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TAG: extinction

Rising to the Challenge

Professor Andy Lowe, Interim Director of the Environment Institute, gives a brief snapshot of the vital environmental research – and actions – underway at our University. The problems we face as a planetary species are daunting in scale and volume – but can be solved through a combination of research (to identify the problem and […]

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Mission to discover Australia’s unknown species

Insect expert Dr Erinn Fagan-Jeffries from the University of Adelaide’s School of Biological Sciences, has thrown her support behind a new mission launched by Taxonomy Australia, a new program of the Australian Academy of Science, to discover and document all unknown Australian species by 2050. The 25-year mission follows the release of a report by Deloitte Access Economics, which has […]

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Professor Hugh Possingham featured in Sydney Morning Herald – why is Australia a global leader in wildlife extinctions?

Why are plant and animal species in Australia becoming extinct as fast as ever. Why is it happening? And what would it take to reverse the decline? In this article, Chair of the Environment Institute Board, Professor Possingham speaks of the devastation caused to flora and fauna since colonisation occurred in Australia. The country has lost […]

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Humans coexisted with three-tonne marsupials and lizards as long as cars in ancient Australia

When people first arrived in what is now Queensland, they would have found the land inhabited by massive animals including goannas six metres long and kangaroos twice as tall as a human. A/Professor Lee Arnold has joined a national team to study fossil bones of these animals for the past decade. Their findings, published in Nature […]

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, Environment Institute, Media Release, News, paper, School of Biological Sciences, Science communication | Tagged , , , |

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Media Release: Megafaunal extinctions driven by too much moisture

Studies of bones from Ice Age megafaunal animals across Eurasia and the Americas have revealed that major increases in environmental moisture occurred just before many species suddenly became extinct around 11-15,000 years ago. The persistent moisture resulting from melting permafrost and glaciers caused widespread glacial-age grasslands to be rapidly replaced by peatlands and bogs, fragmenting […]

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Media release: Temporary extinction reprieve for some frogs

Australian scientists have good news for frog conservation ─ there may be longer than expected time to intervene before climate change causes extinction of some species. The scientists used new methods for modelling the threat of climate change on frogs in tropical north-eastern Australia and showed that, at least for some species, there is likely […]

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Why the big animals died: new study shakes up extinction science

The following article featuring research by Professor Corey Bradshaw and Professor Alan Cooper appeared in The Lead on 24 July, 2015: By Sarah Keenihan / 24th of July, 2015 Image by Mauricio Antón. IF YOU are going to challenge the status quo, best make sure you’ve got solid numbers to back you up. A study […]

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Dingo wrongly blamed for extinctions

Dingoes have been unjustly blamed for the extinctions on the Australian mainland of the Tasmanian tiger (or thylacine) and the Tasmanian devil, a University of Adelaide study has found. In a paper published in the journal Ecology, the researchers say that despite popular belief that the Australian dingo was to blame for the demise of […]

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Prof Peter Ward podcast available

The podcast from the presentation by Professor Peter Ward is now available for download. Peter D. Ward, Ph.D, is a paleontologist and professor in the Departments of Geology and Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle. He also serves as an adjunct professor of zoology and astronomy. His research specialties include the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction […]

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Making national parks truly national.

Environment Insitute member Corey Bradshaw co-authored this piece on The Conversation on June 14, 2013. Australia boasts over 500 national parks covering 28 million hectares of land, or about 3.6% of Australia. You could be forgiven for thinking we’re doing well in the biodiversity-conservation game. But did you know that of those more than 500 […]

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