Search Results for: grassland
- Life
Capybaras thrive, even near humans, because they’re not picky eaters
Scientists didn’t expect capybaras to eat both grasses and forest plants. The rodents’ flexible diet helps them live everywhere from cities to swamps.
- Genetics
Ancient DNA unveils Siberian Neandertals’ small-scale social lives
Females often moved into their mate’s communities, which totaled about 20 individuals, researchers say.
By Bruce Bower - Archaeology
Neandertals were the first hominids to turn forest into grassland 125,000 years ago
Neandertals’ campfires, hunting and other activities altered the land over 2,000 years, making them the first known hominids to impact their environs.
By Bruce Bower - Climate
Greta Thunberg’s new book urges the world to take climate action now
Greta Thunberg's ‘The Climate Book’ covers the basic science of climate change, the history of denialism and inaction, environmental justice and solutions.
By Erin Wayman - Archaeology
How Asia’s first nomadic empire broke the rules of imperial expansion
New studies reveal clues to how mobile rulers assembled a multiethnic empire of herders known as the Xiongnu more than 2,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Life
Moths pollinate clover flowers at night, after bees have gone home
Camera footage reveals that moths make roughly a third of the visits to red clover, highlighting the overlooked role of nighttime pollinators.
By Jake Buehler -
- Ecosystems
The Amazon might not have a ‘tipping point.’ But it’s still in trouble
Scientists race to foretell the fate of the vast forest facing deforestation and climate change.
By Nikk Ogasa - Animals
Baby marmosets may practice their first distinctive cries in the womb
Ultrasounds tracking fetal mouth movements in baby marmosets pinpoint the early development of the motor skills needed for vocalization.
By Anna Gibbs - Archaeology
Lasers reveal ancient urban sprawl hidden in the Amazon
South America’s Casarabe culture built a network of large and small settlements in what’s now Bolivia centuries before the Spanish arrived.
By Bruce Bower - Anthropology
A surprising food may have been a staple of the real Paleo diet: rotten meat
The realization that people have long eaten putrid foods has archaeologists rethinking what Neandertals and other ancient hominids ate.
By Bruce Bower - Science & Society
Russia’s invasion could cause long-term harm to Ukraine’s prized soil
War will physically and chemically damage Ukraine’s prized, highly fertile chernozem soils. The impacts on agriculture could last for years.