extinction – News Stories About extinction - Page 1

Seeing This Image
Was 'Most Surreal
Moment of My Life'

Seeing This Image Was 'Most Surreal Moment of My Life'

Scientists capture footage of black-naped pheasant-pigeon for first time since 1882

(Newser) - The researchers had to gun it in their boat to outrun pirates after departing Fergusson Island off of Papua New Guinea. But as the BBC tells it, the likely adrenaline rush that produced may have been dwarfed by the one they experienced on the island itself. The eight-person team in...

Half of World's Palm Trees Face Extinction

Half of World's
Palm Trees
Go On the
'Red List'

new study

Sep 27, 2022 11:10 AM CDT

Half of World's Palm Trees Go On the 'Red List'

Which means they're at risk of extinction

(Newser) - A new study presents an alarming stat about what researchers call a "keystone" family of trees—more than half of the world's species of palm trees face extinction. The study in Nature Ecology and Evolution finds that more than 1,000 of the 1,900 different species are...

India Brings Back the Only
Large Mammal It Has Lost

Sep 18, 2022 9:00 AM CDT

India Brings Back the Only Large Mammal It Has Lost

The country reintroduces cheetahs some 75 years after they were hunted to extinction

(Newser) - Cheetahs were hunted into extinction 75 years ago in India, making them "the only large mammal that India has lost," said a conservation expert in the country. "It is our moral and ethical responsibility to bring them back." On Saturday that responsibility was fulfilled, with eight...

Biotech Firm Thinks It Can 'De-Extinct' This Animal

Efforts Are Underway to
'De-Extinct' Tasmanian Tiger

Aug 17, 2022 1:55 PM CDT

Efforts Are Underway to 'De-Extinct' Tasmanian Tiger

Species has been extinct for almost a century

(Newser) - The thylacine, a striped, wolf-like animal better known as the Tasmanian tiger, once roamed the Australian mainland as well as the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. A Texas-based biosciences startup says they could be back within 10 years. The last known thylacine died in a zoo in 1936, but...

Giant Tortoise
Presumed Extinct
for a Century Is
Very Much Alive

Jun 10, 2022 2:55 PM CDT

Giant Tortoise Presumed Extinct for a Century Is Very Much Alive

Fernanda is first fantastic giant tortoise seen in Galapagos since 1906, and only the 2nd ever

(Newser) - A Galapagos giant tortoise species observed only once more than a century ago on a remote volcanic island and thought to have gone extinct as a result of volcanic eruptions has turned up very much alive. A female "fantastic giant tortoise," which the Guardian reports is "significantly...

Most Americans Don't Want
a Real-Life Jurassic Park

Apr 27, 2022 7:43 AM CDT

Most Americans Don't Want a Real-Life Jurassic Park

Majority are against bringing dinosaurs back from extinction, if that were an option, per YouGov poll

(Newser) - If you've ever fantasized about a world in which T. rex once more roamed the Earth, you're in a small minority. YouGov recently surveyed 2,000 American adults on how they felt about helping save endangered species, or even bringing back extinct ones, and the majority answered that...

Project to Save White Rhino Is Down to One Living Animal

Living Animals in
White Rhino Breeding
Program: One

Oct 21, 2021 9:55 AM CDT

Living Animals in White Rhino Breeding Program: One

Najin, one of 2 remaining northern white rhinos, has been retired

(Newser) - Hopes of saving the northern white rhinoceros now rest on a sole female, some frozen sperm, and a dozen embryos. There are just two northern white rhinos alive—females Najin and Fatu of Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy—whose eggs were extracted, then inseminated with frozen sperm from dead males...

For 23 Endangered Species,
All Hope Is Now Gone

Sep 29, 2021 6:56 AM CDT

For 23 Endangered Species, All Hope Is Now Gone

Ivory-billed woodpecker, nearly 2 dozen other species have been declared extinct by US

(Newser) - Wednesday is set to be a sad day for nearly two dozen endangered species, with all hope gone that we'll ever see them again. Federal wildlife authorities are expected to announce that the ivory-billed woodpecker, Bachman's warbler, and 20 other animals, as well as one plant, are now...

The Koala
Population
Is Plunging,
Group Says

Sep 20, 2021 7:35 PM CDT

The Koala Population Is Plunging, Group Says

Australian foundation finds 30% drop in 3 years

(Newser) - "Most animals decline towards extinction," an ecology professor in Australia said, "they don't go for a single reason." That fits the koala's predicament; a host of factors have combined to shrink its population. Most of the koalas' natural habitats in Australia have been cleared...

For Dinosaurs, Asteroid
Was Just a Final Blow

NEW STUDY

Jul 1, 2021 1:26 PM CDT

For Dinosaurs, Asteroid Was Just a Final Blow

Study suggests species were struggling before the big collision

(Newser) - You've heard how an asteroid strike 66 million years ago wiped out the dinosaurs . But there's more to the story, according to a new study, which suggests non-avian dinosaurs weren't doing so hot before sulfates and dust filled the atmosphere—some 10 million years before, in fact....

Monarch Butterfly
Count Suggests
Extinction Is Near

Jan 20, 2021 1:21 PM CST

Monarch Butterfly Count Suggests Extinction Is Near

Only 2K western monarch butterflies were counted in California this winter

(Newser) - The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted precipitously to a record low, putting the insects closer to extinction, researchers announced Tuesday. An annual winter count by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies, a massive decline from the millions that clustered in...

Say Goodbye
to a Rather
Odd Fish

Jul 19, 2020 2:40 PM CDT

Say Goodbye to a Rather Odd Fish

The smooth handfish has been declared extinct

(Newser) - A fish you've likely never heard of is already gone. The smooth handfish—which stood out with its protruding eyes, mohawk-ish head fin, and ability to walk on its pelvic and pectoral fins—has been declared extinct, LiveScience reports. Experts say it's the first marine fish to die...

6th Mass Extinction Is Speeding
Along. It's 'Entirely Our Fault'

NEW STUDY

Jun 2, 2020 8:43 AM CDT

6th Mass Extinction Is Speeding Along. It's 'Entirely Our Fault'

Humanity is 'sawing off the limb on which it is sitting'

(Newser) - Biodiversity is critical for human life, which makes the latest study on it especially troubling. In research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the sixth mass extinction we're currently undergoing, scientists looked at threatened-species data from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature,...

One Thing That Doomed
Dinosaurs: a Bad Angle

May 26, 2020 7:31 PM CDT

One Thing That Doomed Dinosaurs: a Bad Angle

Asteroid's steep trajectory caused maximum damage

(Newser) - Dinosaurs might still be roaming the Earth today if not for an incredible run of bad luck 66 million years ago. Researchers had already determined that the city-sized asteroid that hit the planet, leading to the mass extinction, struck at the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time . Scientists...

Sorry, Climate Change.
There's Another Problem

opinion

Mar 11, 2020 6:00 PM CDT

Sorry, Climate Change. There's Another Problem

Tamar Stelling has a new way to measure Earth's loss of species

(Newser) - Climate change isn't our only environmental problem—and evidence lies in the North Sea. Back in the 16th century a Dutch fishmonger could witness "whales everywhere, as far as the eye can see," writes Tamar Stelling at the Correspondent . "Some majestically spring from the water as...

Fireflies May Soon Go Dark
Due to a Big Triple Threat

NEW STUDY

Feb 4, 2020 8:48 AM CST

Fireflies May Soon Go Dark Due to a Big Triple Threat

Researchers warn of possible extinction due to habitat loss, artificial light, and pesticides

(Newser) - There’s a "quiet apocalypse" happening among insect populations around the world, and fireflies may soon be the next to see their lights dimmed for good. New research out of Tufts University published in the journal BioScience warns that the world’s 2,000 or so species of the...

A Freshwater Giant
Is Now Extinct

new study

Jan 9, 2020 2:25 PM CST

A Freshwater Giant Is Now Extinct

Chinese paddlefish is no more

(Newser) - One of the world's largest fish is no more. A new study in the Science of the Total Environment has declared the Chinese paddlefish to be extinct. As National Geographic notes, the freshwater fish had been swimming in the Yangtze River for about 200 million years, but it could...

Malaysia Says Goodbye
to Last Sumatran Rhino

Nov 24, 2019 5:30 PM CST

Malaysia Says Goodbye to Last Sumatran Rhino

Iman, 25, had actually died several times

(Newser) - It's a sad day in Borneo, where Malaysia's last Sumatran rhino has died—meaning the species is gone in its native country, the Washington Post reports. The 25-year-old female, Iman, died of cancer in a sanctuary after dying multiple times from blood loss and being revived, per the...

Study Raises Alarming Stat
About the World's Plants

study says

Jun 11, 2019 8:00 AM CDT

Study Raises Alarming Stat About the World's Plants

Researchers say at least 571 species have disappeared in 250 years, far more than animals

(Newser) - "Most people can name a mammal or bird that has become extinct in recent centuries, but few can name an extinct plant," says Aleys Humphreys, co-author of a gloomy new study on the fate of the planet's plants. Here, then, are three plants that have disappeared in...

'We Failed Our Little Brown
Rat' in Climate Change First

Feb 20, 2019 7:37 AM CST

'We Failed Our Little Brown Rat' in Climate Change First

Australia classifies Bramble Cay melomys as extinct

(Newser) - It's official in the eyes of Australia: A small brown rat is the first known mammal to be eradicated as a result of human-induced climate change. Bramble Cay melomys were declared extinct by Queensland's government in 2016 after a series of research trips failed to locate the animal...