Mummy-making wasps discovered in Ecuador
Some Ecuadorian tribes were famous for making mummified shrunken heads from the remains of their conquered foes. Field work in the cloud…
Category: Big Questions
If all human-related deforestation of the tropics were to stop, the forests could absorb the equivalent of one-fifth of global emissions
Reducing deforestation in the tropics would significantly cut the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere – by as much as…
Increasing ocean temperatures means less zooplankton and therefore less fish
Phytoplankton and zooplankton biomass will decrease 6 percent and 11 percent due to climate change Sea surface temperature is expected to…
10,000 species of birds today thanks to incredible adaptive radiation in early dinosaur evolution
Shrinking helped dinosaurs and birds to keep evolving A study that has ‘weighed’ hundreds of dinosaurs suggests that shrinking…
This genus of bushcricket is a living example of an ultrasonic speaker system
In the rainforests of South America, scientists have discovered a new genus and three new species of insect with the highest ultrasonic…
Ice is nice – new species of sea anemone that lives only on ice
Using a camera-equipped robot to explore beneath the Ross Ice Shelf off Antarctica, scientists and engineers with the Antarctic Geological…
66-million-year-old snapshot of a forest just before the mass extinction of the dinosaurs
As far back as the time of the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago, forests recovered from fires in the same manner they do today, according to…
Giant pill-millipedes that chirp while mating discovered in Madagascar
An international team of researchers comprised of Thomas Wesener, Museum Koenig, Bonn, Daniel Le, Field Museum, Chicago and Stephanie Loria,…
Extinction and recolonization of coastal megafauna following human arrival in New Zealand
Ancient DNA research has been applied to demonstrate the dynamic response of natural ecosystems to human impacts, with the discovery of…
Parasitic fig wasps penetrate figs with zinc-hardened drill bit tips to lay eggs
Female insects have one goal in life: to find the best place to lay their eggs. For fig wasps, that is the developing fruit of the luscious…