Jurassic fossils from northeastern China reveal morphological stasis in the catkin-yew
(Science China Press) Dong and colleagues studied well-preserved plant fossils from the Middle-Late Jurassic Daohugou Bed in eastern Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. These fossils closely resemble the extant catkin-yews Amentotaxus. They provide unequivocal evidence that the catkin-yews have undergone little morphological change over at least ~160 million years. Like ginkgo, the catkin-yews are living fossils that provide an important new example of evolutionary stasis.
The Planet’s Future Has Never Looked Brighter
Doomsday thinking about the environment has been popular for decades. A rational optimist lays out the many reasons we can be hopeful about the future of the planet. In 1980, the year that PERC was founded, I spent three months…
Care for cats? So did people along the Silk Road more than 1,000 years ago
Common domestic cats, as we know them today, might have accompanied Kazakh pastoralists as pets more than 1,000 years ago. This is indicated by new analyses done on an almost complete cat skeleton found during an excavation along the former Silk Road in southern Kazakhstan. An international research team has reconstructed the cat’s life, revealing astonishing insights into the relationship between humans and pets at the time.
Fossil jawbone from Alaska is a rare case of a juvenile Arctic dromaeosaurid dinosaur
A small piece of fossil jawbone from Alaska represents a rare example of juvenile dromaeosaurid dinosaur remains from the Arctic, according to a new study.
Where did the Asian longhorned ticks in the US come from?
The invasive population of Asian longhorned ticks in the United States likely began with three or more self-cloning females from northeastern Asia, according to a new study. Asian longhorned ticks outside the U.S. can carry debilitating diseases. In the United States and elsewhere they can threaten livestock and pets. The new study sheds new light on the origin of these exotic ticks and how they are spreading across the United States.
1.5 billion people will depend on water from mountains
(University of Zurich) Global water consumption has increased almost fourfold in the past 100 years, and many regions can only meet their water demand thanks to essential contributions from mountain regions. In 30 years, almost a quarter of the world’s lowland population will strongly depend on runoff from the mountains. Only sustainable development can ensure the important function of mountain areas as Earth’s “water towers”.
Locust swarms: How the other plague is affecting several states
Locusts have returned to India in just two months and are spreading to new territories. Has climate change added another layer of stress and uncertainty?
We’re No. 1: Global warming has surpassed global cycle – Haaretz
In the last 150 years, since the industrial revolution began, anthropogenic heating has increased the global mean temperature by more than 1 degree Celsius. That increase has wiped out the natural cooling trend that began 6,500 years ago, in which…
Heatwave trends accelerate worldwide
(University of New South Wales) The first comprehensive worldwide assessment of heatwaves down to regional levels has revealed that in nearly every part of the world heatwaves have been increasing in frequency and duration since the 1950’s. The research published in Nature Communications has also produced a new metric, cumulative heat, which reveals exactly how much heat is packed into individual heatwaves and heatwave seasons. As expected, that number is also on the rise.
Canada’s Supreme Court Blocks Appeal To Trans Mountain Pipeline
The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear a new appeal from British Columbia First Nations over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The court on Thursday dismissed the appeal from the Squamish Nation, Tsleil-Waututh Nation, the Ts’elxweyeqw Tribes, and Coldwater…
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