Environmental sciences

An ancient fossil reveals the earliest panda to survive solely on bamboo and the evolutionary history of panda’s false thumbs

A new study looks at how a natural plant extract of a particular kind of wormwood, Artemisia scoparia, could lead to longer lifespans, including potentially for humans. The key lies in enhanced metabolic health.

Common flies feature more advanced cognitive abilities than previously believed. Using a custom-built immersive virtual reality arena, neurogenetics and real-time brain activity imaging, researchers found attention, working memory and conscious awareness-like capabilities in fruit flies.

A new study suggests that the extinction of North America’s largest mammals was not driven by over-hunting by rapidly expanding human populations following their entrance into the Americas. Instead, the findings, based on a new statistical modelling approach, suggest that populations of large mammals fluctuated in response to climate change, with drastic decreases of temperatures around 13,000 years ago initiating the decline and extinction of these massive creatures.

When it comes to saving endangered species of a certain size, conservationists often have to think outside the box. This was reinforced by a recent study which analyzed the effects of hanging tranquilized black rhinoceroses upside down by their feet.