Climate Change, Not Humans, Killed Mammoths

(NEWSER) - A nearly perfectly preserved 37,000-year-old baby mammoth is giving up tantalizing secrets about her species, scientists report. The creature, dubbed Lyuba by researchers, still sports clumps of hair and eyelashes, according to the Telegraph. Scientists have been able to examine stomach contents and the mineral makeup of the bones and teeth in the animal, found 2 years ago by reindeer herders in Siberia. More»

Peat bog analysis contradicts cometary impact theory

(NEWSER) - New evidence undermines the theory that the impact from a comet killed off the woolly mammoth and enough humans to end the prehistoric Clovis culture, the BBC reports. Supporters of the impact theory point to a planet-wide rash of wildfires, but while a new analysis of sediment under North American peat bogs found evidence of increased wildfires over the 5,000-year period, nothing suggests a single, continent-wide blaze. More»

Adult mammoth the size of modern-day baby elephant

(NEWSER) - A "mini-mammoth" the size of a baby elephant has been identified on the island of Crete. Mammuthus creticus is the tiniest mammoth ever found, and is another example of "dwarfism" on islands, where scare resources can keep animals small, notes the Telegraph . Fossilized teeth of the three-foot-tall mammoth were first discovered in 1904, but were initially believed to be elephant teeth. Scientists only recently re-examined them and determined they were evidence of a miniature mammoth. They also returned to the spot in Crete and discovered a mini leg bone. More»

Snakes may face fate similar to that of frogs and fish

(NEWSER) - After more than 150 million years on earth, snakes may be slithering toward extinction. A new study shows snake populations plummeting around the world, with an especially sharp and mysterious drop in 1998. Researchers who tracked 17 snake populations in Africa, Europe, and Australia were "alarmed" to find 11 had declined markedly since 1998—some by up to 90%, BBC reports. More»

Changing world strips diet-staple eucalyptus of nutrients

(NEWSER) - Australia's koalas face extinction as their population has been decimated by climate change and the loss of trees due to development and wildfires. Six years ago, they were thought to number more than 100,000; today, their count is as low as 43,000. Threats to their diet of eucalyptus leaves are part of the problem—“It's really no tree, no me,” an environmentalist says. Curiously, the BBC also reports that chlamydia has been responsible for many koala deaths. More»