Paleodietary studies of the fossil record are impeded by a lack of reliable and unequivocal tracers. Scientists from the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, the MPI for Chemistry and the Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) in Mainz have now tested a new method, the isotope analysis of zinc isotopes from the tooth enamel of fossil mammals, and found it to be well suited to expand our knowledge about the diets of fossil humans and other Pleistocene mammals.

Governments must provide larger spatial protections in the Greater Caribbean for threatened, highly migratory species such as sharks, is the call from a diverse group of marine scientists including Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) Ph.D. Candidate, Oliver Shipley, and led by the conservation NGO Beneath the Waves in a letter to published in Science.

A pilot study undertaken by researchers from the University of South Australia at Adelaide Zoo, has developed a new way to undertake basic health checks of exotic wildlife using a digital camera.

In the latest issue of The American Naturalist, University of Kansas investigator Jorge Soberón offers a new method for ecologists to calculate the correlation between geographic space and the number of species inhabiting that space.

Habitat loss, hunting, logging and climate change have put many of the world's most charismatic species at risk. A new study, led by the University of Arizona, has found that not only are larger plants and animals at higher risk of extinction, but their loss would fundamentally degrade life on earth.