Environmental News

As genomic data production has ramped up over the past two decades and is being generated on various platforms around the world, scientists have worked together to establish definitions for terms and data collection standards that apply across the board. Researchers have now developed standards for the minimum metadata to be supplied with single amplified genomes and metagenome-assembled genomes submitted to public databases.

Two 160-million-year-old mammal fossils discovered in China show that the forerunners of mammals in the Jurassic Period evolved to glide and live in trees. With long limbs, long hand and foot fingers, and wing-like membranes for tree-to-tree gliding, Maiopatagium furculiferum and Vilevolodon diplomylos are the oldest known gliders in the long history of early mammals.

Small, seemingly insignificant mutations in fruit flies may actually hold clues as to how a species will evolve tens of millions of years in the future.

The amount of time it takes for an ecosystem to recover from a drought is an important measure of a drought's severity. During the 20th century, the total area of land affected by drought increased, and longer recovery times became more common, according to new research published by Nature by a group of scientists including Carnegie's Anna Michalak and Yuanyuan Fang.

The yellow legged or Asian hornet -- a voracious predator of honey bees and other beneficial insects -- could rapidly colonize the UK unless its spread is combated, according to new research.

New research points to treatment strategies for multi-drug antibiotic resistance using currently available drugs. The study demonstrates how different adaptation histories of bacterial pathogens to antibiotics leads to distinct evolutionary dynamics of multi-drug resistance.

One of North America's most broadly identified dinosaur species, Troodon formosus, is no longer a valid classification, naming two others in its stead. A new discovery leaves North America's paleontology community in upheaval.

A new study is testing whether one of California’s largest and most polluted lakes can transform into one of its most productive and profitable. Southern California’s 350-square-mile Salton Sea has well-documented problems related to elevated levels of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural runoff. The research team intends to harness algae’s penchant for prolific growth to clean up these pollutants and stop harmful algae blooms while creating a renewable, domestic source of fuel.

A new method for analyzing DNA sequence data has been developed to reconstruct early history of archaic human populations, revealing an evolutionary story that contradicts conventional wisdom about modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans. They found that Neanderthal-Denisovan lineage nearly went extinct after separating from modern humans. Just 300 generations later, Neanderthals and Denisovans diverged around 744,000 years ago. The global Neanderthal population grew to tens of thousands of individuals living in fragmented, isolated populations.

New research using DNA from the fish bone remains of Viking-era meals reveals that north Norwegians have been transporting -- and possibly trading -- Arctic cod into mainland Europe for a millennium.