42+ min ago   (448+ words) Scientists have discovered a new extinct amphibian species hiding in the fossil collections of Los Angeles’ La Brea Tar Pits. Named Spea labreae, the Ice Age spadefoot toad is an exceptionally rare find—only one other extinct Pleistocene amphibian has…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago   (443+ words) More than 150 years after Darwin’s finches helped reshape biology, Galápagos plants are exposing another evolutionary surprise. Giant daisies repeatedly developed similar heat-tolerant leaf shapes, but each lineage used a different combination of genes. Researchers also found major genetic differences among…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago   (645+ words) A major Atlantic Ocean current is slowing, and the consequences could reach far beyond the Atlantic. New research from the University of California, Riverside suggests the change could strengthen powerful storms along the California coast while reducing snowfall over Greenland....

2+ week, 6+ day ago   (746+ words) Two devastating wildfires that swept through California's Sierra Nevada in 2020 and 2021 killed thousands of giant sequoias. A new University of California, Davis study suggests the losses would have been far worse without prescribed burns. Published in Nature Communications, the research…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago   (246+ words) Fossils discovered in Japan more than two decades ago have finally been identified as a new genus and species of giant salamander. Limnospondylus ajimuensis lived around 3.5 million years ago in a warmer, wetter Kyushu and may have reached 1.1 meters in…...

4+ week, 18+ hour ago   (236+ words) Scientists have found evidence that a major Cascadia earthquake could trigger a second quake on the San Andreas Fault. The discovery came from unusual sediment layers formed by underwater landslides recorded over thousands of years. These patterns suggest both fault…...

1+ mon, 4+ day ago   (859+ words) A new Stanford led study has provided the strongest evidence yet for why some marine animals survived Earth's largest mass extinction while many others disappeared forever. The findings not only explain how modern ocean ecosystems came to be, but also…...

1+ mon, 6+ day ago   (151+ words) A new study debunks the long-standing claim that baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than adults. Researchers found that young rattlesnakes can control their venom just like adults, while adult snakes usually inject much more venom and cause more serious bites....

1+ mon, 2+ week ago   (828+ words) A long-term study has found that even occasional visits from mountain lions can reshape an entire ecosystem. Researchers studying a small suburban preserve about 45 miles south of San Francisco discovered that as mountain lion activity increased, the behavior of many…...

1+ mon, 3+ week ago   (221+ words) Scientists discovered that Heliconius butterflies have evolved an extraordinary lifespan, living several times longer than closely related species. Even more surprising, some show little sign of physical decline as they age. Their unusual pollen-feeding lifestyle may play a role, but…...