Extinction

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- A new study indicates that thousands of at-risk bird and mammal species worldwide could eventually become extinct due to the non-random nature of extinctions. The findings were reported in a recent issue of the journal Science. "Our findings suggest that extinction events result in a further loss of biodiversity, possibly even the extinction or threatening of thousands of additional species of animals, including large, charismatic ones such as rhinos and chimpanzees," says John L. Gittleman, associate professor of biology at the University of Virginia, one of the study's authors.

Worldwatch, Lester R. Brown's nonprofit research organization dedicated to saving the Earth from its two-legged inhabitants, puts out monthly "papers," each devoted to one ecological or demographic problem. They're always good for a cry.The April paper, for example, is titled "Life Support: Conserving Biological Diversity." It notes that scientists have identified 1.4 million "life forms," but that the total number of living things sharing the Earth with us humans is probably closer to 10 million -- and could be as high as 80 million.

Amprey found the fat in the budget: nine schools. To reassur parents, he is jerking 57 school boundaries. For priorities, he targeted successful combinations of elementary and middle schools for extinction.When Somali gangsters want the Marines to leave, they will shoot a few from behind a crowd of Somalis in hopes of inducing return-fire mass atrocities. They don't train you to deal with this at Camp Pendleton.

Amphibians are going extinct around the globe. As a scientist specializing in frogs, I have watched dozens of species of these creatures die out. The extinction of frogs and salamanders might seem unimportant, but this couldn't be further from the truth. These animals regulate their local ecosystems, consume and control populations of mosquitoes and other insects that spread disease, and potentially point the way to new drugs for fighting diseases such as cancer and HIV-AIDS. Their fate is inexorably linked to our own. The biggest danger to most species today is habitat loss.

What's for dinner? Horses are grazers and eat all kinds of plants. Home on the Range A horse is an odd-toed ungulate, which means, that like zebra, horses stand on the middle digit (toe) of each hoof. Horses can move their ears to hear sounds from far away -- without moving their heads. When a horse is nervous, its ears stand up straight to let other animals know that danger is near. Do you know? Are there any horses in the wild? Answer: The Asian wild horse is in danger of extinction -- and is the only species of wild horse alive today.

WASHINGTON - A NASA space shuttle has taken the first aerial picture of the crater left by the monster comet or asteroid that most scientists believe doomed the dinosaurs to extinction 65 million years ago. The image shows part of the outer rim of the 112-mile-wide Chicxulub (pronounced CHICK-soo-lube) crater on the northwest corner of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. It's a semicircular trough, 10 to 15 feet deep and 3 miles wide, the surface evidence of what was once a 3,000-foot-deep gouge.

WASHINGTON - The Arctic Council's recent report on the effects of global warming in the far north paints a grim picture: global floods, extinction of polar bears and other marine mammals, collapsed fisheries. But it ignored a ticking time bomb buried in the Arctic tundra. There are enormous quantities of naturally occurring greenhouse gasses trapped in ice-like structures in the cold northern muds and at the bottom of the seas. These ices, called clathrates, contain 3,000 times as much methane as is in the atmosphere.

Scientists plan test of Antarctic lake for fizz, marine life The water in a giant submerged South Pole lake might be as fizzy as a shaken can of soda, according to recent research. Samples taken from Lake Vostok, which is beneath 2 1/2 miles of ice, revealed that the water contained high levels of dissolved oxygen and nitrogen. Because the water is so unstable, drilling through the ice might be dangerous for researchers and could contaminate the lake itself. "We need to consider the implications of the supercharged water very carefully before we enter this lake," said geologist Peter Doran, one of the researchers.

Tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis: Mother Nature seems to have it in for our world these days. In a way, though, we live in a relatively peaceful time. While it's no comfort to those hurting or grieving now, Earth saw far greater catastrophes in its long and troubled past. The planet has been frozen, roasted, smothered, battered, shaken and half-drowned. Entire species have been obliterated. So far, fortunately, that doesn't include Homo sapiens, but we've had a close call.