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29-Jun-2018 11:50 AM EDT
Some of the World’s Poorest People Are Bearing the Costs of Tropical Forest Conservation
PeerJ

Researchers from Bangor University in the UK and the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar show that new conservation restrictions in Madagascar bring very significant costs to local people. In their paper published in PeerJ – the Journal of Life & Environmental Sciences, the researchers estimate that 27,000 people have been negatively impacted by the conservation project.

27-Mar-2018 11:00 AM EDT
Sea Turtles Use Flippers to Manipulate Food
PeerJ

Sea turtles use their flippers to handle prey despite the limbs being evolutionarily designed for locomotion, a discovery by Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers published today in PeerJ.

10-Jan-2018 7:00 AM EST
New Turkey-Sized Dinosaur From Australia Preserved in an Ancient Log-Jam
PeerJ

The partial skeleton of a new species of turkey-sized herbivorous dinosaur has been discovered in 113 million year old rocks in southeastern Australia. The fossilized tail and foot bones give new insight into the diversity of the small, bipedal herbivorous dinosaurs called ornithopods.

7-Dec-2017 3:00 PM EST
Water Extraction in the Colorado River Places Native Species at Risk of Extinction
PeerJ

Agriculture and domestic activities consume much of the Colorado River water that once flowed to the Colorado Delta and Northern Gulf of California. The nature and extent of impact of this fresh-water loss on the ecology and fisheries of the Colorado Delta and Gulf of California is controversial. A recent publication in the journal PeerJ reveals a previously unseen risk to the unique local biodiversity of the tidal portion of the Delta.

Released: 11-Dec-2017 7:00 AM EST
Scientists Urge Endangered Listing for Cheetahs
PeerJ

In a study published today in the open-access journal PeerJ, researchers present evidence that low cheetah population estimates in southern Africa support a call to list the cheetah as “Endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

6-Oct-2017 10:00 AM EDT
Researchers Map the Illegal Use of Natural Resources in the Protected Brazilian Amazon
PeerJ

New research published in the open access peer-reviewed journal PeerJ uses law enforcement data collected from 2010 to 2015 to understand the geographical distribution of the illegal use of natural resources across the region’s protected area network.

Released: 3-Oct-2017 7:00 AM EDT
Ancient Petrified Salamander Reveals Its Last Meal
PeerJ

A new study on an exceptionally preserved salamander from the Eocene of France reveals that its soft organs are conserved under its skin and bones. Organs preserved in three dimensions include the lung, nerves, gut, and within it, the last meal of the animal, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ.

25-Aug-2017 5:05 AM EDT
An Alternative to Wolf Control to Save Endangered Caribou
PeerJ

In a recent study, researchers used a new Canadian government policy as an experiment and found that reducing invasive moose populations has led to population stability for endangered caribou herds.

25-Aug-2017 7:00 AM EDT
Woolly Rhino Neck Ribs Provide Clues About Their Decline and Eventual Extinction
PeerJ

Researchers from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden examined woolly rhino and modern rhino neck vertebrae from several European and American museum collections and noticed that the remains of woolly rhinos from the North Sea often possess a ‘cervical’ (neck) rib—in contrast to modern rhinos. The study, published in the open access journal PeerJ today, reports on the incidence of abnormal cervical vertebrae in woolly rhinos. Given the considerable birth defects that are associated with this condition, the researchers argue it is very possible that developmental abnormalities contributed towards the eventual extinction of these late Pleistocene rhinos.

18-Aug-2017 7:05 PM EDT
A Potential Breeding Site of a Miocene Era Baleen Whale
PeerJ

Baleen whales are amongst the largest animals to have ever lived and yet very little is known about their breeding habits. One researcher’s second look at previously found baleen whale fossils from Japan provides new evidence of a now long-gone breeding ground of the extinct baleen whale Parietobalaena yamaokai dating back over 15 million years.

27-Jul-2017 12:05 PM EDT
Can Insects Be Used as Evidence to Tell if a Body Has Been Moved?
PeerJ

The use of insects as indicators of post-mortem displacement is a familiar technique depicted on many crime investigation TV shows. In reality, this practice is far from clear-cut. To cut through the hype, researchers have looked across existing studies to review how exactly insects have been used in legal investigations and to what extent these methods have been useful.

27-Jun-2017 2:00 PM EDT
Gigantic Crocodile with T. Rex Teeth Was a Top Land Predator of the Jurassic in Madagascar
PeerJ

Little is known about the origin and early evolution of the Notosuchia, hitherto unknown in the Jurassic period. New research on fossils from Madagascar, published in the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ by Italian and French paleontologists, begin to fill the gap in a million-year-long ghost lineage.

21-Jun-2017 3:00 PM EDT
The Blue-Winged Amazon: A New Parrot Species From the Yucatán Peninsula
PeerJ

In 2014, during a visit to a remote part of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, ornithologist Dr. Miguel A. Gómez Garza came across parrots with a completely different colour pattern from other known species. A study published today in the open-access journal PeerJ names these birds as a new species.

1-Jun-2017 4:05 PM EDT
How the Famous Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Bone Bed Came to Be
PeerJ

The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry is the densest collection of Jurassic dinosaur fossils. Since its discovery in the 1920s, numerous hypotheses have been proposed to explain the origin of the quarry. Were the dinosaurs poisoned? Did they die due to drought? Were they trapped in quick sand? A new study suggests that the quarry represents numerous mortality events which brought the dinosaurs to the site over time, rather than a single fatal event.

30-Apr-2017 12:05 AM EDT
New Dinosaur Species Increases the Diversity of the 'Whiplash Dinosaurs'
PeerJ

New sauropod species is named Galeamopus pabsti by the same team which recently reinstated the brontosaurus as a distinct genus.

30-Mar-2017 7:00 PM EDT
“Spiderman” Worm-Snails Discovered on Florida Shipwreck
PeerJ

Scientists have discovered a new species of worm-snails that are brightly colored, live on shipwrecks, filter-feeds like a whale, and shoot webs. Their discovery could play an important role in coral reef restoration work.

1-Mar-2017 1:05 PM EST
First Underwater Video Footage of the True´s Beaked Whale
PeerJ

The True´s beaked whale is a deep-diving mammal so rarely seen that it often defies recognition at sea by researchers. Scientists have now obtained the first images of a calf along with the first underwater video of these whales – helping to reveal the secrets of this species.

14-Feb-2017 12:05 PM EST
Seven New Species of Night Frogs From the Western Ghats Biodiversity Hotspot Including Four Miniature Forms
PeerJ

Scientists from India have discovered seven new frog species belonging to the Night Frogs genus. Four out of seven of the new species are miniature-sized frogs (12.2–15.4 mm), which can comfortably sit on a coin or a thumbnail. These are among the smallest known frogs in the world.

1-Feb-2017 11:05 AM EST
A New Species of Gecko with Massive Scales and Tear-Away Skin
PeerJ

Many lizards can drop their tails when grabbed, but one group of geckos has gone to particularly extreme lengths to escape predation with large scales that tear away with ease, leaving them free to escape whilst the predator is left with a mouth full of scales. Scientists have now described a new species that is the master of this art, possessing the largest scales of any gecko.

24-Jan-2017 6:05 PM EST
Boxer Crabs Acquire Anemones by Stealing From Each Other, and Splitting Them Into Clones
PeerJ

Researchers have described a little known yet fascinating aspect of the behavior of Lybia crabs, a species which holds sea anemones in each of its claws (behavior which has earnt it the nickname ‘boxer’ or ‘pom-pom’ crab). In a series of experiments, they showed that when these crabs need an anemone, they will fight to steal one from another crab and then both crabs will split their anemone into two, creating identical clones.



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