species

Thousands of wild bird species are growing ill or dying from habitat loss, climate change, and overexploitation, according to new research.A new estimate from researchers around the world has found 48 percent of living bird species are known or suspected to have declining populations.  That's more than 5,000 species that face a risky future. Among the species surveyed, only 6 percent showed increases in population."We are now witnessing the first signs of a new wave of extinctions of continentally distributed bird…

Over 80 percent of international trade is carried by sea. Much of what we use and consume everyday either has been or will be transported on huge vessels which plough the global ocean.  The courses these container vessels take are fixed shipping routes known as marine highways, which are not unlike motorways on land. These highways, upon which vessels travel back and forth, connect distant ports, often on opposite sides of vast oceans.Marine highways can also cut across the movements and migratory routes of marine…

A landmark study has identified five types of bacteria associated with aggressive prostate cancer. It is unclear at this stage whether the bacteria is directly causing the cancer but the researchers are confident they can develop new tests to identify aggressive prostate cancer by tracking the presence of these bacteria."We already know of some strong associations between infections and cancer,” explained Colin Cooper, lead researcher on the project. “For example, the presence of Helicobacter pylori bacteria in the…

A newly hatched piping plover chick stands next to one of its parents, Monty or Rose, at Montrose Beach on July 10, 2021.John J. Kim | Tribune News Service | Getty ImagesSpaceX must take steps to track and mitigate its impact on endangered species and their habitat in order to gain approvals for testing and commercial launches of its Starship Super Heavy lift-launch vehicle in Boca Chica, Texas, according to documents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service obtained by CNBC.The documents, released by the federal agency in…

Researchers have discovered a partially complete skull of new dinosaur species in Argentina that they say could be a close relative of an armless group of dinosaurs that roamed the southern hemisphere. They say the new species, called the Guemesia ochoai, offers new evidence of a unique ecosystem during the Late Cretaceous, more than 70 million years ago. Guemesia ochoai was a member of Abelisauridae, a clade of carnivores that roamed what is now Africa, South America, and India. The researchers have said that the newly…

More than one in five of the world’s reptile species are threatened with extinction, researchers have determined in a new paper that marks the culmination of more than 20 years of slow-going research. On top of facing human-caused threats to their survival, the scaled creatures have fallen victim to bias in conservation priorities. Conservationists with limited resources have had to play catch-up in their efforts to assess threats to turtles, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and tuatara (the last in an ancient lineage of…

Climate change is pushing mammals into new territory, increasing the number of opportunities for viruses to jump from species to species — including humans. By 2070, if global temperatures continue to rise as predicted, there could be a total of 15,000 new cross-species “viral sharing events,” according to new research published today in the journal Nature. Of the at least 10,000 virus species in mammals capable of infecting humans, most are still only circulating among animals in the wild. The worry is that more of…