I played telephone tag with E.O. Wilson. Routinely compared to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Update 2/2022: In late January, correspondence found among the late E.O. Wilson&#8217;s papers connected him with J. Phillipe Rushton, whose research in the 1980s and 1990s has been linked with white supremacy. The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation has now issued a statement. In January 2017, I played telephone tag with E.O. Wilson. Routinely compared to Darwin (‘a modern-day Darwin’ or ‘Darwin’s natural-heir’ among others) E.O. Wilson is renowned for his work on evolution, biogeography, sociobiology and myrmecology—the study of ants. I’ve interviewed thousands of scientists—and am not usually prone to being starstruck. But I made an exception for E.O. Wilson: listening to his southern drawl in my voicemail left me a little bit giddy. Wilson and I finally got the chance to chat later that month, but it wasn’t about his storied career in evolutionary science—not about island biogeography or sociobiology—or his favorite topic, ants. Instead, we talked about his latest book Half-Earth where he passionately proposed setting aside half the planet for non-human species. Although 87 at the time of our interview, Wilson sounded more like an advocate at the height of his powers. How do we stave off mass extinction, ecological collapse, and create a panacea for climate change? Wilson believed he had the answer: half-earth. On December 26th, E.O. Wilson died in Burlington, Massachusetts at the age of 92. For a man who devoted most of his life to hard evolutionary science, Wilson’s greatest impact may be that radical idea he advocated for at the end of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/e-o-wilsons-last-dream/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/e-o-wilsons-last-dream/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251405</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Edward O. Wilson, prominent biologist and author, has died at 92</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/edward-o-wilson-prominent-biologist-and-author-has-died-at-92/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/edward-o-wilson-prominent-biologist-and-author-has-died-at-92/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2021 14:58:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/27145346/E.O.-Wilson_obituary-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251187</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biology, Conservation, Environment, Evolution, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Edward O. Wilson, a prominent biologist and prolific author who help raise global awareness and understanding about biodiversity and conservation, has died. E.O. Wilson, as he was often known, died on Sunday in Burlington, Massachusetts, according to a statement from the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. He was 92. “Ed’s holy grail was the sheer delight [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Edward O. Wilson, a prominent biologist and prolific author who help raise global awareness and understanding about biodiversity and conservation, has died. E.O. Wilson, as he was often known, died on Sunday in Burlington, Massachusetts, according to a statement from the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. He was 92. “Ed’s holy grail was the sheer delight of the pursuit of knowledge. A relentless synthesizer of ideas, his courageous scientific focus and poetic voice transformed our way of understanding ourselves and our planet&#8221;, said Paula J. Ehrlich, CEO &amp; President of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation and co-founder of the Half-Earth Project, in a statement. &#8220;His greatest hope was that students everywhere share his passion for discovery as the ultimate scientific foundation for future stewardship of our planet. His gift was a deep belief in people and our shared human resolve to save the natural world.” E. O. Wilson in 2003. Photo credit: Jim Harrison / PLOS Wilson began his career studying the biology and social structures of ants. That research led him to develop the concept of sociobiology, which explains social behavior in terms of evolution, and to make major contributions to island biogeography, which became foundational for understanding the effects of habitat size on the diversity of species. His island biogeography work served as a mathematical basis to forecast species loss resulting from habitat destruction, providing a way to quantify the sixth great extinction currently underway. But while Wilson&#8217;s research was highly influential in scientific circles and won numerous recognitions,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/edward-o-wilson-prominent-biologist-and-author-has-died-at-92/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251187</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New study reveals globe-trotting pedigree of South Asian songbirds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/new-study-reveals-globe-trotting-pedigree-of-south-asian-songbirds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/new-study-reveals-globe-trotting-pedigree-of-south-asian-songbirds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Nov 2021 18:52:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/29183111/Square-tailed-bulbul-c-Erich-Joseph-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250018</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Environment, Evolution, Migration, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — The rich diversity of bulbuls in South Asia can be traced as far as the Sundaland region of Southeast Asia, in the islands that today make up Indonesia and Malaysia, a new study shows. Bulbuls, the Pycnonotidae family of fruit-eating songbirds, number more than 150 species throughout Asia and Africa, with 24 in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — The rich diversity of bulbuls in South Asia can be traced as far as the Sundaland region of Southeast Asia, in the islands that today make up Indonesia and Malaysia, a new study shows. Bulbuls, the Pycnonotidae family of fruit-eating songbirds, number more than 150 species throughout Asia and Africa, with 24 in South Asia, half of them endemic to the region. Genetic analysis now shows that these South Asian bulbuls trace their origins to Sundaland, coming in several waves of colonization that crossed through mainland Southeast Asia to get to the Indian subcontinent. “When these bulbuls’ genetic identities are placed on the global bulbul evolution tree, they fit into different spots suggesting that these species occupied South Asia at different time periods,” said Ashish Jha, lead author of the new study and a researcher at the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species in Hyderabad, India. The red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus) is a very common bird in India. Image courtesy of Ashish Jha. Jha and his colleagues compared the genetics of the South Asian bulbuls mainly with their Asian cousins to recreate a tree of evolution and map other factors to study their phylogeny, or how they developed over time. Data for some South Asian endemic bulbuls were missing from the existing global phylogeny of bulbuls, so the team used the available genetic data and supplemented it with genetic data of endemic species from India and Sri Lanka. The researchers put a special focus on the roots&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/new-study-reveals-globe-trotting-pedigree-of-south-asian-songbirds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/new-study-reveals-globe-trotting-pedigree-of-south-asian-songbirds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250018</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Mozambique, mystery of tuskless elephant points to poaching as the culprit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/in-mozambique-mystery-of-tuskless-elephant-points-to-poaching-as-the-culprit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/in-mozambique-mystery-of-tuskless-elephant-points-to-poaching-as-the-culprit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2021 05:27:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/12051836/addo-elephant-park-elephant-africa-mammal-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249376</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Elephants, Evolution, Genetics, Habitat Loss, Ivory, Poaching, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mozambique&#8217;s 15-year civil war changed the face of its national parks, which underwent rampant poaching of big mammals, including elephants. It did much more. It changed the face of female African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana). The unusually large number of tuskless females at the Gorongosa National Park today can be traced back to the ravages [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mozambique&#8217;s 15-year civil war changed the face of its national parks, which underwent rampant poaching of big mammals, including elephants. It did much more. It changed the face of female African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana). The unusually large number of tuskless females at the Gorongosa National Park today can be traced back to the ravages of that war, which raged from 1977 to 1992, a recent study in the journal Science shows. For Dominique Gonçalves, an elephant ecologist at Gorongosa, the altered profiles of her favorite animal cuts deep. She was born 29 years ago when the country stumbled out of the conflict, and to see scars of that plunder stretch into the present is sobering. Poachers targeted tusked elephants, bearers of valuable ivory that could be traded for arms. Only about 200 of an estimated 2,500 elephants in the park survived the massacre. &#8220;It&#8217;s in our faces, we have done this,&#8221; Gonçalves said. In the new paper, Gonçalves and a team of researchers from the U.S. and U.K. describe how the war-time cull continues to shape the herd today. &#8220;Poachers were preferentially killing animals with tusks and leaving tuskless ones to survive, so they were breeding and producing more tuskless offspring,&#8221; Gonçalves said. &#8220;We artificially selected them.&#8221; Elephants are the largest living terrestrial beings, an ancient species that has roamed the planet for more than a million years. Tusks adorned their ancestors as well, persisting because of their usefulness. Tuskers use them to tear through tree bark, dig into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/in-mozambique-mystery-of-tuskless-elephant-points-to-poaching-as-the-culprit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249376</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Low genetic diversity is part of rhinos’ long-term history, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/low-genetic-diversity-is-part-of-rhinos-long-term-history-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/low-genetic-diversity-is-part-of-rhinos-long-term-history-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Aug 2021 10:35:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Carolyncowan]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/31090616/Paleoartist-illustration-see-caption-above-CREDIT-Beth-Zaiken-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246556</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Asian Rhinos]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, India, Indonesia, Nepal, siberia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Black Rhino, Captive Breeding, Conservation, DNA, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Extinction, Genetics, Javan Rhinos, Mammals, One-horned Rhinos, Research, Rhinos, Sumatran Rhino, White Rhino, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have debated the evolution of the world’s five living rhinoceros species ever since Charles Darwin addressed the question in a treatise in the mid-1800s, predating On the Origin of Species. Three main schools of thought prevail. The “horn hypothesis” suggests that rhinos with two horns evolved separately from those with only one horn; this [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have debated the evolution of the world’s five living rhinoceros species ever since Charles Darwin addressed the question in a treatise in the mid-1800s, predating On the Origin of Species. Three main schools of thought prevail. The “horn hypothesis” suggests that rhinos with two horns evolved separately from those with only one horn; this groups Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) with the two African species, the black rhino (Diceros bicornis) and the white rhino (Ceratotherium simum), all of which have two horns. The “geographical hypothesis” sets the two African species apart from the three Asian species: the Sumatran rhino, the Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus), and the greater one-horned rhino (R. unicornis) that lives in India and Nepal. A third proposal is that the uniquely small and hairy Sumatran rhino, the only Asian species with two horns, is in an entirely separate group from the other four species. Now, an international team of scientists has shed light on the mystery. By analyzing the genomes of the five living rhino species and three that went extinct during the last Ice Age, they found strong evidence that the rhino tree of life branches according to geographic region, not by number of horns. The two African species diverged from the three Asian species roughly 16 million years ago, according to the findings recently published in Cell. All five living rhino species have suffered significant population declines due to decades of habitat loss and poaching. Many populations are now small and isolated with low genetic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/low-genetic-diversity-is-part-of-rhinos-long-term-history-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246556</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Indonesia, an unassuming brown bird is proof of turbo-charged evolution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/in-indonesia-an-unassuming-brown-bird-is-proof-of-turbo-charged-evolution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/in-indonesia-an-unassuming-brown-bird-is-proof-of-turbo-charged-evolution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Aug 2021 23:59:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sheryl Lee Tian Tong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sheryl Lee Tian Tong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/10234843/Sulawesi_babbler_2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=245790</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia and Sulawesi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Birds, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Evolution, Forests, Islands, Land Use Change, Mining, Rainforests, Science, Species, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Picking out the fluty whistle of a Sulawesi babbler (Pellorneum celebense) is easy. Spotting it is far more difficult: these shy and diminutive birds, endemic to the forests of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, spend their days flitting about the understory, where their brown plumages allow them to blend discreetly into the environment. The babbler’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Picking out the fluty whistle of a Sulawesi babbler (Pellorneum celebense) is easy. Spotting it is far more difficult: these shy and diminutive birds, endemic to the forests of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, spend their days flitting about the understory, where their brown plumages allow them to blend discreetly into the environment. The babbler’s unassuming appearance poses a challenge to more than bird-watchers: taxonomists have long had difficulty separating the species, commonly found across Sulawesi and its nearby isles, into different subspecies based on visual cues. Today, there are officially four subspecies (a fifth, P. c. improbatum for populations in Southeast Sulawesi, was recognized and later abolished). But pay attention to the DNA, body size and song of a particular population on Kabaena Island, and you will find a sixth, according to a new study. Researchers from Trinity College, Dublin, whose study was published in Zoologischer Anzeiger last month, sequenced DNA and took measurements and song recordings from dozens of babblers from Southeast Sulawesi and the surrounding land-bridge islands of Kabaena, Muna, Buton and Wawonii. The team found that, while current taxonomy assigns all babbler populations from Central and Southeast Sulawesi, as well as the land-bridge islands, into one P. c. rufofuscum subspecies, the subspecies itself contains four independently evolving lineages. Two of these lineages, from Southeast Sulawesi and Kabaena, are even genetically distinct enough to be classified as separate subspecies, they wrote. The Sulawesi babbler is a shy and diminutive bird living in the understory of Indonesia&#8217;s island&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/in-indonesia-an-unassuming-brown-bird-is-proof-of-turbo-charged-evolution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-245790</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Endangered bats are evolving to fight off an exotic fungal disease</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/endangered-bats-are-evolving-to-fight-off-an-exotic-fungal-disease/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/endangered-bats-are-evolving-to-fight-off-an-exotic-fungal-disease/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2020 07:28:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/14071053/3381572315_3e546fcca4_o-768x510.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=230252</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Evolution, Genetics, Mammals, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A mysterious disease is wiping out one of the world’s smallest bats, the aptly named “little brown bat,” which has an extensive range across the United States and Canada. But these tiny mammals, which are classified as an endangered species by the IUCN and Canada’s Species at Risk Act, are turning out to be more [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A mysterious disease is wiping out one of the world’s smallest bats, the aptly named “little brown bat,” which has an extensive range across the United States and Canada. But these tiny mammals, which are classified as an endangered species by the IUCN and Canada’s Species at Risk Act, are turning out to be more tenacious than previously thought. New research shows that little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) could be fighting off the disease through genetic resistance. The disease, white-nose syndrome, comes from a fungus called Pseudogymnoascus destructans, often abbreviated to Pd. This pathogen is believed to have originated in Asia or Europe, although researchers haven’t been able to pinpoint a specific source. It was first detected in Albany, New York, in 2006, and since then, it’s spread across North America — from southern Texas to the western seaboard of Newfoundland — killing millions of bats in the process. Some experts refer to white-nose syndrome as one of the deadliest wildlife diseases in modern times. A little brown bat with white-nose syndrome. Image by Ryan von Linden / New York Department of Environmental Conservation / Flickr. Pd grows in cool, moist places, such as caves, which are exactly the environments in which little brown bats and other bat species like to hibernate. “When bats hibernate, their body temperature drops so low that they&#8217;re basically the same temperature as the cave surface,” Giorgia Auteri, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan, told Mongabay. “So the fungus grows on them &#8230; it&#8217;s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/endangered-bats-are-evolving-to-fight-off-an-exotic-fungal-disease/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-230252</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate tipping point ecosystem collapses may come faster than thought: Studies</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/climate-tipping-point-ecosystem-collapses-may-come-faster-than-thought-studies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/climate-tipping-point-ecosystem-collapses-may-come-faster-than-thought-studies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2020 12:49:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/11124319/Banner-Image-tp-768x456.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=230105</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Arctic, Global, and Sahel]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Evolution, Extinction, Forests, Global Warming, Habitat Loss, Marine, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Species, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Large biomes, like the Amazon rainforest, have closely linked habitats and species, which could lead to a domino effect and a rapid ecosystem collapse; even small effects can cause a crash over time.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A coral reef in Indonesia. Coral reefs — especially Australia’s Great Barrier Reef — have proven to be very sensitive to climate change. Now scientists are trying to determine the mechanisms for climate ecosystem tipping points, and how fast they will occur around the world. Photo credit: HereIsTom on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-ND. The world’s largest ecosystems may alter drastically faster than previously thought, according to a recent study published in Nature Communications, shedding new light on the behavior of climate tipping points. Real-life cases reveal a pattern: bigger ecosystems collapse at a faster rate than smaller ones. According to the findings, climate tipping points could happen in a matter of years or decades, not on the ecological timescale of hundreds, or even, thousands of years. Observing this trend, the authors — stressing high levels of uncertainty — forecast that, after a tipping point is passed, the Amazon rainforest could disappear in under 50 years, while Caribbean coral reefs could vanish in 15 years. “The Amazon could die before I do,” study co-author Simon Willcock, a senior lecturer at Bangor University, pondered upon seeing the results. “I had never sat down and thought it might be gone in my lifetime. It’s quite sobering.” Over a decade ago, a group of scientists published a groundbreaking paper on climate tipping points, widely regarded as an unlikely scenario at the time. But with evidence mounting, many scientists have more recently sounded the alarm on melting ice caps and tropical rainforest dieback nearing permanent&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/climate-tipping-point-ecosystem-collapses-may-come-faster-than-thought-studies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/climate-tipping-point-ecosystem-collapses-may-come-faster-than-thought-studies/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-230105</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A ‘crazy beast’ that coexisted with dinosaurs discovered from Madagascar</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/a-crazy-beast-that-coexisted-with-dinosaurs-discovered-from-madagascar/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/a-crazy-beast-that-coexisted-with-dinosaurs-discovered-from-madagascar/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2020 09:32:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/30091725/230456_web-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=229680</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation in Madagascar]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biogeography, Cryptic Species, Evolution, Extinction, Fossils, Islands, Mammals, New Discovery, Research, Species, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A 66-million-year-old fossil has allowed scientists to describe a bizarre new species of mammal that lived in Madagascar during the time of the dinosaurs. They’ve christened it Adalatherium hui, which in Malagasy and Greek translates into “crazy beast.” The “hui” is a nod to Yaoming Hu, a paleontologist who specialized in early mammals. To the lay eye, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A 66-million-year-old fossil has allowed scientists to describe a bizarre new species of mammal that lived in Madagascar during the time of the dinosaurs. They’ve christened it Adalatherium hui, which in Malagasy and Greek translates into “crazy beast.” The “hui” is a nod to Yaoming Hu, a paleontologist who specialized in early mammals. To the lay eye, it looks like a house-cat-sized badger; but to the scientists who discovered it, A. hui is nothing short of the “oddest of oddball” creatures. “Knowing what we know about the skeletal anatomy of all living and extinct mammals, it is difficult to imagine that a mammal-like Adalatherium could have evolved; it bends and even breaks a lot of rules,” lead researcher David Krause, curator at the Denver Museum of Nature &amp; Science, said in a statement. The fossil record is sparsely populated with mammalian fossils from the Mesozoic era. The team got lucky and discovered a well–preserved, almost complete, skeleton in northwestern Madagascar. It turned out to be the most complete fossil of any Mesozoic mammal found from the southern hemisphere. The Mesozoic, known as the age of the dinosaurs, lasted from about 252 million years ago to about 66 million years ago. What makes the creature exceptional is its anatomical structure, which is a unique mosaic of features. For one thing, its peculiar teeth give very little indication of its ancestry because they are nothing like those found in other mammals. For another, its vertebral column has more vertebrae that any of contemporaneous mammals. Then, there&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/a-crazy-beast-that-coexisted-with-dinosaurs-discovered-from-madagascar/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/a-crazy-beast-that-coexisted-with-dinosaurs-discovered-from-madagascar/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-229680</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shell of bioluminescent shrimp not only glows but detects light</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/shell-of-bioluminescent-shrimp-not-only-glows-but-detects-light/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/shell-of-bioluminescent-shrimp-not-only-glows-but-detects-light/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Mar 2020 14:19:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/03/23141149/P1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=228172</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Bioluminescence, Environment, Evolution, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, Research, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Surrounded by darkness, many deep-sea creatures emit light to help find prey or avoid predators. Scientists have long known that small organs called photophores are responsible for this bioluminescence. Now they’ve learned that photophores can also detect light, acting like rudimentary eyes all over the body. A team of marine biologists made the discovery by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Surrounded by darkness, many deep-sea creatures emit light to help find prey or avoid predators. Scientists have long known that small organs called photophores are responsible for this bioluminescence. Now they’ve learned that photophores can also detect light, acting like rudimentary eyes all over the body. A team of marine biologists made the discovery by studying deep-sea shrimp in the Florida Straits. They published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports earlier this month. Their work adds to a growing body of research documenting photosensitive organs outside the eyes in a variety of animals, and is the first demonstration in deep-sea creatures. “When we think about sensing light we think of the eyes,” Heather Bracken-Grissom, a marine biologist at Florida International University who led the study, told Mongabay. “These shrimp have the ability to see beyond their eyes, in a sense.” All-seeing shrimp Janicella spinicauda shrimp take part in one of the planet’s largest daily migrations — one that is not so much geographical as vertical. Every night, they rise from depths as great as 1,500 meters (almost 5,000 feet) to shallow waters to feed and mate. On the move, they camouflage themselves by glowing so that predators below can’t see their silhouettes against light from above. But it’s been unclear how they and other deep-sea animals that perform this trick can adjust the intensity of their glow to match that of the light emanating from above. Bracken-Grissom’s discovery provides a clue: they have more than their eyes to “see”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/shell-of-bioluminescent-shrimp-not-only-glows-but-detects-light/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/shell-of-bioluminescent-shrimp-not-only-glows-but-detects-light/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-228172</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New species of ancient human found in a Philippine cave</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/new-species-of-ancient-human-found-in-a-philippine-cave/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/new-species-of-ancient-human-found-in-a-philippine-cave/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Apr 2019 11:01:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/04/12082635/DSC_4469b-1024x680-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=217439</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Archeology, Biogeography, Environment, Evolution, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human Migration, Islands, Research, Science, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[4127-1 SEA-ENV-SIDA]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past decade, archaeologists have dug out several pieces of bones and teeth from a cave on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. These fossil remains, all estimated to be at least 50,000 years old, belong to a new species of early human, researchers have now confirmed in a study published in Nature. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past decade, archaeologists have dug out several pieces of bones and teeth from a cave on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. These fossil remains, all estimated to be at least 50,000 years old, belong to a new species of early human, researchers have now confirmed in a study published in Nature. The journey to discovering this early human species, dubbed Homo luzonensis, has been a long one. Archaeologist Armand Mijares, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines and co-lead author of the study, first began excavating around Callao Cave on Luzon in 2003, when his team unearthed evidence of human activity dating back some 25,000 years. He returned to the cave in 2007, this time digging much deeper than he had the first time. At depths of around 8 to 9 feet (2.4 to 2.7 meters), among bones of deer and other animals, his team discovered a foot bone. The team sent the bone to Philip Piper, a professor at the Australian National University, who soon confirmed what Mijares suspected: the bone belonged to a human. “When Dr. Armand Mijares (Project Leader) and I found the first human bone dating to more than 50,000 years ago at Callao in 2007, we knew [what] we had was something special,” Piper, co-author of the study, told Mongabay in an email. “We didn’t know it was a new species then of course, but we did know that we had the oldest human remains in the Philippines. From then&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/new-species-of-ancient-human-found-in-a-philippine-cave/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/new-species-of-ancient-human-found-in-a-philippine-cave/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-217439</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Unusual lizard lays eggs, then births a live baby — in the same pregnancy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/unusual-lizard-lays-eggs-then-births-a-live-baby-in-the-same-pregnancy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/unusual-lizard-lays-eggs-then-births-a-live-baby-in-the-same-pregnancy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Apr 2019 08:09:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/04/05070100/saiphos_highres_npezaro-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=217180</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Environment, Evolution, Herps, Lizards, Reptiles, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The yellow-bellied three-toed skink is not your typical lizard. Vertebrates or animals with backbones usually reproduce in one of two ways: they either lay eggs or they give birth to a live young baby. But the three-toed skink (Saiphos equalis) does both, its mode of reproduction varying with geography. In the warmer, coastal areas around Sydney, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The yellow-bellied three-toed skink is not your typical lizard. Vertebrates or animals with backbones usually reproduce in one of two ways: they either lay eggs or they give birth to a live young baby. But the three-toed skink (Saiphos equalis) does both, its mode of reproduction varying with geography. In the warmer, coastal areas around Sydney, populations of the skink are known to lay eggs, while those living in the colder mountains of New South Wales give birth to live young. What mode of reproduction it follows, however, doesn’t seem to be influenced by environmental conditions, previous research has found, because swapping populations doesn&#8217;t appear to change how it reproduces, suggesting genetics may be at play. But a female three-toed skink in a lab at the University of Sydney threw up a surprise. The skink, originally collected from a high-elevation population that’s known to give birth to live young, first laid eggs, then weeks later, birthed a live baby — all part of the same pregnancy. One of the incubated eggs hatched into a healthy baby. This is the first time biologists have observed both egg-laying and live-bearing in a single litter of a vertebrate animal, researchers report in a new study published in Biology Letters. “It is a very unusual discovery,” Camilla Whittington, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences and co-author of the study, said in a statement. “We were studying the genetics of these skinks when we noticed one of the live-bearing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/unusual-lizard-lays-eggs-then-births-a-live-baby-in-the-same-pregnancy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/unusual-lizard-lays-eggs-then-births-a-live-baby-in-the-same-pregnancy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-217180</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Super variable California salamander is ‘an evolutionist’s dream’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/super-variable-california-salamander-is-an-evolutionists-dream/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/super-variable-california-salamander-is-an-evolutionists-dream/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Mar 2019 13:04:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/18020700/1024px-Ensatina_eschscholtzii_platensis_3405603045-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=216598</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Salamanders]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Evolution, Forests, Green, Herps, Research, Salamanders, Temperate Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The ensatina is a fairly common salamander. From southern British Columbia in Canada to northern Baja California in Mexico, it can be found lurking under logs in forests along the entire western coast of North America. But it’s in California where the little amphibian’s story takes an intriguing turn. Literally. Depending on where you are, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The ensatina is a fairly common salamander. From southern British Columbia in Canada to northern Baja California in Mexico, it can be found lurking under logs in forests along the entire western coast of North America. But it’s in California where the little amphibian’s story takes an intriguing turn. Literally. Depending on where you are, whether east of California’s Central Valley in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, or west of the valley on the Coast Ranges, the ensatinas you encounter can look strikingly different. But they’re all thought to be the same species. “As we like to say, the ensatina is a taxonomist’s nightmare, but an evolutionist’s dream,” said David Wake, a salamander expert and professor emeritus from the University of California, Berkeley, who has studied ensatinas for the last four decades. Textbook case of speciation This is because the ensatina demonstrates what some people refer to as a “textbook example” of speciation — it’s evolution in action. And it was Wake’s predecessor at U.C. Berkeley, Robert Stebbins, a herpetologist and illustrator, who first identified this in the late 1940s. At the time, experts recognized four species of the ensatina based on their distinctive colors. But Stebbins, putting both his skills as an artist and a scientist to action, found an interesting pattern: he noticed that all the ensatinas could be arranged in the form of a ring encircling the Central Valley, a large flat valley that stretches for about 720 kilometers (450 miles) along the Pacific coast. On&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/super-variable-california-salamander-is-an-evolutionists-dream/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/super-variable-california-salamander-is-an-evolutionists-dream/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-216598</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>We know why zebras got their stripes, but how do they work?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/we-know-why-zebras-got-their-stripes-but-how-do-they-work/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/we-know-why-zebras-got-their-stripes-but-how-do-they-work/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Feb 2019 14:02:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/02/27134336/Equus_quagga_burchellii_1200px-cropped-768x454.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=215925</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Atlantic Forest, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Diseases, Environment, Evolution, Insects, Mammals, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have long wondered why zebras wear striped coats — none other than Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin are known to have debated the question well over a century ago. Theories have held that a zebra’s stripes might provide camouflage or are otherwise helpful in disrupting predatory attacks, that they are a means of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have long wondered why zebras wear striped coats — none other than Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin are known to have debated the question well over a century ago. Theories have held that a zebra’s stripes might provide camouflage or are otherwise helpful in disrupting predatory attacks, that they are a means of thermal regulation for the animals, or that they might have some social function. A 2014 study might have finally supplied the answer, however, concluding that biting flies like glossinids (tsetse flies) and tabanids (horseflies) appear to be the “evolutionary driver” of the zebra’s stripes. Tim Caro, a professor of wildlife biology at the University of California, Davis, led a research team that mapped the geographic distributions of seven different species of zebras, horses, and asses that have stripes of various intensities on different parts of their bodies. The team then looked at where the animals’ geographic ranges overlapped with a number of different environmental variables, such as woodland areas where the stripes might camouflage the animals, the ranges of large predators, temperatures, and the geographic distributions of glossinids and tabanids. Through their analysis, the researchers were able to rule out every theory for the origin of zebra stripes except one: the stripes help the animals deter blood-sucking flies. “I was amazed by our results,” Caro said in a statement when the research was released. &#8220;Again and again, there was greater striping on areas of the body in those parts of the world where there was&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/we-know-why-zebras-got-their-stripes-but-how-do-they-work/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-215925</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Six new catfish species, facial tentacles and all, described in Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/six-new-catfish-species-facial-tentacles-and-all-described-in-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/six-new-catfish-species-facial-tentacles-and-all-described-in-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Feb 2019 10:43:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/02/11054938/Ancistrus-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=215369</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Aquariums, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Evolution, Fish, Green, Research, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in South America, researchers have described six new species of catfish that have tentacles on their faces, spines sticking out from their heads, and bodies covered with armor-like bony plates. All six species belong to the genus Ancistrus, researchers report in a new study published in Zootaxa. These river-dwelling catfish, commonly known [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in South America, researchers have described six new species of catfish that have tentacles on their faces, spines sticking out from their heads, and bodies covered with armor-like bony plates. All six species belong to the genus Ancistrus, researchers report in a new study published in Zootaxa. These river-dwelling catfish, commonly known as bristlenose or bushynose catfish, are popular aquarium fish, particularly famed for their skills as champion algae eaters that help keep tanks clean. All members of this group also have several fleshy tentacles covering their snouts — a feature that distinguishes them from other catfish that tend to have smaller “whiskers.” Males have especially long tentacles on their snouts. And researchers think the larger tentacles come in handy when trying to attract females. This is because Ancistrus fathers guard the nests of eggs and juveniles against intruders. To females, a male that’s guarding a nest might signal a fitter parent that knows how to take care of its young. Researchers have posited that the long tentacles in males, which resemble larvae or catfish juveniles, might have evolved to trick a female into laying eggs in the nest. “The idea is that when a female fish sees a male with these tentacles &#8230; [t]hat signifies to her that he’s a good father who&#8217;s able to produce offspring and protect them,” Lesley de Souza, a fish expert at Chicago’s Field Museum and lead author of the paper, said in a statement. “It’s an evolutionary move that takes ‘catfishing’ to a whole new, kind&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/six-new-catfish-species-facial-tentacles-and-all-described-in-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-215369</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New species of tree frog from Ecuador has a mysterious claw</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/new-species-of-tree-frog-from-ecuador-has-a-mysterious-claw/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/new-species-of-tree-frog-from-ecuador-has-a-mysterious-claw/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jan 2019 08:10:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/01/07043005/hillisi-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=214403</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Forests, Frogs, Green, Research, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A team of biologists surveying remote parts of the Cordillera del Cóndor (Condor mountain range) in Ecuador’s eastern Andes have described a species of tree frog that’s new to science. The dark brown frog with bright orange flecks dotting its body wasn’t easy to find. The researchers had to walk along very steep terrain in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[A team of biologists surveying remote parts of the Cordillera del Cóndor (Condor mountain range) in Ecuador’s eastern Andes have described a species of tree frog that’s new to science. The dark brown frog with bright orange flecks dotting its body wasn’t easy to find. The researchers had to walk along very steep terrain in the largely unexplored Cordillera del Cóndor to reach the slopes of a tabletop limestone mountain where they encountered the frog. Moreover, the frogs tended to blend with the environment, making them hard to spot. “Between sweat and exhaustion, we arrived to the tabletop where we found a dwarf forest. The rivers had blackwater and the frogs were sitting along them, on branches of brown shrubs similar in color to the frogs’ own,” Alex Achig, one of the field biologists who was part of the expedition, said in a statement. The tree frog has a mysterious claw-like structure at the base of its thumb, the researchers say in a new study published in ZooKeys. The purpose of this protruding structure, also known as prepollex, is unclear, but the researchers think the frogs might use it as a weapon to defend against predators or competing males. The gladiator tree frog (Hypsiboas rosenbergi), for example, uses its spiny prepollex to fight off other males while protecting its nest. The new species has a claw at the base of the thumb. Image by Gustavo Pazmiño/BIOWEB Ecuador. The researchers have named the newly discovered tree frog Hyloscirtus hillisi, after David Hillis, a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/new-species-of-tree-frog-from-ecuador-has-a-mysterious-claw/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-214403</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New species of giant salamander described after decades of mystery</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/new-species-of-giant-salamander-described-after-decades-of-mystery/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/new-species-of-giant-salamander-described-after-decades-of-mystery/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2018 04:56:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/12/11034341/Reticulated-siren-2.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=213305</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Evolution, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Salamanders, Species Discovery, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers have described a new species of giant salamander that has remained shrouded in mystery for several decades. Known from swamps in Alabama and Florida in the southern United States, the new salamander grows up to 60 centimeters (2 feet) long and is a type of siren, a group of eel-like salamanders that have only [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Researchers have described a new species of giant salamander that has remained shrouded in mystery for several decades. Known from swamps in Alabama and Florida in the southern United States, the new salamander grows up to 60 centimeters (2 feet) long and is a type of siren, a group of eel-like salamanders that have only front limbs and large, frilled gills poking out of their bodies, behind their heads. Informally, people have long called the newly described salamander “leopard eels.” But since the species isn’t an eel (nor a leopard), herpetologists have now named it the reticulated siren (Siren reticulata) in a new study. The name comes from the dark spots that run in a reticulated pattern on the animal’s body, extending from the gills to the tail. Sirens, today restricted to the southern United States and northeastern Mexico, are some of the largest amphibians in North America. The reticulated siren is “among the largest species described from the United States over the last 100 years,&#8221; researchers write in the paper. The formal description of this species comes after decades of surveys and exploration. David A. Steen, a research ecologist at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center and co-author of the new paper, was first introduced to the animal in 2007 when Craig Guyer, a biologist at Alabama’s Auburn University and Steen’s Ph.D. adviser, showed him a large jar full of eel-like animals at the university&#8217;s Museum of Natural History. Guyer “rapped it with his knuckle” and told Steen that it was&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/new-species-of-giant-salamander-described-after-decades-of-mystery/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-213305</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Africa’s slender-snouted crocodile is not one but two species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/africas-slender-snouted-crocodile-is-not-one-but-two-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/africas-slender-snouted-crocodile-is-not-one-but-two-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2018 12:25:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/10/26103708/1024px-Crocodylus_cataphractus_faux-gavial_dAfrique2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=211517</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Green, Reptiles, Research, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At first glance, the slender-snouted crocodiles living in Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa look very similar to the ones in the Gambia River in West Africa. But as it turns out, the crocodile is not one but two distinct species: one unique to West Africa and the other to Central Africa, a new study has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At first glance, the slender-snouted crocodiles living in Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa look very similar to the ones in the Gambia River in West Africa. But as it turns out, the crocodile is not one but two distinct species: one unique to West Africa and the other to Central Africa, a new study has found. In fact, the Central African crocodile species is new to science, researchers say in the study published in Zootaxa, making it the first new living crocodile species to be described in more than 80 years. The medium-sized slender-snouted crocodile, belonging to the genus Mecistops, is distributed throughout Africa west of the Rift Valley, in lakes, rivers and coastal lagoons. The genus was considered to have only one species, M. cataphractus, originally based on what the researchers say is a “now-lost specimen of unknown geographic origin.” Subsequent attempts to describe the crocodile were also based on “specimens with imprecise or unknown locality data and morphological characters.” Crocodile expert Matthew Shirley poses with juvenile Central African slender-snouted crocodiles. Image courtesy of Florida International University. To clear up the taxonomic status of the slender-snouted crocodiles across Africa, Matthew Shirley, a crocodile expert at Florida International University, U.S., and his colleagues analyzed the DNA and physical characteristics of several slender-snouted crocodiles captured from the wild and in captivity from across six African countries. They found that the two crocodiles had subtle differences in their appearances, not easily discernible to the layperson: the West African slender-snouted crocodiles have heavier scales and rougher skin compared to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/africas-slender-snouted-crocodile-is-not-one-but-two-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-211517</doi>				</item>
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