How does human activity impact the creatures we currently share the planet with? A new study has found that mammals across the globe are increasingly turning nocturnal, in a bid to avoid contact with us pesky humans.
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Scientists have found the earliest animal footprints ever discovered. The tracks and burrows, dating back half a billion years to the Ediacaran Period, were made by some of the earliest bilaterian animals, and reveal that more complex lifeforms arose earlier than previously thought.
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So-called "camera traps" – motion-activated cameras that automatically take photos of passing wildlife – are a great way of determining the type and number of animals present in a given area. Now, they could prove even more useful, thanks to a new artificial intelligence (AI) system.
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If you feel like you’ve had some drawn-out breakups, think of the supercontinent of Pangaea, which took tens of millions of years to split up. Now a unique fossil skull might readjust the timeline, with a strange creature turning up on a different continent to its previously-discovered relatives.
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This year’s ESF list of the top new species discovered over the past 12 months features a bizarre beetle that lives undercover among ants, a fish living deeper in the ocean than ever thought possible, and a previously undiscovered single-celled organism found in an aquarium in California.
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Study of animal behavior is a slow process, with human observers spending years watching and classifying different actions. A team from Columbia University is determined to develop an easier, and more objective method using machine learning and algorithms often used for spam-filtering purposes.
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The Pleistocene Park project is aiming to rebuild a lost Ice Age ecosystem in Siberia, and its directors, Sergey and Nikita Zimov, say it could help slow the effects of climate change. Now, the initiative is running a crowdfunding campaign to help transport a new herd of animals to the park.
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Studies have shown that caloric restriction can drastically increase the lifespan of a range of animals. On the path to determining whether humans could benefit from the same lifestyle, a 10-year study on lemurs has now found that animals on the diet lived almost 50 percent longer than usual.
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Dinosaurs are famous for their size, but the largest known animal to have ever existed is still with us today: the blue whale. Now a new study reports the discovery of a huge fossilized jawbone belonging to an unknown species of ichthyosaur that may have measured up to 26 m (85 ft) long.
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Research suggests that Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall along the border with Mexico could do long-lasting damage to Texas wildlife. Scientists say additions could threaten endangered plants and animals as well as threaten ecotourism in Texas.
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