Tag: Extinction

  • Nation & World

    Why were reptiles such evolution success story?

    Fast climatic shifts due to global warming coincided with high rates of morphological change in most reptiles.

    4 minutes
    Artistic rendering of of carnivorous reptile that was a close relative of crocodiles and dinosaurs chasing a gliding reptile in a hot and dry river valley 240 million years ago.
  • Nation & World

    Fish teeth mark periods of evolution

    Based on close examination of thousands of fossilized fish teeth, a Harvard researcher found that, while the asteroid impact that killed off the dinosaurs did lead to the extinction of some fish species, it also set the stage for two periods of rapid evolution among marine life.

    6 minutes
    Fish teeth
  • Nation & World

    In plant tug-of-war, mom wins

    Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum researchers examining how the battle of the sexes is waged in plants have found a maternal path to victory.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Drawing the eye to extinction

    A new exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History brings an artist’s view to the ongoing extinction crisis affecting the planet.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A home fit for a king

    State wildlife biologists installed a peregrine falcon nesting platform high on Memorial Hall’s tower.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Twice doomed?

    Growing evidence points to a role for volcanoes in dinosaur extinction, said planetary scientist Mark Richards in a Harvard lecture.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Behold the mammoth (maybe)

    Harvard geneticist George Church discussed the future of genetic engineering, including possible technological applications allowing new treatment techniques. He saw the potential to improve human health, revolutionize pest management, and perhaps even bring back the mammoth and other extinct species.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Saving tortoises by a hair

    Five species of giant, long-lived Galapagos tortoises are thought to have gone extinct, but recent DNA analysis shows that some may survive on other islands in the archipelago, according to work by Michael Russello, Harvard Hrdy Fellow in Conservation Biology.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Cultivating trouble

    Only 39 percent of the nearly 10,000 North American plant species threatened with extinction are being maintained in collections, according to the first comprehensive listing of the threatened plant species in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Fellow’s focus is foggy, froggy forest

    In the dark of the Sri Lankan cloud forest, the researchers’ only guide was the headlamps they used to light up the night, illuminating the cold, gray mist that drifted through the trees.

    7 minutes