Tag

Extinction

All articles tagged with #extinction

science28 days ago•6 min saved

Tiny 75-million-year-old mammal offers clues on how mammals outlived the dinosaurs

UW researchers describe Cimolodon desosai, a hamster-sized Late Cretaceous mammal from Baja California, as a new species of multituberculate. Its small size, omnivorous diet and arboreal habits likely helped its lineage survive the dinosaur extinction about 66 million years ago, contributing to later mammal diversity. The fossil includes a skull, jaws and limb bones and was analyzed with micro-CT imaging to confirm its distinct status, with the name honoring field assistant Michael de Sosa VI.

via ScienceDaily|

#cimolodon #extinction #fossils

science1 month ago•8 min saved

A Living Fossil's Shocking Return: Coelacanth Rewrites Extinction Story

In 1938 a self-taught East London museum curator found a coelacanth, long believed extinct, prompting J.L.B. Smith to spend 14 years proving its survival; the living fish, a Lazarus taxon, challenged assumptions about extinction and revealed a lineage spanning hundreds of millions of years, with subsequent finds expanding its known range and confirming its rarity and vulnerability into modern times.

via A-Z Animals|

#coelacanth #extinction #jlb-smith

science1 month ago•6 min saved

Tardigrades as Earth’s Enduring Survivors: Tiny Creatures, Big Implications

Oxford and Harvard researchers find tardigrades—the water bears—are the most likely animals to outlive Earth’s final catastrophe, thanks to cryptobiosis and refuges in deep oceans; true planetary sterilization would require boiling the oceans, a feat only achievable by an extraordinarily massive asteroid or rare stellar explosions, while microbes would likely survive and ecological collapse could still wipe out all life even if some tardigrades endure.

via Indian Defence Review|

#astrobiology #cryptobiosis #extinction

science1 month ago•94 min saved

Earth Without the Sun: Darkness, Ice, and the Collapse of Life

If the Sun vanished, light would reach Earth for about eight more minutes, after which a rapid blackout would plunge the planet into darkness and an abrupt drop in temperature. Photosynthesis would cease, jeopardizing most surface life and food crops, while artificial light and underground refuges might sustain a fraction of humanity. The Moon would go dark, orbits could destabilize, and only hardy organisms like tardigrades and some chemosynthetic microbes might survive long term. Oceans could persist for years in the deepest regions, but the climate would continue to cool toward near‑absolute zero. In the far future the Sun itself will die and our oceans may vaporize as it expands, but the immediate catastrophe would be a swift descent into a dark, icy world.

via Live Science|

#climate #earth #extinction

science2 months ago•7 min saved

Tardigrades: Earth's Last Survivors Even If Oceans Boil

A Harvard–Oxford study models what energy would be needed to sterilize Earth and identifies tardigrades as the ultimate survivors, capable of cryptobiosis and thriving in deep-ocean refuges; while surface catastrophes like asteroid impacts or nearby supernovae could devastate ecosystems, boiling the oceans would be the threshold to erase resilient life, suggesting life could endure long after humans are gone.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#cryptobiosis #deep-ocean-refuges #extinction

animals2 months ago•19 min saved

If Humans Vanish, Could Octopuses Rise to Rule Earth?

Earth after humans is explored as a thought experiment: Oxford biologist Tim Coulson suggests that while extinction is inevitable for all species, humans leaving the scene could let other life forms fill ecological roles, with octopuses highlighted as potential civilization-building successors due to their problem-solving abilities and decentralized nervous system—though they’d still face challenges adapting to land; evolution remains unpredictable and intelligence could emerge in surprising ways.

via Earth.com|

#animals #earth-after-humans #evolution

science2 months ago•6 min saved

Cambrian Comeback: 91 New Species Revealed in China After Earth's First Mass Extinction

In a Chinese quarry, researchers uncovered the Huayuan biota dating to about 513 million years ago—over 50,000 fossils across 153 species, 91 of which are new—preserving soft tissues like guts, nerves, and eyes. This Konservat Lagerstätte shows a rapid ecological rebound within roughly 1.5 million years after the first mass extinction, with deep-water refuges and larval dispersal linking Cambrian communities across oceans to later deposits such as the Burgess Shale.

via Indian Defence Review|

#cambrian #extinction #fossils

world-news2 months ago•72 min saved

Newborn boy gives hope for the Akuntsu, a nearly extinct Amazon tribe

In Brazil’s Amazon, the Akuntsu—once about 20 people and now reduced to three isolated women—welcome a baby boy born to a Kanoe partner, a development that offers hope for the tribe’s survival. Officials secured protection for their Rio Omere land, fostered cross-group ties, and a translator aided communication, signaling a possible return of male roles and continuity for the Akuntsu’s future.

via AP News|

#akuntsu #amazon-rainforest #brazil

science3 months ago•100 min saved

Preeclampsia reimagined as a possible killer of Neanderthals, experts call it a thought experiment

A new study argues that preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication, could have reduced Neanderthal fertility and contributed to their extinction, but leading paleoanthropologists say the claim is speculative and labels it a thought experiment rather than a proven cause.

via Live Science|

#extinction #neanderthals #paleoanthropology

archaeology3 months ago•68 min saved

Neanderthals fell to a mosaic of factors, not a single foe

Extinction of Neanderthals appears to be the result of a mix of regional pressures: small, isolated populations prone to inbreeding and mutational burden, competition with expanding modern humans, and varied demographic dynamics across Eurasia. Genetic evidence confirms interbreeding with Homo sapiens, meaning Neanderthals contributed to the modern human genome, but there is no single smoking gun or uniform fate—different Neanderthal groups disappeared for different reasons over time.

via Live Science|

#ancient-dna #archaeology #extinction

science3 months ago•12 min saved

Ancient Wolf Pup Stomach Reveals Woolly Rhino Genome, Shifting Extinction Theory

Researchers analyzed tissue from a 14,000-year-old wolf pup found in Siberia and recovered the woolly rhinoceros genome from its stomach, revealing stable rhino genetics up to extinction and suggesting climate change, not hunting, as the primary driver of the woolly rhino’s disappearance.

via A-Z Animals|

#climate-change #extinction #genome-sequencing

science4 months ago•7 min saved

New Mexico Fossils Show Dinosaurs Thrived Until the Asteroid Event

New research analyzing Naashoibito Member fossils from the Kirtland Formation in northwestern New Mexico shows dinosaurs were thriving in diverse, regionally distinct ecosystems up to about 66 million years ago, coexisting with Hell Creek taxa rather than declining. High-precision dating places these fossils at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, indicating the asteroid caused a rapid end to a world still rich in dinosaur biodiversity. In the wake of the impact, mammals diversified quickly, with northern and southern bioprovinces persisting into the Paleocene, underscoring how temperature-driven regionalism shaped life before and after the mass extinction. The findings also highlight how protected public lands can illuminate ecosystem responses to rapid global change.

via SciTechDaily|

#cretaceous-paleogene-boundary #dinosaurs #extinction

science4 months ago•41 min saved

Ice-age gut reveals woolly rhinoceros extinction story

A 14,000-year-old wolf pup preserved in Siberian permafrost contained woolly rhinoceros tissue in its stomach. Scientists sequenced the rhinoceros genome from this stomach content—the first time a genome has been recovered from such material—and compared it with other woolly rhino genomes. They found no evidence of severe genetic deterioration, suggesting the species declined rapidly due to climate warming at the end of the last Ice Age rather than human hunting. The work, published in Genome Biology and Evolution, highlights permafrost-preserved remains as a powerful source of ancient dietary and ecological insights.

via Yahoo|

#ancient-dna #extinction #science

science4 months ago•5 min saved

Wolf Pup’s Meal Preserves Woolly Rhino DNA, Illuminating a Swift Extinction

A genomic analysis recovered woolly rhino DNA from the stomach of a mummified ice-age wolf pup dating to about 14,400 years ago in Russia, offering a rare direct glimpse into the species’ gene pool as it was near extinction. The study suggests the woolly rhino’s final decline occurred rapidly after a population collapse likely linked to climate warming, and the sample was initially mistaken for belonging to a cave lion.

via Nature|

#ancient-dna #extinction #paleogenomics

science4 months ago•313 min saved

Wolf’s last meal reveals woolly rhino genome, reframing Ice Age extinction

Scientists sequenced the woolly rhinoceros genome from tissue preserved in a 14,000-year-old wolf pup’s stomach in Siberian permafrost, marking the first time a genome has been reconstructed from inside another animal. By comparing this genome with other woolly rhino fossils and the Sumatran rhino, researchers found the species remained genetically stable until climate warming ended the last Ice Age, suggesting environmental change—not human hunting—drove extinction. The wolf pups likely died when their den collapsed, and the preserved stomach contents also offer a broader view of their ecosystem.

via CNN|

#ancient-dna #extinction #paleogenomics