Population
Conservation, overpopulation and extinct and endangered species
Survival Training, Ferret Style
Before the captive animals can go free, they have to hone their killer instinct at a conservation center in Colorado
February 2011 |
By Morgan Heim
A Plague of Pigs in Texas
Now numbering in the millions, these shockingly destructive and invasive wild hogs wreak havoc across the southern United States
January 2011 |
By John Morthland
What Killed Alaska's Dinosaurs?
In northern Alaska, along the banks of the Colville River, a series of fossil bonebeds preserve remnants of the Late Cretaceous world. These ancient environments were quite different from those found farther south.Even though the climate of Cretaceous Alaska was warmer than that of today, areas nea...
December 23, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
The World's Worst Invasive Mammals
Animals as common as goats, deer, rabbits or mice can have a devastating effect on other wildlife
December 20, 2010 |
By Jess Righthand
Fate of the Cave Bear
The lumbering beasts coexisted with the first humans for tens of thousands of years and then died off. Why?
December 2010 |
By Andrew Curry
A Quest to Save the Orangutan
Birute Mary Galdikas has devoted her life to saving the great ape. But the orangutan faces its greatest threat yet
December 2010 |
By Bill Brubaker
Remember the Alamosaurus
The Late Jurassic was the heyday of sauropod dinosaurs in prehistoric North America. Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Barosaurus and Brachiosaurus were among the titans found in the 156- to 146-million-year-old Morrison Formation. But after this slice of geologic time, North American sauropods all but disa...
October 22, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Earth’s Worst Extinction May Have Been Key to Dinosaur Origins
From the emergence of the first of their kind about 228 million years ago to the modern abundance of birds (their living descendants), dinosaurs have been one of the most successful groups of organisms on the planet. Why they originated in the first place, however, has been a much trickier subject ...
October 06, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Get Fuzzy on the Extinction of the Dinosaurs
What killed off the non-avian dinosaurs? Over the years climate change, mammals with a taste for dinosaur eggs, the laziness of dinosaurs, and even hungry, hungry caterpillars have been blamed, with the current favored culprit being an asteroid that struck in the vicinity of today's Yucatan peninsu...
September 27, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
The Dinosaurs of Industry
Since the time of their discovery in the early 19th century, dinosaurs have been pop-culture superstars. Beyond their scientific identities, they have a celebrity that has remained strong from decade to decade, and given their notoriety it is no wonder that they have been so often used as metaphors...
September 09, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
A Crude Awakening in the Gulf of Mexico
Scientists are just beginning to grasp how profoundly oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has devastated the region
September 2010 |
By Michelle Nijhuis
Name That Butterfly
Citizen scientists on a sharp learning curve are carrying out an important census in fields and gardens across the country
August 11, 2010 |
By Cristina Santiestevan
Jellyfish: The Next King of the Sea
As the world's oceans are degraded, will they be dominated by jellyfish?
August 2010 |
By Abigail Tucker
Rising Seas Endanger Wetland Wildlife
For scientists in a remote corner of coastal North Carolina, ignoring global warming is not an option
August 2010 |
By Abigail Tucker
Meet the New Species
From old-world primates to patch-nosed salamanders, new creatures are being discovered every day
August 2010 |
By Richard Conniff
Five Species Likely to Become Extinct in the Next 40 Years
Experts estimate that one-eighth of all bird species, one-fifth of mammal species and one-third of amphibian species are at risk
August 2010 |
By Erica R. Hendry
The Dinosaurs Never Saw it Coming
Since the time dinosaurs were first recognized by science in the early 19th century, naturalists have puzzled over why they disappeared. Everything from hungry, hungry caterpillars to asteroid strike (the present favored hypothesis) have been proposed as extinction triggers, but an ad for a new ani...
June 15, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
The Little Owls That Live Underground
Burrowing owls can thrive amid agricultural development and urbanization—so why are they imperiled?
May 13, 2010 |
By John Moir
Tracking the Origin of Dinosaurs
Almost everyone is familiar with the ongoing debate surrounding the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs 65 million years ago, but the discussion over where dinosaurs came from in the first place is often overlooked. Hypotheses of dinosaur origins have been just as controversial as those of trigge...
May 10, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Saving the World's Most Endangered Sea Turtle
Stranded on Cape Cod beaches, these Kemp's ridley turtles are getting a helping hand from volunteers and researchers
May 2010 |
By Amy Sutherland
