Ecology

Lizards don’t get much bigger than the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), which can reach three meters in length and may weigh as much as 70 kilograms.

There comes a depth at which even fish struggle to survive the titanic pressure. But that depth is only found at the few places on Earth that lie below 27,600 feet of water, where the weight of the water warps piscine proteins and crushes cells.

(Correcting to 115th count instead of 114th count in 2nd paragraph) By Barbara Goldberg NEW YORK, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The elusive snowy owl, rarely seen outside the Arctic, is turning up more frequently in the skies of North America than it does in the pages of a Harry Potter book, data from the National Audubon Society suggested on Wednesday.

By Shyamantha Asokan LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - On a cold and rainy Friday afternoon, Steven Dring is tending his baby carrots in a somewhat unusual setting.

(Reuters) - Hundreds of firefighters were battling on Tuesday to contain Australia's worst wildfires in 30 years which have already swept across more than 12,000 hectares outside the southern city of Adelaide and destroyed at least 26 homes.

The flutter of a single butterfly’s wings may or may not be capable of causing tsunamis, but the loss of millions of butterflies is definitely being felt here in North America.

To learn the secret behind aging gracefully, you may want to check out the bowhead whale, the majestic denizen of the Arctic waters that boasts a lifespan topping 200 years.

Populations of big carnivores such as brown bears, Eurasian lynx, grey wolves and wolverines are stable or increasing in a substantial part of Europe. Cynthia Graber reports

 

Researchers announced the discovery of 98 beetle species previously unknown to science. David Biello reports

 

Additives to road salt designed to make it more environmentally friendly might still have tradeoffs

A leak on a major Russian oil pipeline caused a spill in the Black Sea near the port of Tuapse on Wednesday where officials said stormy weather was hampering efforts to respond

Electricity suppliers have been shedding jobs over the past three years, with a net loss of 5,800 jobs across the United States. While non-hydro renewable power plants have seen significant growth, these job additions were not enough to offset losses at nuclear, fossil fuel, and hydroelectric power plants.