Population
Conservation, overpopulation and extinct and endangered species
The History of Air
Paleontologists are looking to the fossil record to decipher what the earth's atmosphere was like hundreds of millions of years ago
April 19, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Mammoths and Mastodons: All American Monsters
A mammoth discovery in 1705 sparked a fossil craze and gave the young United States a symbol of national might
April 2010 |
By Richard Conniff
Saving the Silky Sifaka
In Madagascar, an American researcher races to protect one of the world's rarest mammals, a white lemur known as the silky sifaka
April 2010 |
By Erica R. Hendry
Beavers: The Engineers of the Forest
Back from the brink of extinction, the beavers of Massachusetts are a crucial component of a healthy ecosystem
March 16, 2010 |
By Jennifer Weeks
Asteroid Strike Confirmed as Dinosaur Killer
Sixty-five million years ago, life on Earth suffered one of the worst mass extinctions of all time. It was an event that killed creatures across the spectrum of life's diversity, from tiny marine invertebrates to the largest dinosaurs, but what could have caused it?A number of hypotheses have been ...
March 10, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
The Skeletons of Shanidar Cave
A rare cache of hominid fossils from the Kurdistan area of northern Iraq offers a window on Neanderthal culture
March 2010 |
By Owen Edwards
The Mustang Mystique
Descended from animals brought by Spanish conquistadors centuries ago, wild horses roam the West. But are they running out of room?
March 2010 |
By Abigail Tucker
Why Did Mammals Survive When Dinosaurs Perished?
Had the non-avian dinosaurs not been wiped out 65 million years ago, our species would probably never existed. The mass extinction that struck at the end of the Cretaceous was one of the major events in earth's history that greatly affected evolution by pruning back the tree of life, and it was in ...
February 08, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
The Venus Flytrap's Lethal Allure
Native only to the Carolinas, the carnivorous plant that draws unwitting insects to its spiky maw now faces dangers of its own
February 2010 |
By Abigail Tucker
New Study Suggests Alligators Breathe Like Birds
On the surface, a pigeon and an alligator could hardly seem more different. While the pigeon is a flying, feather-covered creature that pecks its food with a toothless beak, an alligator is an amphibious, armored predator that crushes its prey in jaws studded with conical teeth. Despite the dispara...
January 20, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
The Truth About Lions
The world's foremost lion expert reveals the brutal, secret world of the king of beasts
January 2010 |
By Abigail Tucker
The World’s Fastest Animal Takes New York
The peregrine falcon, whose salvation began 40 years ago, commands the skies above the Empire State Building
December 10, 2009 |
By Meera Subramanian
Did Caterpillars Starve Dinosaurs to Death?
I love discarded hypotheses for the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. Some ideas, such as a global pandemic, sound at least somewhat reasonable, but others seem to have come out of left field. One particular paper, published in the Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera in 1962 by entomologist...
December 08, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
A Coral Reef's Mass Spawning
Understanding how corals reproduce is critical to their survival; Smithsonian's Nancy Knowlton investigates the annual event
December 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
Ethiopia's Exotic Monkeys
High in the Simien Mountains, researchers are getting a close-up look at the exotic, socially adventuresome primates known as geladas
December 2009 |
By Abigail Tucker
Wildlife Trafficking
A reporter follows the lucrative, illicit and heartrending trade in stolen wild animals deep into Ecuador's rain forest
December 2009 |
By Charles Bergman
Ten Notable Apocalypses That (Obviously) Didn’t Happen
Apocalyptic predictions are nothing new—they have been around for millennia
November 12, 2009 |
By Mark Strauss
Invasion of the Longhorn Beetles
In Worcester, Massachusetts, authorities are battling an invasive insect that is poised to devastate the forests of New England
November 2009 |
By Peter Alsop
Blog Carnival Unlucky #13: Julia Child, Bad Dino Reporting, Quizzes, Auctions and more...
Croutons Not Recommended: Paleochick points us to this blast from the past: Julia Child turns her kitchen into a biolab and cooks up a batch of primordial soup. (The video played in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's now-closed “Life in the Universe” gallery.)Worst. Article. Ever. Th...
October 29, 2009 |
By Mark Strauss
Denver’s Street-Smart Prairie Dogs
Researchers explore why members of one species are thriving in urban areas while rural populations dwindle
October 02, 2009 |
By Morgan E. Heim
