Extinction News

April 30, 2025

Top Headlines

Giant Croclike Carnivore Fossils Found in the Caribbean

Apr. 29, 2025 — Imagine a crocodile built like a greyhound -- that's a sebecid. Standing tall, with some species reaching 20 feet in length, they dominated South American landscapes after the extinction of dinosaurs until about 11 million years ago. Or at least, ...

Elephant Instead of Wild Boar? What Could Have Been in Europe

Apr. 28, 2025 — Even under today's climatic conditions, the long-extinct straight-tusked elephant could still live in Europe. This is the conclusion of a recent study. For this finding, the research group combined fossil finds with reconstructions of past ...

Big Brains and Big Ranges Might Not Save Birds from Climate Change

Apr. 22, 2025 — Some species that breed over large geographic areas can still be adapted to a fairly narrow range of climates, making them more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought. Also, species with larger brains (relative to their body size) tend ...

Paying Fishers to Release Endangered Catches Can Aid Conservation, but Only If Done Right

Apr. 23, 2025 — A new study has revealed that an incentive program increased live releases of endangered species caught as bycatch. However, unexpectedly, the overall positive impact was reduced by some vessels ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:50pm EDT

Secret to Crocodylian Longevity

Apr. 16, 2025 — Researchers examined teeth and skulls of 99 extinct crocodylomorph species and 20 living crocodylian species to reconstruct their dietary ecology and identify characteristics that helped some groups ...

Restoration Programs Won’t Save Coral Reefs

Apr. 8, 2025 — As coral bleaching and deaths become more widespread globally, experts show that over a third of restoration projects fail and might never be scalable enough to have positive effects on reef ...

European Bird Declines Linked to Range of Climatic Conditions Experienced

Apr. 9, 2025 — New research suggests conservation efforts could more effectively identify and protect bird species at greatest risk from climate change by better understanding the range of specific conditions they ...

Coral Reefs Exude Myriad Chemicals, Fueling Dynamic Microbial Recycling of Nutrients

Apr. 9, 2025 — New research revealed the remarkable chemical diversity of substances exuded by coral reefs and demonstrated that thousands of different chemicals ...

Dinosaurs' Apparent Decline Prior to Asteroid May Be Due to Poor Fossil Record

Apr. 8, 2025 — The idea that dinosaurs were already in decline before an asteroid wiped most of them out 66 million years ago may be explained by a worsening fossil ...

Life Recovered Rapidly at Site of Dino-Killing Asteroid: A Hydrothermal System May Have Helped

Apr. 8, 2025 — About 66 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into the planet, wiping out all non-avian dinosaurs and about 70% of all marine species. But the ...

Declining Insect Biodiversity in the Tropics

Apr. 8, 2025 — Ecologists are investigating the decline of insect populations in the world's tropical forests. Insects, the most abundant and diverse group of animals on Earth, are experiencing alarming declines, ...

Century-Old Clues Reveal Hidden Threat to Australian Songbird

Apr. 4, 2025 — A hidden threat facing one of Australia's most iconic birds has been uncovered in a new study. The critically endangered regent honeyeater once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but their ...

Animal Behavioral Diversity at Risk in the Face of Declining Biodiversity

Apr. 3, 2025 — Drastic declines in biodiversity due to human activities present risks to understanding animal behaviors such as tool use, according to new research. Shrinking animal populations make the study of ...

Mammals Were Adapting from Life in the Trees to Living on the Ground Before Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid

Apr. 1, 2025 — More mammals were living on the ground several million years before the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, new research has ...

New Warnings of a 'Butterfly Effect' -- In Reverse

Mar. 31, 2025 — A new study warns that global climate change may have a devastating effect on butterflies, turning their species-rich, mountain habitats from refuges into traps. Think of it as the 'butterfly ...

Coral Diseases and Water Quality Play a Key Role for Coral Restoration and Survival Efforts

Mar. 26, 2025 — Coral diseases, particularly in the Caribbean, have caused major declines in coral populations, especially affecting staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) and Elkhorn (A. palmata) corals, which play a ...

If Native Plants Are Going to Survive Climate Change, They Need Our Help to Move -- Here's How to Do It Safely

Mar. 26, 2025 — Many native plants in the U.S. cannot possibly move themselves fast enough to avoid climate-change driven extinction. If these native plants are going to have any chance of surviving into the future, ...

The Devastating Human Impact on Biodiversity

Mar. 26, 2025 — Humans are having a highly detrimental impact on biodiversity worldwide. Not only is the number of species declining, but the composition of species communities is also changing. This is one of the ...

Introduced Pacific Oysters Provide Biodiversity Benefits in Port River

Mar. 24, 2025 — The introduction of exotic species can pose significant challenges in the sustainable management of coastal ecosystems, yet researchers have found that Pacific oysters introduced to the Port River in ...

Conservation Efforts Are Bringing Species Back from the Brink, Even as Overall Biodiversity Falls

Mar. 18, 2025 — A major review of over 67,000 animal species has found that while the natural world continues to face a biodiversity crisis, targeted conservation efforts are helping bring many species back from the ...

Conservation Efforts Analysis Reveals Which Actions Are Most Helpful for Endangered Species Status

Mar. 18, 2025 — Targeted conservation actions are essential to prevent wildlife extinctions, but more efforts are needed to fully recover biodiversity, according to a new ...

Unique Dove Species Is the Dodo of the Caribbean and in Similar Danger of Dying out

Mar. 17, 2025 — Ancient DNA shows an endangered dove species endemic to Cuba is more genetically distinct than the dodo was before it died ...

Sharks Are Dying at Alarming Rates, Mostly Due to Fishing. Retention Bans May Help

Mar. 14, 2025 — Nearly one-third of sharks are threatened with extinction, mostly due to fishing. While mandated releases are helpful, researchers discovered that they aren't enough to stabilize shark ...

Brown Trout Proven to Successfully Navigate Beaver Dams

Mar. 13, 2025 — A groundbreaking study has revealed that brown trout can successfully navigate beaver dams -- obstacles which were previously thought to pose a significant barrier to their ...

New Species of Killifish from Kenya Already Critically Endangered

Mar. 12, 2025 — A critically endangered new species of killifish sampled from an ancient forest in Kenya in 2017 and 2018 has now been described. Nothobranchius sylvaticus, from the Latin meaning 'pertaining to ...

Want to Preserve Biodiversity? Go Big

Mar. 12, 2025 — Large, undisturbed forests are better for harboring biodiversity than fragmented landscapes, according to recent research. Ecologists agree that habitat loss and the fragmentation of forests reduces ...

Rare Frog Rediscovered After 130 Years

Mar. 11, 2025 — A team of researchers has rediscovered a frog species which has not been seen in more than 130 years. First described in 1902, Alsodes vittatus had evaded detection since then, despite multiple ...

A 62-Million-Year-Old Skeleton Sheds Light on an Enigmatic Mammal

Mar. 11, 2025 — For more than 140 years, Mixodectes pungens, a species of small mammal that inhabited western North America in the early Paleocene, was a mystery. What little was known about them had been mostly ...

Death by Feral Cat: DNA Shows Cats to Be Culprits in Killing of Native Animals

Mar. 10, 2025 — Feral cats have long been suspects in killing native species reintroduced into Australian conservation areas. DNA testing of the carcasses puts felines firmly in the ...

Growing Consumption of the American Eel May Lead to It Being Critically Endangered Like Its European Counterpart

Mar. 10, 2025 — To investigate the prevalence and consumption of endangered eels, a research team examined 327 individual eel products purchased across 86 retailers throughout Singapore. The team discovered ...

Nearly Half of Popular Tropical Plant Group Related to Birds-of-Paradise and Bananas Are Threatened With Extinction

Mar. 7, 2025 — A new analysis reveals that nearly half of the genus Heliconia, a group of tropical plants popular for their bright, beak-shaped flowers, are threatened with ...

Study Raises the Possibility of a Country Without Butterflies

Mar. 6, 2025 — A sweeping study for the first time tallies butterfly data from more than 76,000 surveys across the continental United States. The results: Butterflies -- all of them -- are ...

Adaptability of Some Coral Reef Fish to Rising Temperatures

Mar. 6, 2025 — Researchers have found that reef fish from the Arabian Gulf, the world's hottest sea, exhibit a higher tolerance to temperature fluctuations compared to those from more thermally stable coral ...

Plants Struggled for Millions of Years After the World's Worst Climate Catastrophe

Mar. 6, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered how plants responded to catastrophic climate changes 250 million years ago. Their findings reveal the long, drawn-out process of ecosystem recovery following one of the most ...