Extinction

Shot in 1935, this is a still from a newly rediscovered bit of footage depicting Benjamin, the last captive thylacine on Earth. He was on display at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania.

'New' Footage of Benjamin, the Last Tasmanian Tiger Ever Seen Alive

The short video hasn’t been seen in more than 80 years and shows the animal pacing its enclosure in Hobart, Tasmania

Silver Y Moth (Autographa gamma), feeding on fuchsia flowers at night in a garden.

Moths Work the Pollination Night Shift, Visiting Some Flowers Bees Skip

A new study highlights the importance of moths as nocturnal pollinators in the English countryside

A new analysis of insect abundance surveys finds the decline may not be as dire as previously thought.

New Study Gives a More Complex Picture of Insect Declines

The researchers gathered data from 166 surveys of insect abundance around the world, mostly conducted since the 1980s

Artist's impression of the Chicxulub impact.

After the Dinosaur-Killing Impact, Soot Played a Remarkable Role in Extinction

The famous impact 66 million years ago kicked up soot into the atmosphere that played an even bigger role in blocking sunlight than experts had realized

Some eastern monarch butterflies travel about 3,000 miles to reach their overwintering sites in Mexico.

Hand-Reared Monarch Butterflies Are Weaker Than Their Wild Cousins

In the wild, only about one in 20 caterpillars grows up to be a butterfly

Graphic illustrating the MAVEN spacecraft encountering plasma layers at Mars.

Ten Trends That Will Shape Science in the Decade Ahead

Medicine gets trippy, solar takes over, and humanity—finally, maybe—goes back to the moon

A researcher holds a platypus for a Melbourne Water study conducted in 2017.

Australia's Droughts and Fires Present New Dangers to the Platypus

Threats to the semi-aquatic, egg-laying mammals demand action, experts say

Researchers monitored the decay of feral pig carcasses to understand what happens to ecosystems where many animals have died at once

To Study Mass Die-Offs, Scientists Dumped 15 Tons of Feral Pig Carcasses Into a Field

The rotting, putrefying bodies flooded with insects, attracted scavengers and devastated local plants and microbes

Adult mayflies following an emergence on Lake Erie.

Massive Mayfly Swarms Are Getting Smaller—and That's Bad News for Aquatic Ecosystems

The drop is a sign that the insects’ populations are threatened, which could negatively affect the animals that feed on them

Española tortoises are reared for five years before being released on the Galápagos' Española Island.

Diego, the 100-Year-Old Tortoise Who Fathered 900 Babies, Returns to the Wild

The breeding program brought the Española tortoise population back from the brink

A Chinese paddlefish specimen made in 1990 is seen on display at the Museum of Hydrobiological Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, China. The Chinese paddlefish's sharp, protruding snout made it one of the largest freshwater species in the world.

The Chinese Paddlefish, Which Lived for 200 Million Years, Is Now Extinct

New research concludes the freshwater species likely disappeared between 2005 and 2010 due to human activity

After seeing their numbers slashed due to overhunting in the 20th century, North Atlantic right whales still face plenty of threats, including ship strikes, habitat degradation and pollution. A mother and her calf are seen in this aerial image from 2005.

Can Scientists Protect North Atlantic Right Whales by Counting Them From Space?

A new collaboration between the New England Aquarium and the engineering firm Draper seeks to use satellite sonar and radar data to create a global watch

An infant mountain gorilla from the Katwe group in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda.

Endangered Mountain Gorilla Populations Are Growing

But the animals remain threatened with extinction

Dead mussels along the Clinch River.

Scientists Don't Know Why Freshwater Mussels Are Dying Across North America

Mussel species are dying en mass in rivers across the Pacific Northwest, Midwest and South—likely from unidentified pathogens

A Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) specimen.

The Extinction of This U.S. Parrot Was Quick and Driven by Humans

A new study sequenced the genome of the Carolina parakeet, once the only parrot native to the eastern part of the country

New York is the largest city to implement legislation requiring bird-friendly construction.

New York Is Poised to Require Bird-Friendly Glass on All New Buildings

Each year, up to a billion birds in the United States die from glass collisions

The Ten Best Science Books of 2019

New titles explore the workings of the human body, the lives of animals big and small, the past and future of planet earth and how it's all connected

An image from Birds of America by John James Audubon depicting the Great Auk.

Humans May Be Solely to Blame for the Great Auk’s Extinction

A new study suggests that the flightless birds were not declining due to environmental changes when humans began to hunt them in large numbers

Iman died of cancer on November 23 at a sanctuary in Borneo.

Sumatran Rhinos Are Now Extinct in Malaysia

Iman, a 25-year-old female and the last Sumatran rhino in the country, died on Saturday

The study authors write: "We posit here that artificial light at night is another important – but often overlooked – bringer of the insect apocalypse."

The Devastating Role of Light Pollution in the 'Insect Apocalypse'

A new study shows excess outdoor light is impacting how insects hunt, mate and make them more vulnerable to predators

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