A new statistical method suggests that past landscape changes can cast a shadow on future bird biodiversity, leading to avian communities facing impeding species extinctions, as well as the arrival of new colonizing species.
Plants & Animals
Feb 11, 2022
0
51
Up to 216 Australian birds are now threatened—compared with 195 a decade ago—and climate change is now the main driver pushing threatened birds closer to extinction, landmark new research has found.
Plants & Animals
Dec 1, 2021
0
4
Human-caused bird extinctions are driving losses of functional diversity on islands worldwide, and the gaps they leave behind are not being filled by introduced (alien) species, finds a new study led by UCL and University ...
Ecology
Nov 10, 2021
0
181
Before humans made their way to New Zealand, the critically endangered flightless parrot known as the kākāpō likely numbered in the hundreds of thousands. By 1995, their numbers had dwindled to just 51 birds, including ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 8, 2021
0
73
A new study from Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute revealed that over the last 20,000-50,000 years, birds have undergone a major extinction event, inflicted chiefly by humans, which caused the disappearance of ...
Ecology
Aug 12, 2021
1
445
Today, being "birdbrained" means forgetting where you left your keys or wallet. But 66 million years ago, it may have meant the difference between life and death—and may help explain why birds are the only dinosaurs left ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 30, 2021
1
2916
Along with climate change, species extinction is one of the greatest threats to life on earth. For about 50 years, researchers have been documenting the population trends of different animal and plant groups in so-called ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 24, 2021
0
21
The rapid extinction of giant animals including wombat-like creatures as big as cars, birds more than two meters tall, and lizards more than seven meters long that once roamed the Australian continent is a puzzle that has ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 13, 2021
2
296
In a genetic surprise, ancient DNA shows the closest family members of an extinct bird known as the Haitian cave-rail are not in the Americas, but Africa and the South Pacific, uncovering an unexpected link between Caribbean ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 16, 2021
0
92
There would be at least four times as many flightless bird species on Earth today if it were not for human influences, finds a study led by UCL researchers.The study, published in Science Advances, finds that flightlessness ...
Evolution
Dec 2, 2020
2
389
