For millennia, caves have served as shelters for prehistoric humans. Caves have also intrigued scholars from early Chinese naturalists to Charles Darwin. A cave ecologist has been in and out of these subterranean ecosystems, examining the unique life f…
The soils and vegetation of Patagonia’s fjord regions form a unique and highly sensitive ecosystem that is closely linked to marine ecosystems, sediment deposition and carbon storage in the ocean. A research team has been working on reconstructing the …
Precambrian cratons — some of Earth’s oldest rocks — were uninhabitable for microbes for much of their existence, with the longest period of habitability not much beyond a billion years, and many only for the past 50 million to 300 million years, acc…
Almost 80 years after its discovery, a large shell from the ornate Marsoulas Cave in the Pyrenees has been studied by a multidisciplinary team: it is believed to be the oldest wind instrument of its type.
A four-year study concludes that the fungal disease, white-nose syndrome, poses a severe threat to many western North American bats.
Mega-droughts – droughts that last two decades or longer – are tipped to increase thanks to climate change, according to new research.
When startled, do all fish respond the same way? A few fish, like Mexican cavefish, have evolved in unique environments without any predators. To see how this lack of predation impacts escape responses that are highly stereotyped across fish species, s…
Subsurface cavities created by lava on Mars and the Moon could provide a shield against cosmic radiation, new research suggests.
Ancient climate records from Leviathan Cave, located in the southern Great Basin, show that Nevada was even hotter and drier in the past than it is today, and that one 4,000-year period in particular may represent a true, ”worst-case” scenario pictur…
A cave in a remote part of Mexico was visited by humans around 30,000 years ago – 15,000 years earlier than people were previously thought to have reached the Americas. Excavations of Chiquihuite Cave, located in a mountainous area in northern Mexico c…
Research shows Buchan Caves to be about 3.5 million years old and that Victoria’s East Gippsland has remained tectonically active for long times, even into the present-day, which is why residents occasionally report earthquakes. Basically, the upliftin…
The Monte Conca cave system in Sicily is showing signs of being altered by pollution from above.
A new skeleton discovered in the submerged caves at Tulum sheds new light on the earliest settlers of Mexico.
Ancient skulls from the cave systems at Tulum, Mexico, suggest that the earliest populations of North America may have already had a high level of morphological diversity, according to a new study.
New research describes a dynamic climate and vegetation model that explains when regions across Africa, areas of the Middle East, and the Mediterranean were wetter and drier and how the plant composition changed in tandem, possibly providing migration …
New research provides evidence from Siberian caves suggesting that summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean plays an essential role in stabilizing permafrost and its large store of carbon.
Researchers have investigated how the illumination of bat caves affects the animals’ behavior and whether the color of light makes a difference on their flight. Although red light irritates the small mammals somewhat less than white light, from the res…
Researchers investigate and describe the conservation importance of buildings relative to natural, alternative roosts for little brown bats in Yellowstone National Park.
When will the next eruption take place? Examination of samples from Indonesia’s Mount Merapi show that the explosivity of stratovolcanoes rises when mineral-rich gases seal the pores and microcracks in the uppermost layers of stone. These findings resu…
Identifying geological features in a densely vegetated, steep, and rough terrain can be almost impossible. Imagery like LiDAR can help researchers see through the tree cover, but subtle landforms can often be missed by the human eye.
Scientists, studying evidence preserved in speleothems in a coastal cave, illustrate that more than three million years ago — a time in which the Earth was two to three degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial era — sea level was as much as 16 …
Well-known for its unique landscapes and rare wildlife, the Koytendag State Nature Reserve was yet to reveal the scale of its actual biodiversity when a series of international expeditions.
Global trends in cave waters identify how stalagmites reveal past rainfall and drought patterns.
Examining a 3-meter stack of bat feces has shed light on the landscape of the ancient continent of Sundaland. The research could help explain the biodiversity of present-day Borneo, Sumatra, and Java. It could also add to our understanding of how peopl…
For the first time, a team of scholars and archaeologists has recorded and interpreted Cherokee inscriptions in Manitou Cave, Alabama. These inscriptions reveal evidence of secluded ceremonial activities at a time of crisis for the Cherokee, who were d…
By studying the last 50 years of growth of a stalagmite from Mawmluh Cave, they found an unexpected connection between winter rainfall amounts in northeast India and climatic conditions in the Pacific Ocean.
The discovery of a new to science species of rare and primitive arthropod in a cave that was covered by a thick ice sheet until recently is certain to raise questions. Researchers describe a new species of cave-dwelling, insect-like dipluran from the i…
Biologists have discovered three new species of groundwater salamander in Central Texas, including one living west of Austin that they say is critically endangered. They also determined that an already known salamander species near Georgetown is much m…
Volcanoes are not fed by molten magma formed in large chambers finds a new study, overturning classic ideas about volcanic eruptions.
The fossil record of early hominins in South Africa is biased towards periods of drier climate, suggests a study of cave deposits. This finding suggests there are gaps in the fossil record, potentially obscuring evolutionary patterns and affecting our …
Scientists are studying a guppy-sized, blind, translucent fish that lives in the cave systems of northern Mexico to figure out why some animals can regenerate their hearts, while others just scar.
The magnitude and trajectory of sea-level change during the Last Interglacial, more specifically Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e, is uncertain. To date the consensus view has been that sea-level may have been six to nine meters above present sea level. H…
Climate change may have played a more important role in the extinction of Neanderthals than previously believed, according to a new study.
Cave-dwelling corals in the Mediterranean can work alongside one another to catch and eat stinging jellyfish, a study reveals.
For the first time, scientists reconstruct the rainfall distribution in Brazil during the climate changes that marked the Middle Ages using isotopic records from caves.
Abandoned mines can serve as roost sites for bats, but because the mines pose serious risks to humans, officials often install gates at their entrances.
New research shows that the climate of the interior of southern Africa almost two million years ago was much wetter than the modern environment. This first extensive paleoenvironmental sequence for the interior of southern Africa suggests that human an…
At 3.5 meters long and with a shoulder height of 1.7 meters, the cave bear was one of the giants of the Ice Age. Yet few appear to have survived until the last glacial maximum 24,000 to 19,000 years ago. Researchers have conducted analyses to find out …
Bats spend every night hard at work for local farmers, consuming over half of their own weight in insects, many of which are harmful agricultural pests, such as the noctuid moths, corn earworm and fall armyworm. And now they are arriving earlier in the…
Over five years (2009-2014) researchers have delved into the depths of some of China’s most unexplored and unknown caves in the largest ever study on cave floras. Surveying over 60 caves in the Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan regions, they were able to ass…
In 1970, Jacques Cousteau and his team recovered an unusual stalactite from the depths of the Caribbean Sea. Now a geoscientist explains what it reveals about our climate since the last ice age.
In the underground rivers and flooded caves of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, where Mayan lore described a fantastical underworld, scientists have found a cryptic world in its own right.
In recent years, researchers have identified a small group of stalactites that appear to have calcified underwater instead of in a dry cave. The Hells Bells in the El Zapote cave near Puerto Morelos on the Yucatán Peninsula are just such formations. Sc…
Isotopes found in bat guano over the last 1,200 years provide scientists with information on how the climate was and is changing.
For decades, bats have defied scientists’ best ideas for keeping track of individuals, a critical element in wildlife research. Biologists have now discovered a means of identifying individual bats that may be as universal, distinctive, permanent and c…
Relief from the current dry spell across the interior of the Middle East is unlikely within the next 10,000 years, results of a new study show, which include information during the last glacial and interglacial periods.
Researchers have developed a new way of measuring the pressure inside volcanoes, and found that it can be a reliable indicator of future eruptions.
An analysis of stalagmite records from White Moon Cave in the Santa Cruz Mountains shows that 8200 years ago the California coast underwent 150 years of exceptionally wet and stormy weather. This is the first high resolution record of how the Holocene …
Blind cavefish typically have skulls that bend slightly to the left. A study suggests this orientation might help them find food as they navigate in a perpetual counter-clockwise direction around a cave.
Ice cores drilled from a glacier in a cave in Transylvania offer new evidence of how Europe’s winter weather and climate patterns fluctuated during the last 10,000 years, known as the Holocene period.
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is the dominant atmospheric pressure mode over the North Atlantic that plays a significant role in determining the winter climate in Europe. Depending on the prevailing state of the NAO, Europe experiences mild or v…
Researchers have discovered the first European cave fish. A hobby cave diver first sighted the fish, a loach in the genus Barbatula, living in a hard-to-reach, underground water system in South Germany.
An international group of scientists has used a novel highly sensitive method for detection of environmental DNA in groundwater to extend the poorly known range of the rare subterranean amphibian from the Dinaric Karst. With this highly sensitive non-i…
Biologists have announced the discovery last month of the largest Alberta bat hibernation site (based on estimated bat count) ever recorded outside of the Rocky Mountains.
Scientific findings are awaiting discovery in your backyard. The requirement? A keen sense of observation and patience. A researcher recently completed a study on moles’ behavior that proves the concept. His laboratory? A molehill-dotted city lawn in d…
Researchers have found that major flooding and large amounts of precipitation occur on 500-year cycles in central China. These findings shed light on the forecasting of future floods and improve understanding of climate change over time …
Have you tried the national dish gofio while on holiday on the Canary Islands? If so, you have eaten the same food as the original inhabitants ate, nearly 2,000 years ago. The island farmers have cultivated the same types of grain for over a thousand y…
Muons, once used to explore the inside of pyramids and volcanoes alike, are enabling researchers to see deep underground with a technological breakthrough.
Researchers find a bacterium 1,000 feet underground (called Paenibacillus) that is resistant to 18 different antibiotics and uses identical methods of defense as similar species found in soils.
Upper Paleolithic humans may have hunted cave lions for their pelts, perhaps contributing to their extinction, according to a new study.
