How did survivors of the Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction adapt to their new, harsh environment? And why is that knowledge so important for modern species?
Dendrogramma, the deep-sea mushroom.
Hugh McIntosh/Museum Victoria
What scientists first thought was an ancient species that had survived undiscovered for many millions of years, turns out to be part of something equally mysterious.
This massive dragonfly, the Swordbearer Emperor Anax gladiator, is named for the blade-like spike at its tail tip.
Copyright Jens Kipping
There are 6,000 named dragonfly species worldwide but recently 60 new species were found showing how much more we can learn.
Doing its own thing: the eastern coyote, or coywolf, is a mix of coyote, wolf and dog which has spread across eastern North America.
Jonathan Way, www.EasternCoyoteResearch.com
A wildlife biologist argues that the canid in eastern North America – known as the eastern coyote, or the coywolf by some – deserves to be classified as a separate species.
When 100-year-old giant tortoise Lonesome George died in 2012, the world thought his species was lost forever. We went to the Galápagos Islands looking for ‘extinct’ tortoises – and we found them.
Fragments of woodland surrounded by cleared land in south west Australia.
Google Earth
Australia may have reputation for vast areas of wilderness, but in reality the continent’s ecosystems have been chopped and diced. Now we need to protect what’s left.
Professor Lee Berger from the University of the Witwatersrand holding the skull of Homo Naledi.
EPA/Shiraaz Mohamed
The big question being asked is: where does Homo naledi fit in the evolutionary tree? Assessing the similarity or dissimilarity between fossil skulls has provided a possible clue to the answer.
The skull of Homo naledi is built like those of early Homo species but its brain was just more than half the size of the average ancestor from 2 million years ago.
SUPPLIED
Being big – larger than a dog – increases the risk of being wiped out in a mass extinction.
What’s in a name? Plenty, if it is a dinosaur such as the Changyuraptor, a genus of the ‘four-winged’ predatory dinosaur.
S. Abramowicz, Dinosaur Institute
A dinosaur’s name says something about the dinosaur itself. They are grouped together according to similarities they share, which also indicates their ancestral relationships to one another.
This selection of stone tools provides a glimpse into the implements used by Africans 50 000 to 60 000 years ago.
Supplied
What do Beyonce, Hitler, David Attenborough, Darth Vader and GoldenPalace.com all have in common? They all have species named after them. In the case of Beyonce it is an Australian horse fly whose striking…
A Crimson Rosella (Platycercus elegans) in the wild near Melbourne.
Raoul Ribot
Despite its name, the Crimson Rosella is perhaps Australia’s most colour-variable bird and a cause of this striking and beautiful diversity seems to be a disease that’s potentially deadly to many other…
A new species of wild cat in central and north-eastern Brazil has been confirmed, according to a study published today in the journal Current Biology. This recognition formally separates the two known…
Sorry guys, if you are smaller than 1 mm, you can’t be a species.
Microbe World
Despite their small size, organisms smaller than thousandth of a metre (1 mm) contribute greatly to biodiversity and ecosystem function. Unfortunately, categorising small organisms, even defining those…