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solartim27

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #100 on: January 26, 2015, 07:36:27 PM »
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solartim27

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #101 on: January 26, 2015, 08:03:45 PM »
Great story on Snowy Owls moving south again this year:
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/01/26/snowy-owl-migration
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Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #102 on: January 27, 2015, 04:55:58 PM »

Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #103 on: January 27, 2015, 04:58:27 PM »
Polar bear penis bone may be weakened by pollution
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26855-polar-bear-penis-bone-may-be-weakened-by-pollution.html?cmpid=RSS|NSNS|2012-GLOBAL|environment#.VMetc8XHKLU

Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #104 on: January 27, 2015, 11:26:29 PM »
Beetle vs. Bird: Expert Panel Weighs in on Biocontrol of Invasive Tamarisk Trees
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-sher-simon/beetle-vs-bird-expert-pan_b_6535708.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green

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To this point, one problem we all agreed on was that increasing human demand for water has both facilitated tamarisk invasion and threatens birds. Declining surface and groundwater in the arid Southwestern U.S. has made many regions inhospitable to any tree species other than tamarisk.

Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #105 on: January 30, 2015, 03:29:51 PM »
California: Ominous explosion of sea slugs 'could signal forthcoming mass extinction'
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/california-ominous-explosion-sea-slugs-could-signal-forthcoming-mass-extinction-1485925

Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #106 on: February 12, 2015, 11:23:08 PM »

Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #107 on: February 13, 2015, 10:13:44 AM »
Sea lions desperate for nourishment dying off in alarming numbers on California coast
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_27517032/sea-lions-desperate-nourishment-dying-off-alarming-numbers

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #108 on: March 13, 2015, 06:59:01 PM »
Another article on the California sea lions.  The number of rescues is up to 1,450.
Quote
This year is the third in five years that scientists have seen such large numbers of strandings. Researchers say they worry about the long-term consequences of climate change and rising ocean temperatures on a sea lion population that has evolved over thousands of years to breed almost exclusively on the Channel Islands, relying on circulating flows of Pacific upwellings to bring anchovies, sardines and other prey.

“The environment is changing too rapidly,” said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service who found that pups on the Channel Islands were 44 percent underweight. “Their life history is so much slower that it’s not keeping up.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/us/starving-sea-lions-washing-ashore-by-the-hundreds-in-california.html
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Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #109 on: March 16, 2015, 05:42:12 PM »

Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #110 on: April 04, 2015, 09:15:22 AM »

Anne

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #111 on: April 05, 2015, 07:41:37 AM »
Mild weather is making bears awake early from hibernation, according to The Siberian Times on 2 April.
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<snip>Unusually warm weather is prompting bears to awake from hibernation early with warnings that they could attack people as they forage for food. A number of sightings of the animals has been made in parts of Siberia and the Far East in recent days, much earlier than normal.

Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #112 on: April 11, 2015, 10:45:58 AM »

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #113 on: April 14, 2015, 09:10:51 PM »
The bad news for Rio de Janeiro ahead of the 2016 Olympics keeps coming after scores of dead fish appeared in the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/14/sport/rio-2016-olympics-dead-fish/index.html
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foolhardycougar

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #114 on: April 24, 2015, 04:42:41 PM »

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service abandons plan to give ESA protection to bi-state sage grouse, Agency also ignoring scientific recommendations for reversing the birds for more details visit the article
http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2015/04/21/u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service-abandons-plan-to-give-esa-protection-to-bi-state-sage-grouse/

skanky

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #115 on: May 08, 2015, 01:03:39 PM »

wili

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #116 on: May 08, 2015, 03:56:07 PM »
Good catch, skanky. This seems to be the takeaway:

“…there's no naturally occurring equivalent for the loss or endangerment of older species, which we're currently seeing in human-caused extinctions…

humans are affecting the loss of evolutionary history in a distinctive and marked way”
"A force de chercher de bonnes raisons, on en trouve; on les dit; et après on y tient, non pas tant parce qu'elles sont bonnes que pour ne pas se démentir." Choderlos de Laclos "You struggle to come up with some valid reasons, then cling to them, not because they're good, but just to not back down."

Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #117 on: May 15, 2015, 01:43:10 PM »
Warm-blooded fish' traps its own heat in the deep
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32742620

Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #118 on: May 16, 2015, 06:41:10 PM »
Why are so many whales dying on California's shores?
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/16/california-whale-deaths-human-role-ocean-changes

Quote
It is a sign of changing ocean conditions, which are resulting in whales and other marine life having their traditional migratory patterns disrupted by the need to find food sources in fresh locations.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #119 on: June 03, 2015, 09:58:22 PM »
Gotta wonder if this is due to abnormally high temperatures....    Short video.

Quote
@CNN: A third of the world's Saiga antelope population has died in recent days. What's behind this? http://t.co/oJcgAmh4Er (Some images graphic)
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #120 on: June 12, 2015, 01:40:35 PM »
Polar bears are now eating dolphins thanks to climate change
http://grist.org/science/polar-bears-are-now-eating-dolphins-thanks-to-climate-change/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #121 on: June 14, 2015, 12:27:53 PM »
Lions, Tigers on the Loose in Tbilisi, Georgia, After Flooding Destroys Zoo Enclosures
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/lions-tigers-loose-tbilisi-georgia-after-flooding-destroys-zoo-enclosures-n375066
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #122 on: June 17, 2015, 02:48:24 AM »
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #123 on: July 06, 2015, 01:57:23 AM »
'The situation is desperate' for monarch butterflies, but here's the plan to save them
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-05-21/situation-desperate-monarch-butterflies-heres-plan-save-them
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Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #124 on: July 10, 2015, 03:38:22 PM »

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #125 on: July 19, 2015, 08:05:00 PM »
Thirsty birds are dying all over California — thanks, climate change.
http://grist.org/news/thirsty-birds-are-dying-all-over-california-thanks-climate-change/
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ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #126 on: August 03, 2015, 03:40:37 PM »
I see no mention of Captain Paul Watson on ASIF, so here we start:
https://www.facebook.com/captpaulwatson/posts/10153392887605932:0

Ask yourself: Are You Smarter Than A Cetacean?

They talk in 'pictures' 8)

How long cetaceans on this planet, 10 m years ? :P and no damage done to life on this planet ?  :o

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #127 on: August 20, 2015, 09:22:52 PM »
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NOAA is declaring the recent deaths of 30 large whales in the western Gulf of Alaska an "unusual mortality event," triggering a focused, expert investigation into the cause. An unusual mortality event is a stranding event that is unexpected, involves a significant die-off of a marine mammal population, and demands immediate response.

Since May 2015, 11 fin whales, 14 humpback whales, one gray whale, and four unidentified cetaceans have stranded around the islands of the western Gulf of Alaska and the southern shoreline of the Alaska Peninsula. To date, this brings the large whale strandings for this region to almost three times the historical average.

http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/newsreleases/2015/whales-ume082015.htm
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ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #128 on: August 22, 2015, 12:50:11 AM »

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #129 on: August 28, 2015, 09:59:48 PM »
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #130 on: August 31, 2015, 03:22:58 AM »
Baby Tortoises Found On Galapagos Island For First Time In Over 100 Years
https://www.thedodo.com/galapagos-tortoises-945526940.html
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #131 on: September 02, 2015, 08:55:58 PM »
Polar bears lay siege to researchers in the Arctic Sea
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The bears sleep near the station and have been seen fighting with one another outside the building in recent days, one of the researchers at the station told Viktor Nikiforov, the head of the WWF Polar Bear Patrol project.

The presence of the bears means that the researchers have been unable to make their twice daily trip, several hundred meters from the weather station, to measure water temperatures in the sea.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/02/europe/russia-polar-bears/index.html
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #132 on: September 16, 2015, 06:39:06 PM »
World wildlife populations halved in 40 years - report
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29418983
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #133 on: September 16, 2015, 06:49:39 PM »
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has declined for now to create artificial floating platforms for Pacific walrus that come ashore in Alaska because they lack summer sea ice.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/state/article35429358.html
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #134 on: September 18, 2015, 08:23:24 PM »
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

skanky

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #135 on: September 25, 2015, 11:43:15 AM »

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #136 on: October 18, 2015, 12:43:01 AM »
Surprise appearance on California beach thought to be due to El Niño.

Incredibly Venomous’ Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake Seen in California for 1st Time in 30 Years
http://ktla.com/2015/10/16/incredibly-venomous-yellow-bellied-sea-snake-seen-in-california-for-1st-time-in-30-years/
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Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #137 on: October 27, 2015, 04:37:40 PM »
Lions Heading Quickly Towards Extinction
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lions-africa-extinction_562eaf7ae4b00aa54a4aef64?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green&section=green
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There is nothing as awe-inspiring as watching the brutal power of a lion capturing its prey. At close range, their throaty roars thump through your body, raising a cold sweat triggered by the fear of what these animals are capable of doing now, and what they once did to our ancestors. They are the most majestic animals left on our planet, and yet we are currently faced with the very real possibility that they will be functionally extinct within our lifetime.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #138 on: December 02, 2015, 09:03:35 PM »
Quote
It’s the TV premiere of the documentary Racing Extinction by Oscar-winning director Louie Psihoyos tonight (December 2) at 9PM ET/PT on Discovery. For the occasion, the channel released a video of the modified Tesla Model S they used in the film.
http://electrek.co/2015/12/02/tesla-model-s-with-mobile-projector-and-electroluminescent-paint-for-racing-extinction-video/
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ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #139 on: December 02, 2015, 09:41:13 PM »
thanks, sig,
but mixing wildlife with a motor made by humans ... is ... aargh ().



For minimal-force approach one should have functional prefrontal cortex what birds surely have:
"Five species that show why ‘bird brain’ is a stupid phrase"
Pigeon, New Caledonian crow, African gray parrot, Bowerbird, Chick.
Nice article albeit with some Ref behind subscription...

My observation on animal/feathery friends: They also have emotions. They return good with good, bad with spite.
Like a human child      

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #140 on: January 18, 2016, 02:23:55 PM »
thanks, sig,
but mixing wildlife with a motor made by humans ... is ... aargh ().

I get it.  But a zero-emissions car, helping lots of humans to see wildlife in a "new light," as it were -- perhaps it's worth the discontinuity.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #141 on: January 18, 2016, 02:25:32 PM »
Thousands Of Starved Dead Birds Wash Up On Alaska’s Coasts, And Climate Change Could Be The Culprit
Quote
Seabird die-offs in Alaska are natural events, but the massive rate of starved dead birds washing ashore this month is as puzzling as it is unprecedented.

Two weeks ago an estimated 8,000 murres were found laying dead by David Irons, a retired seabird biologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “I never thought I would see that many dead birds on one beach,” Irons told ThinkProgress.

But it was this week when the story got national attention, as some Alaska researchers have publicly said the number of dead birds found in a beach 60 miles southeast of Anchorage is beyond anything experienced in the last few decades.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/01/15/3739760/alaska-murre-die-off/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #142 on: February 13, 2016, 11:49:49 PM »
150,000 penguins perish after giant iceberg traps colony
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About 150,000 penguins have died since being stranded by a vast iceberg that became lodged off the coast of Antarctica six years ago, according to the journal Antarctic Science.

Combined with expanding ice, the B09B iceberg, which at 1,120 square miles is almost the size of Rhode Island, has cut off the Adelie penguins' food supply and changed the landscape of their home, according to a February report in the peer-reviewed journal published by Cambridge University Press.

The towering mass of water ice first ran aground into the penguins' habitat of Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay in 2010. Before that it was floating along the coast for nearly 20 years before colliding into the bay. The iceberg essentially has landlocked the penguins, forcing the animals to trek across a desolate stretch of nearly 40 miles to find food.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/13/world/penguins-die-giant-iceberg-irpt/index.html
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #143 on: March 12, 2016, 06:37:28 PM »
Warning to visitors, Yellowstone grizzly bears emerge weeks early due to warm weather
Quote
Wildlife biologists were surprised to spot a large grizzly bear lumbering through Yellowstone on Feb. 22; grizzlies typically stay in their winter dens until mid-March and sometimes April. The bears are responding to unusually warm weather in the northern Rockies. At Lake Yellowstone, Wy., at an elevation of 7,795 feet, February temperatures averaged 19.4 degrees, a whopping 4.6 degrees above normal. January temperatures averaged 15.1 degrees, 2.4 degrees above normal.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/03/10/warning-to-visitors-yellowstone-bears-emerge-weeks-early-due-to-warm-weather/
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Clare

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #144 on: March 26, 2016, 03:41:11 AM »
I watch this live webcam feed of a young albatross chick when I need cheering up- after reading too much of the grim climate news!
It's in NZ but they do have an infrared camera at night. The chick is now old enough to be left alone while the parents are away for a few days getting food. & sometimes other birds from the colony call for a 'visit'

Here's a screen grab from 8 March. Weight last Tuesday was already over 4kg.

Clare

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #145 on: March 26, 2016, 03:50:25 AM »
& here's a Dutch site with camera feeds from a number of different birds nests:
http://www.beleefdelente.nl/

These 2 x 19 March clips was funny, the owls caught 6 ?mice & stack them up in the corner of the nest box:
http://www.beleefdelente.nl/vogel/steenuil/weblog/111

Clare

sesyf

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #146 on: March 29, 2016, 07:08:49 PM »
An osprey nest on top of a seamark http://saaristomeri.utu.fi/osprey/ in Finnish archipelago. Live feed and seemingly rather slow static picture. Also other sites in link 'MUITA KAMEROITA' (= other cameras). There used to be english version but I could not see it now...


Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #147 on: April 14, 2016, 03:01:37 PM »
More moose on the loose in a warmer Alaska
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36038237

Laurent

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #148 on: April 19, 2016, 06:02:43 PM »
Old wild life ;)
Dinosaurs 'in decline' 50 million years before asteroid strike
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36073592

Quote
The dinosaurs were already in decline 50 million years before the asteroid strike that finally wiped them out, a study suggests.

The new assessment adds further fuel to a debate on how dinosaurs were doing when a 10km-wide space rock slammed into Earth 66 million years ago.

A team suggests the creatures were in long-term decline because they could not cope with the ways Earth was changing.

The study appears in PNAS journal.

Researchers analysed the fossil remains of dinosaurs from the point they emerged 231 million years ago up to the point they went extinct.

To begin with, new species evolved at an explosive rate. But things started to slow about 160 million years ago, leading to a decline in the number of species which commences at about 120 million years ago.

    "Dinosaurs were already on their way out around 50 million years before the asteroid hit
    Dr Manabu Sakamoto, University of Reading

Dr Manabu Sakamoto, a palaeontologist from the University of Reading, who led the research, said: "We were not expecting this result."

"Even though they were wiped out ultimately by the impact of the asteroid, they were actually already on their way out around 50 million years before the asteroid hit."
Mixed pattern

Dr Sakamoto's analysis shows that the long-necked giant sauropod dinosaurs were declining the fastest, whereas theropods, the group of dinosaurs that included the iconic Tyrannosaurus rex, were in a more gradual decline.

Co-author Dr Chris Venditti, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Reading, told BBC News:

"The current widespread view is that dinosaurs were reigning strong right up to the impact that hit the Earth - and it's the impact that drove their final extinction," he said.

"And while that's certainly true, what we found was that they were on the decline long before that."

Dr Venditti believes that the dinosaurs' 50 million year decline rendered them even more susceptible to the environmental catastrophe that followed the asteroid impact.

"If they were reigning strong perhaps they would have fared much better than they did," he said.

A study two years ago also indicated that some species were in decline, but only for the last few million years before the asteroid impact. The new research suggests that the problem began tens of millions of years earlier and affected a wider range of species.

So why were the dinosaurs in decline? No one knows but one possibility is an inability to cope with the way the environment was changing.
Evolutionary pressures

Conditions 230 million years ago were perfect for the dinosaurs when they first emerged, warm and lush from pole to equator.

But as the climate cooled and sea levels shifted, the dinosaurs may have been subjected to new evolutionary pressures.

Dinosaurs and mammals evolved at about the same time, but the former dominated the land surface for more than 100 million years.

The asteroid impact is commonly thought to have paved the way for mammals to take over. But the new study suggests that mammalian supremacy might have occurred eventually, without a space impact.

Co-author Prof Mike Benton of Bristol University, told BBC News: "World climates were getting cooler all the time. Dinosaurs rely on quite warm climates and mammals are better adapted to the cold.

"So there might have been a switch over in any case without the asteroid impact."

solartim27

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #149 on: May 13, 2016, 08:01:19 PM »
I saw video of a pod of orcas creating waves to break up an ice floe to get at a seal on the PBS show Nature.  Starts at 39:50 in the episode.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/natures-perfect-partners-full-episode/14261/
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