Science writer Hank Campbell vs. the apocalypse industry: Instead of dying out, there are now 10 honeybees for every human on the planet – more than 25 years ago. And that is just in one species. There are over 25,000 species of bees, we just don’t try to count them all because the others are not part of a billion dollar industry, like sending honeybees around in trucks to pollinate almond farms.
extinction
It turns out, 17 plants, thought extinct in Europe, have turned up again
The Darwinian focus on “species” and speciation may be a handicap here. Not only are extinction listings fluid but so, probably, are a lot of species. No doubt there will be other surprises as well. Nice ones.
A psychologist weighs in on the Neanderthal extinction
Of course, it’s all very interesting. That is why we listen. But a dozen different theories are called “science” only out of courtesy. And it’s not clear that Coolidge and Overmann’s thirteenth theory (if that’s the count) is any improvement.
Asteroid hit dino extinction theory strengthened by asteroid dust found in crater
The asteroid theory replaced any number of folk Darwinian theories about why the dinosaurs died out. You know the sort of thing: They were too big; they were too stupid to look after their eggs; mammals ate their eggs… Etc. Many non-dinos went extinct too. Small mammals may have found it easier to hide.
A comet, not an asteroid, killed the dinosaurs, say astrophysicists
At Smithsonian Mag: Siraj and co-author Avi Loeb concluded from their analysis that Jupiter’s gravitational field was strong enough to bump many such long-period comets from the Oort cloud off course, bringing them very close to the Sun.
From the Smithsonian: Top Ten Dino Discoveries of 2020
The Top Ten are not numbered but #4 from the top is “Dinosaurs Weren’t in Decline When the Asteroid Hit. The thing that still puzzles many of us is, if dinosaurs weren’t in decline, why did they ALL die out?
Tens of thousands of rock paintings from 12,500 ya discovered in Colombia
From The Guardian: Their date is based partly on their depictions of now-extinct ice age animals, such as the mastodon, a prehistoric relative of the elephant that hasn’t roamed South America for at least 12,000 years. There are also images of the palaeolama, an extinct camelid, as well as giant sloths and ice age horses.
Asked at The Conversation: Could dinosaurs re-evolve?
We are told no. But just a minute. According to the story, some dinos evolved into birds. If so, massive changes ARE possible. It’s not clear why changed circumstances could not cause some of those changes to be reversed.
Apocalypse Alley: The asteroid Apophis 2068
Dvorsky: Should Apophis crash into Earth, it would unleash the equivalent of 1,150 megatons of TNT, in an event 3,800 times more powerful than the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima.
Did climate change cause the extinction of two hominin species?
Other researchers have offered some caution about the assumption that climate change is the cause, in part because of the sparseness of the fossil record.
The Great Fox spider of Britain is back from extinction
Thought extinct but spotted at a military training base.
How is that project of reintroducing lost species coming?
The interesting part will be to see whether—if both the animals and the environment have changed—reintroduction or recreation from advanced genomic techniques produces a viable independent species or a species that humans must indefinitely maintain.
This time, climate change helped do in the Neanderthals
Eventually, there will be more explanations for the demise of the Neanderthals as a separate group than there were Neanderthals. But never mind, the series has plenty of episodes to run in the meantime.
At Smithsonian Magazine: Why birds survived but not dinosaurs
Researchers: Beaked birds had the advantage that they could live on seeds from destroyed forests until new vegetation grew again.
Was the dinosaur destruction fine-tuned?
Okay but, seriously, if this data is correct, how would we know the extinction WASN’T fine-tuned?