HS-LS4-5
Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species.
- Animals
‘Penis worms’ could have been the original hermits
These soft-bodied critters lived in abandoned shells about 500 million years ago, a new study suggests.
- Animals
Explainer: The age of dinosaurs
Take a trip back to the Mesozoic Era to explore how geologic events, ecosystems and evolution were connected during the so-called age of dinosaurs.
- Animals
Cloning boosts endangered black-footed ferrets
A cloned ferret named Elizabeth Ann brings genetic diversity to a species that nearly went extinct in the 1980s.
- Animals
Dinosaur families appear to have lived in the Arctic year-round
Fossils of baby dinosaurs in northern Alaska challenge the idea that northern dinosaurs only spent their summers in the high Arctic.
- Animals
Let’s learn about whales and dolphins
Whales, dolphins and porpoises are all cetaceans — mammals that live in water and have a streamlined body similar to a fish.
- Fossils
Dinosaur-killing asteroid radically changed Earth’s tropical forests
The asteroid collision initially reduced the diversity in what had been sunny tropical rainforests. In time, the forests would become permanently darker.
- Fossils
An ancient hippo-sized reptile may have been a speedy beast
An Anteosaurus was a hefty reptile with a large snout. Its fossil skull hints that it may have moved fast for its time.
- Health & Medicine
Bringing COVID-19 vaccines to much of world is hard
The price of not vaccinating nearly everyone across the world could be a longer pandemic and more troubling variants of the new coronavirus.
- Animals
A new chameleon species may be the world’s tiniest reptile
The newly described reptiles live in the northern forests of Madagascar. Deforestation there may also leave them on the brink of extinction.
- Animals
How do you build a centaur?
A centaur has the torso of a human and the body of a horse. It may sound cool, but it wouldn’t work very well.
- Animals
Harsh Ice Age winters may have helped turn wolves into dogs
In the Ice Age, Arctic hunters may have turned to some game for their fatty bones. Much of those animals’ meat might have been left to domesticate dogs.
- Health & Medicine
Early details emerge about the new U.K. coronavirus variant
The variant may spread more easily from person to person. That could make continuing to wear masks all the more important, experts say.
