Over 45,000 species are now threatened with extinction — 1,000 more than last year — according to an international conservation organization that blames pressures from climate change, invasive species and human activity such as illicit trade and infrastructural expansion. The International Union for Conservation of Nature released its latest Red List of Threatened Species on […]
A multiyear effort to remove invasive plants is expected to pay off in a big way by improving the water quality for residents of Topeka, Kansas. In March, KSNT 27 News reported that conservation organization Friends of the Kaw, or FOK, and its partners were wrapping up a two-year initiative to rewild the banks of […]
LUVERNE, MINN. – Nick Utrup sat with a team of biologists in the tall grass, straining to see through the ripples of a small, unnamed pond. An approaching rainstorm from the west, already over the red cliffs of the nearby Blue Mounds State Park, had stirred up the wind throughout the prairie. But Utrup and […]
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Thousands of fish species — about 2,500 of them named — call the Amazon River home, but scientists estimate nearly half of the marine creatures lurking in the massive stretch of water remain undiscovered. While […]
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. An amateur paleontologist has discovered a new species of pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived alongside dinosaurs around 100 million years ago. Kevin Petersen, an avocado farmer and curator of the Kronosaurus Korner fossil museum […]
Australia is famously well-served for most varieties of terrifying fauna, but at least one variety of prehistoric predator is under-represented in its fossil record: the flying carnivorous dinosaurs known as pterosaurs. However, a new paper published June 12 in Scientific Reports describes a fossilized skeleton found in the Australian state of Queensland that belongs to […]
It turns out that humans might not be the only species that have individualized identifiers for each other. A new study found that African savanna elephants, an endangered species, have name-like calls for each other that resemble human names – a finding that potentially “radically expands the express power of language evolution.” Researchers analyzed the […]
SEASIDE, Ore. – A massive ocean oddity that washed up on a northern Oregon beach last week turned out to be a recently discovered species of sunfish, according to the local aquarium. According to the Seaside Aquarium, a 7.3-foot sunfish was found on Gearhart Beach, north of Seaside, Oregon, on June 3. “Initially, this large, […]
It was the summer of the cicada — but now, Joro spiders may be swooping in to claim their spot in the headlines. Researchers say these black and yellow arachnids are making their way up from Southern states like Georgia to New York and beyond. Should you be concerned? Here’s what you need to know […]
A group of wildlife biologists recently made a rare discovery after finding a fish thousands of miles away from where it was spawned. The Aquatic Invasive Species Crew from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) were at the Kansas River in search of an invasive species when they stumbled upon the unexpected – […]
Jun. 3—Volunteers are needed to help pull frogbit Sunday as one of the state’s Invasive Species Awareness Week events. The state Environmental Conservation and Agriculture and Markets departments coordinate the invasive species week, hosting free public events and invasive species challenges from June 3 to June 9 across the state and online, including daily webinars […]
Throughout the ’70s,’80s, and ’90s, Frank Mazzotti would see many rabbits as he drove down to his study site in Florida’s Everglades National Park. Every hundred meters or so, one of them would be sitting by the roadside — usually a marsh rabbit, sometimes a cottontail. But starting in the early 2000s, they began to […]