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Mammals Evolved into Ant Eaters 12 Times Since Dinosaur Age, Study Finds

Written by: Jesse Jenkins Published: A first-of-its-kind study traces the rise of ant- and termite-eaters, revealing how mammals returned to the evolutionary table — at least a dozen times — to hone traits for feasting on the social insect bonanza that exploded after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Mammals have developed some unusual eating habits over the past 100 million years, but a new study has uncovered the surprising lengths some have gone to satisfy one of the more peculiar — a taste

Unreal Amber Fossils Show ‘Last of Us’ Zombie Fungus Terrorizing Bugs During the Cretaceous

In the video game The Last of Us and its spin-off HBO series, humans fight to survive against cordyceps, a parasitic fungus that turns its hosts into zombies. While the infections are wildly dramatized in both the game and the show, these fungi aren’t mere science fiction. In fact, some species have been around since the age of the dinosaurs, a new study suggests. An international team of researchers led by Yuhui Zhuang, a doctoral student of paleontology at China’s Yunnan University, recently

The Anthropocene illusion

“Charles Darwin reduced humans to just another species—a twig on the grand tree of life,” Nelson writes in his book’s afterword. “But now, the paradigm has shifted: humankind is no longer just another species. We are the first to knowingly reshape the living earth’s biology and chemistry. We have become the masters of our planet and integral to the destiny of life on Earth. Surrounding ourselves with simulated recreations of nature paradoxically constitutes an unwitting monument to the very thin

'Dragon prince' dinosaur discovery 'rewrites' T.rex family tree

New species of dinosaur discovered that 'rewrites' T.rex family tree 12 June 2025 Share Save Victoria Gill Science correspondent, BBC News Share Save Masato Hattori An artist's impression of Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, the newly discovered tyrannosaur ancestor Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur - in the collection of a Mongolian museum - that they say "rewrites" the evolutionary history of tyrannosaurs. Researchers concluded that two 86 million-year-old skeletons they studied

​​How to Become a Backyard Naturalist With Just Your Smartphone

In the early days of summer, backyards come to life. Warmer temperatures transform spring buds into lush greenery, coax insects from their winter slumber, and invite newborn animals to explore their surroundings on wobbling legs or wings. With smartphones, documenting this emerging wildlife has never been easier. These days, all the tools you need to become a backyard naturalist fit right in the palm of your hand. And while June is an especially good time to start, you can use your phone to obs

The Ecosystem Dynamics That Can Make or Break an Invasion

The approach has been fruitful. In 2022, Gore and colleagues discovered that ecological communities undergo phase transitions — a core organizing principle in physics that describes, for example, water’s change from solid ice to liquid to gas. As the researchers increased either the number of species in their experimental ecosystems or the strength of the interactions between species, the ecosystems might progress through three phases. In phase one, all bacterial populations remained stable. In

DNA floating in the air tracks wildlife, viruses, even drugs

Dublin is known as a city where you can enjoy a few pints of Guiness, get a warm welcome from the locals and hear lively traditional music drifting out of pubs and into the city air. But it's not just music floating on the breeze. The air of Dublin also contains cannabis, poppy, even magic mushrooms -- at least their DNA. That's according to a new study that reveals the power of DNA, vacuumed up from the air, which can track everything from elusive bobcats to illicit drugs. "The level of info

Researchers are now vacuuming DNA from the air

Dublin is known as a city where you can enjoy a few pints of Guiness, get a warm welcome from the locals and hear lively traditional music drifting out of pubs and into the city air. But it's not just music floating on the breeze. The air of Dublin also contains cannabis, poppy, even magic mushrooms -- at least their DNA. That's according to a new study that reveals the power of DNA, vacuumed up from the air, which can track everything from elusive bobcats to illicit drugs. "The level of info

David Attenborough at 99: 'I will not see how the story ends'

My earliest memory of the ocean is of a tropical lagoon. Ammonites rose and fell in the warm water column, occasionally propelling themselves forwards, their curled ram’s horn shells surprisingly streamlined in the water. This tropical lagoon was in fact in my imagination, fired as I explored the old limestone quarry near my childhood home in Leicester, some 60 miles from the coast. For a small boy in the 1930s this was a marvellous place for adventures, and the knowledge that millions of year