Biodiversity

Latest about biodiversity

Dodos once roamed the island of Mauritius, before humans arrived and drove the birds to extinction.

Facts about the dodo

By Vicky Stein published

Dodos went extinct more than a century ago, and they are an enduring reminder of human-caused extinction.

Extinct species
A photo of E.O. Wilson in his office at Harvard University.

Famed naturalist E.O. Wilson, 'Darwin's natural heir,' dies at 92

By Patrick Pester published

World leading naturalist E.O. Wilson has passed away at the age of 92. He was known as "Darwin’s natural heir" and the world's top authority on the study of ants.

Planet Earth
images of bryozoans found deep beneath antarctic ice shelves

Unimaginable diversity of life discovered beneath Antarctic ice shelf

By Cameron Duke published

Antarctica
Illustration of a Cambrian penis worm inhabiting a hyolith shell.

Ferocious 'penis worms' were the hermit crabs of the ancient seas

By Brandon Specktor published

Priapulids, sometimes called penis worms, were fearsome predators of the Cambrian Period. They may have worn shells for protection, new fossil evidence suggests.

Crustaceans
The choice of the long-tailed bat as Bird of the Year ruffled feathers among New Zealand bird aficionados.

Fowl play? 'Bird of the Year' winner in New Zealand contest is a bat

By Mindy Weisberger published

New Zealand's long-tailed bat recently earned a very unlikely accolade.

Birds
Critically endangered California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) can reproduce asexually, scientists recently discovered.

Critically endangered condor chicks are species' 1st known 'virgin births'

By Mindy Weisberger published

Genetic analysis recently showed that California condors can reproduce asexually.

Birds
Fossils of the key groups used to unveil the Eocene-Oligocene extinction in Africa with primates on the left, the carnivorous hyaenodont, upper right, rodent, lower right. These fossils are from the Fayum Depression in Egypt and are stored at the Duke Lemur Center's Division of Fossil Primates.

'Lost extinction,' uncovered for the first time, claimed more than 60% of Africa's primates

By Mindy Weisberger published

More than half of the species in five mammal groups went extinct in Africa about 34 million years ago, scientists recently discovered.

Planet Earth
A warning sign for hippopotamuses near Hacienda Nápoles in Doradal, Colombia.

Pablo Escobar's 'cocaine hippos' are being sterilized because the population is out of control

By Mindy Weisberger published

Contraception may be the only key to controlling a population boom in feral hippos living in Colombian rivers near Pablo Escobar's former estate.

Land Mammals
Footage of the last Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) at Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Australia, from 1933. The film was recently colorized by Composite Films in Paris.

Stunning colorized footage provides a glimpse of the last known Tasmanian tiger

By Mindy Weisberger published

Thylacines, once widespread in Australia, have been extinct for nearly a century, but newly colorized footage provides a glimpse of what they looked like in life.

Cats
In poison dart frogs, bright blue colors broadcast a warning to predators that the animal is toxic.

Why is the color blue so rare in nature?

By Mindy Weisberger published

Of all the colors we can see in nature, blue is one of the rarest.

Planet Earth
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