FLORA FAUNA

5,060 articles

Ancient cycads found to be pre-adapted to grow in groves
Aug 23, 2013 (SPX)
The ancient cycad lineage has been around since before the age of the dinosaurs. More recently, cycads also co-existed with large herbivorous mammals, such as t...
Rising mountains, cooling oceans prompted spread of invasive species 450 million years ago
Aug 23, 2013 (SPX)
New Ohio University research suggests that the rise of an early phase of the Appalachian Mountains and cooling oceans allowed invasive species to upset the Nort...
Kenya jails Chinese ivory smuggler in landmark ruling
Aug 22, 2013 (AFP)
Kenya sentenced a Chinese ivory smuggler to two and a half years in prison Thursday in a landmark ruling hailed as sending a powerful warning to poachers and sm...
Dragonflies can see by switching 'on' and 'off'
Aug 22, 2013 (SPX)
Researchers at the University of Adelaide have discovered a novel and complex visual circuit in a dragonfly's brain that could one day help to improve vision sy...
Thai police seize 16 'illegal' elephants from tourist areas
Aug 21, 2013 (AFP)
Thai police said Wednesday they had seized 16 elephants from tourist destinations as part of a nationwide swoop on operators suspected of using smuggled wild pa...
Endangered Giant Ibis found in new Cambodia habitat
Aug 20, 2013 (AFP)
Jubilant conservationists expressed hope Tuesday for the survival of the critically-endangered Giant Ibis after a nest of the bird species was discovered in a p...
Unearthed: Fossil of history's most successful mammal
Aug 20, 2013 (SPX)
The 160 million-year-old fossil of an extinct rodent-like creature from China is helping to explain how multituberculates-the most evolutionarily successful and...
Warming climate pushes plants up the mountain
Aug 20, 2013 (SPX)
In a rare opportunity to directly compare plant communities in the same area now with a survey taken 50 years ago, a University of Arizona-led research team has...
Successful deployment of an autonomous deep-sea explorer to search for new forms of microbial life
Aug 19, 2013 (SPX)
Scientists are reporting "a significant step forward" in proving the feasibility of launching fleets of autonomous robots that search Earth's deep oceans for ex...
New baby panda born at Vienna zoo
Aug 15, 2013 (AFP)
The Vienna zoo on Thursday made a birth announcement: Yang Yang and her mate Long Hui are the proud parents of another baby panda, the third one born of natural...
Ecosystems change long before species are lost
Aug 15, 2013 (SPX)
Communities in nature are likely to be a lot more sensitive to change than previously thought, according to a new study at Rice University. The study, which app...
Study suggests apes can learn to swim and dive like humans
Aug 14, 2013 (UPI)
Researchers say they have obtained the first video-based observation of swimming and diving by apes, a behavior previously thought distinct to humans. Zoos have...
Llamas and goats keep grass cut at Chicago airport
Aug 14, 2013 (AFP)
Chicago's bustling O'Hare airport has hired a new crew to keep the grass cut: a herd of goats, sheep, donkeys and llamas. Yes, llamas. The llamas help protect t...
Over six tonnes of rare live pangolins found in Vietnam
Aug 14, 2013 (AFP)
Vietnamese customs officials said Wednesday they had found more than six tonnes of live protected pangolins inside a shipping container sent from Indonesia. The...
Invasive ants said a more serious global threat than thought
Aug 14, 2013 (UPI)
Invasive ants are becoming a more serious problem as more of the insects are being unwittingly shipped around the world, Spanish researchers say. Colonies being...
Poachers shoot dead rhino in Kenyan capital park
Aug 13, 2013 (AFP)
Gunmen have shot dead a white rhino in Nairobi's national park, a brazen raid in one of the best guarded sites in Kenya, wildlife officials said Tuesday. Amid a...
Officials encouraged by growing numbers of endangered primate in China
Aug 13, 2013 (UPI)
The number of China's snub-nosed monkeys, among the world's most endangered primates, increased from 2,000 to more than 3,000 since the 1990s, officials said. C...
New proto-mammal fossil sheds light on evolution of earliest mammals
Aug 12, 2013 (SPX)
A newly discovered fossil reveals the evolutionary adaptations of a 165-million-year-old proto-mammal, providing evidence that traits such as hair and fur origi...
NASA satellites used to predict zebra migrations
Aug 12, 2013 (SPX)
One of the world's longest migrations of zebras occurs in the African nation of Botswana, but predicting when and where zebras will move has not been possible u...
Strangers invade the homes of giant bacteria
Aug 12, 2013 (SPX)
Life is not a walk in the park for the world's largest bacteria, that live as soft, noodle-like, white strings on the bottom of the ocean depths. Without being ...
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, is Copyright 1995-2026 Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principles for news reporting and research purposes.