extinction

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Here's Why Europe's Killer Whales Could Go Extinct

Study finds high levels of contamination from PCBs

(Newser) - Decades after they were banned, chemicals known as PCBs continue to pose a threat to marine mammals in the waters off Europe. The situation is especially dire for killer whales, the Christian Science Monitor reports. "We think there is a very high extinction risk for killer whales as a...

Scientists Figure Out What Killed the Real King Kong

Gigantopithecus just couldn't adapt when its fruit ran out, says study

(Newser) - The world may not have had a King Kong as Hollywood imagined him to be, but the next best thing was a creature called Gigantopithecus that roamed 100,000 years ago. The largest ape known to man stood some 9 feet tall and weighed half a ton, gorging on fruit...

Charles Darwin's Finches Could Soon Be Extinct

'This is like a really bad horror flick'

(Newser) - Charles Darwin's finches of the Galapagos Islands—renowned as a poster child for speciation (that's "the process by which new species arise," explains Smithsonian )—may not be able to evolve fast enough to stave off extinction, according to a study published last week in the...

Shocking Number of Cacti Face Extinction

Study finds that 31% of cactus species are endangered

(Newser) - About a third of the world's cactus species are threatened with extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature warns in a new report. The study evaluated 1,478 species and determined that 31% are endangered due to factors such as the conversion of wilderness areas to farming and...

Rhino Species Down to Last 3, but Hope Remains

Science could bring back the northern white

(Newser) - In sad but utterly inevitable news, the northern white rhino has taken another big step toward extinction with the death of Nola, a beloved 41-year-old female who had been at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park since 1989. She was one of the last four remaining members of the doomed...

Scientists Finally Stop Fighting About Dinosaur Deaths

Study says asteroid and volcanos killed the dinosaurs

(Newser) - After 35 years of intense scholarly debate—and probably some name calling—scientists have agreed to compromise: Both a giant asteroid and massive volcanic eruptions were responsible for killing off the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Time reports this agreement comes after researchers used a new technique to more precisely...

New Death Brings Rhino Species Down to Final 4

The northern white rhino is dying out before our eyes

(Newser) - The species was down to its last six members last fall. Then there were five . Now, with the death of a northern white rhino in a Czech zoo, there are just four of the animals left in a species already past the point of no return. Nabire, a 31-year-old female,...

Turtle Species on Brink as Artificial Insemination Fails

100-year-old would-be mom has more eggs on the way

(Newser) - Nearly eight dozen Infertile eggs disappointed researchers at the Turtle Survival Alliance this week—and could have serious consequences for an entire species. A female Yangtze giant softshell turtle at China’s Suzhou Zoo laid 89 eggs after being artificially inseminated , but none of them were viable, reports Scientific American...

Cougar Coming Off Endangered List ... for Very Bad Reason

Eastern cougar hasn't been seen since 1938

(Newser) - The eastern cougar no longer needs to be on a list of protected animals because it was killed off more than 70 years ago, the US Fish and Wildlife Service says. The agency now proposes shifting the subspecies from the endangered list to the extinct list, LiveScience reports. The FWS,...

World's Smallest Dolphin Could Vanish in 15 Years

Researchers call new study a 'loud wake-up call'

(Newser) - The world's smallest dolphin, found only off the coast of New Zealand, could disappear within 15 years unless efforts are taken to bring the critically endangered animal back from the brink of extinction. In what they deem a "loud wake-up call," researchers at German conservation group NABU...

60% of Our Giant Herbivores Are in Trouble

Study finds they face risk of extinction

(Newser) - A new study published in Science Advances is being described as "horribly bleak," at least as far as rhinos, camels, and elephants are concerned: It finds that the majority of the planet's giant herbivores face the risk of extinction. The wildlife ecologists write that while about 4,...

Worst Case for Oceans: Another 'Great Dying'

Study blames Permian mass extinction on ocean acidity

(Newser) - The planet's greatest extinction —the Permian mass extinction, or the "Great Dying"—wiped out around 90% of marine species and two-thirds of those on land over 60,000 years. Some 252 million years later, researchers are explaining what happened—and it may not bode well for...

Science Just Got Closer to Elephant-Mammoth Hybrid

But so far, it's just cells in a petri dish

(Newser) - For the first time since the woolly mammoth went extinct, its genes are working again, Popular Science reports. Sure, it's only in a lab; woolly mammoths haven't wandered the planet for about 4,000 years. But the effort at Harvard has brought the return of the animal a...

Scientists Replay Call, Bird Last Seen in 1941 Surfaces

Jerdon's babbler spotted in Burma

(Newser) - Good news courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Society: An apparently "extinct" bird last seen in Burma almost 75 years ago has flown back into view. The Jerdon's babbler, or Chrysomma altirostre, initially discovered in 1862, was spotted in grasslands near the town of Myitkyo in July 1941 but...

Near Extinction: Turtle That Breathes Through Its Butt

In the right conditions, the white-throated snapping turtle can live to 100

(Newser) - The days of the white-throated snapping turtle (Elseya albagula) appear to be numbered, according to the Australian government, which has recently declared them critically endangered. If that isn't attention-grabbing enough, consider that the animal prompted a biologist to talk like this: "These turtles breathe out of their ass,...

1 of Last 6 Northern White Rhinos Dies

San Diego Zoo's Angalifu leaves no heirs

(Newser) - The number of northern white rhinos left on the planet can now be counted on one hand. Angalifu, one of the last six members of the species remaining and one of only two males, died yesterday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, apparently of old age, the San Diego ...

Scientists May Have Saved Continent's Rarest Mammal

Black-footed ferret is making a comeback

(Newser) - The black-footed ferret is the rarest mammal on the continent, but conservation efforts are making strides in preventing it from disappearing altogether. That's what people thought had happened 35 years ago, when the animal was declared extinct—for the second time. But after a dog found a black-footed ferret...

Scientists Resurrect the Dodo Bird

Scientists create a 3D digital model of the specimen

(Newser) - When it comes to extinct creatures, few are as commonly known as the dodo. But when it comes to the dodo, few facts have been established about how the flightless birds lived. A new study of the bird unlocks some of its mysteries. As a press release explains, there is...

Eggs' Shape May Have Helped Birds Outlive Dinosaurs

Study suggests differences played a role

(Newser) - So why did birds survive the mass extinction that wiped out their dinosaur relatives? A new study suggests that the shape of their eggs played a role, reports the BBC . Scientists aren't sure exactly what that role was, but they do know that eggs of survivor birds were shaped...

Ancient Giant Kangaroos Too Heavy to Hop

Their lumbering gait may have been their undoing

(Newser) - It isn't just recently that humans have hunted animals to extinction. It appears that 100,000 years ago a giant kangaroo lived in the Australian Outback, where it walked instead of hopped. But perhaps due to its slowness, the creature was an easy target for hunters who arrived somewhere...

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