Snakes: Invasive poisonous toads are killing Madagascar’s native snakes

There is evidence of a significant death rate among Malagasy snakes that attempt to eat the poisonous Asian common toad Life 16 February 2022 By Jake Buehler An Asian common toad in Madagascar Fulvio Licata Fears about the impact of invasive, poisonous toads in Madagascar appear to be justified, suggests new research. The amphibians are … Read more

Can scientists repair their relationship with Native people as they probe the past? | Science

How and when people first set foot in the Americas is one of the enduring mysteries of human history. Most archaeologists now agree people lived in the Americas before Clovis-style tools—once thought to be linked to the first Americans—appeared about 13,000 years ago. Last year, for example, researchers reported human footprints in White Sands National … Read more

A Cosmic Airburst May Have Devastated a Vast Native American Culture 1,500 Years Ago

More than 1500 years ago, a vast culture known as the Hopewell tradition (or Hopewell culture) stretched across what is today the eastern United States.  The cause of the culture’s decline has long been debated, with war and climate change two of the possibilities, but now a new avenue of inquiry has opened up: debris from a … Read more

Australian wildlife: Reintroductions help threatened mammals recover

Conservationists are reintroducing threatened mammals to their former ranges with fences to keep out cats and foxes Environment 29 December 2021 By Alice Klein A greater bilby scavenging at night cbstockfoto / Alamy Stock Photo Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world, having lost 34 mammal species in the past 200 years. … Read more

Why Invasive Plants Pushing Out Native Flora Is Pushing Us Closer to a ‘New Pangaea’

According to the first global analysis of plant diversity, the world’s flora is growing increasingly uniform, even on isolated islands like Australia. For decades now, scientists have been warning the world we are headed for a new geological epoch, called the ‘Homogecene’, when unique life forms become overshadowed by more adaptable species that can live … Read more