Ancient Chinese Poems Reveal the 1,400-Year Disappearance of a Smiling River Spirit
Publishing in Current Biology, a team led by Zhigang Mei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed 724 poems dating back as far as the year 618 to reconstruct the historical range of the Yangtze finless porpoise, a freshwater species once revered in Chinese folklore for its intelligence and seeming smile. Their findings are sobering: the porpoise’s habitat has shrunk by at least 65% over the past 1,400 years, with the steepest declines occurring in the last century.
Scientists Just Unlocked the DNA of a “Unicorn” — But Is It Already Extinct?
Is it extinct, or does it still roam somewhere deep in the misty highland forests of Vietnam and Laos? It has been nicknamed the Asian unicorn due to its almost mythical rarity, and it is the most recently discovered large land mammal, becoming known to science as late as in 1992. Even then, it was already endangered. Today, even the most optimistic estimates say fewer than 100 saola individuals (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) remain, but it could also be extinct by now. The last confirmed sighting in the wild was in 2013. Image credit: ©Toon Fey/WWF
Genetics as conservation tool for endangered chimpanzees
The western chimpanzees of Guinea are threatened by mining activities. Using a novel genetic approach, UZH researchers and an international team have collected information on population size and community structure of the endangered species. These data provide an important baseline to assess the impact of mining.