Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
Accelerated anthropogenic impacts and climatic changes are widely considered to be responsible for unprecedented species extinction. However, determining their effects on extinction is challenging owing to the lack of long-term data with high spatial and temporal resolution. In this study, using historical occurrence records of 11 medium- to large-sized mammal …
Biodiversity of insects is threatened worldwide. Here, we present a comprehensive review of 73 historical reports of insect declines from across the globe, and systematically assess the underlying drivers. Our work reveals dramatic rates of decline that may lead to the extinction of 40% of the world's insect species over …
Australia officially declared a Great Barrier Reef rodent extinct on Tuesday, making it the first mammal believed to have been killed off by human- induced climate change. The rat-like Bramble Cay melomys — whose only known habitat was a small sandy island in northern Australia — has not been spotted …
Paleontologists are begging the New Zealand government to immediately halt the trade in the priceless bones of the extinct moa bird, fearing that millions of years of science is disappearing as entire skeletons are broken up and sold over the internet or smuggled overseas. Moa, giant flightless birds which stood …
Determining whether species have gone extinct requires considering the timing and reliability of records, the timing and adequacy of surveys, and the timing, extent and intensity of threats. However, previous assessments have either applied qualitative approaches or considered only the first of these factors. We applied quantitative methods encompassing all …
Researchers from Aarhus University and University of Gothenburg have produced the most comprehensive family tree and atlas of mammals to date, connecting all living and recently extinct mammal species -- nearly 6,000 in total -- and overturning many previous ideas about global patterns of biodiversity. While others have tried to …
Almost every species of lemur, wide-eyed primates unique to Madagascar, are under threat of extinction. That is the conclusion of an international group of conservationists, who carried out an assessment of the animals' status. This "Primate Specialist Group" reviewed and compared the latest research into lemur populations and the threats …
A deadly disease is threatening to wipe out frogs and toads, a new report has shown. The report, published on nature.com, shows Chytridiomycosis, a fatal fungal disease, as responsible for the continuous decline in the population of the amphibians worldwide. It is estimated that more than 100 species of frogs …
The mode and tempo of extinctions and extirpations after the first contact phase of human settlements is a widely debated topic. As the last major landmass to be settled by humans, New Zealand offers a unique lens through which to study interactions of people and biota. By analyzing ancient DNA …
Populations of much-loved British mammals including hedgehogs and water voles have dropped by up to two-thirds over the past 20 years, and many more are threatened with imminent extinction. Even some apparently common creatures such as rabbits have been driven into decline by human pressures such as harmful farming activities …
A team of scientists mined previous studies for estimates of the total mass of carbon found in each group of organisms on Earth as a way to measure relative biomass. Plants house some 450 gigatons of the 550 gigatons — or about 80 percent — of the carbon found in …
Since the late Pleistocene, large-bodied mammals have been extirpated from much of Earth. Although all habitable continents once harbored giant mammals, the few remaining species are largely confined to Africa. This decline is coincident with the global expansion of hominins over the late Quaternary. Here, we quantify mammalian extinction selectivity, …
Explaining the ~5-million-year delay in marine biotic recovery following the latest Permian mass extinction, the largest biotic crisis of the Phanerozoic, is a fundamental challenge for both geological and biological sciences. Ocean redox perturbations may have played a critical role in this delayed recovery. However, the lack of quantitative constraints …
NEW DELHI: The high pollution in Delhi is proving a threat to the capital’s smallest known vertebrate. The new generation of Microhyla ornata — a small yellowish brown frog — is showing physical deformities at birth such as the absence of eyes. These were established by research conducted by the …
Pterosaurs were winged cousins of the dinosaurs and lived from around 200 million years ago to 66 million years ago, when the last pterosaurs disappeared during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs. The pterosaurs are thought to have declined in diversity before their final extinction, suggesting that gradual …
Despite increasing concern about elevated extinction risk as global temperatures rise, it is difficult to confirm causal links between climate change and extinction. By coupling 25 years of in situ climate manipulation with experimental seed introductions and both historical and current plant surveys, we identify causal, mechanistic links between climate …
Anomalous peaks of nickel abundance have been reported in Permian-Triassic boundary sections in China, Israel, Eastern Europe, Spitzbergen, and the Austrian Carnic Alps. New solution ICP-MS results of enhanced nickel from P-T boundary sections in Hungary, Japan, and Spiti, India suggest that the nickel anomalies at the end of the …
The history of the Earth system is a story of change. Some changes are gradual and benign, but others, especially those associated with catastrophic mass extinction, are relatively abrupt and destructive. What sets one group apart from the other? Here, I hypothesize that perturbations of Earth’s carbon cycle lead to …
The strong focus on species extinctions, a critical aspect of the contemporary pulse of biological extinction, leads to a common misimpression that Earth’s biota is not immediately threatened, just slowly entering an episode of major biodiversity loss. This view overlooks the current trends of population declines and extinctions. Using a …
A new glass frog species with transparent skin through which its beating heart is visible has been discovered by scientists who warn that the amphibian may already be at threat of extinction. The frog (Hyalinobatrachium yaku), discovered in the Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador has unique physical and behavioural traits. The …
