Written by admin on 07 February 2010
Anvita Abbie, the reputed linguist from Nehru University of New Delhi, India, announced with sadness that Boa Sr, an elderly woman of 85 years and the last speaker of an ancient language from the Andaman Islands just died.
The lost language was part of a group of languages spoken only by indigenous tribes of Andaman Islands (India). It is believed to be of an African origins, some of its forms of verbal communication dated more than 70,000 years old.
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Tags: extinction, languages, life
Posted in extinction, homo sapiens, languages, life | No Comments »
Written by admin on 14 October 2008
According to experts interviewed by BBC news, it seems that the world governments will fail in the battle against the loss of bio-diversity until 2010. Almost 200 nations have joined this purpose in 2002.
Ten leaders questioned at the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) World Conservation Congress have univocally answered that the goal will not be reached. All the factors show that the global process is heading the wrong way, while several governments have not even included the prerogatives of this mission in the national legislation. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: biology, extinction, life
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Written by admin on 06 October 2008
The much railed-against phenomenon of global warming affects an Australian lizard species past recall. According to the latest studies of Australian herpetologists, the female lizards from the island of Tasmania have difficulties in finding males. This is a consequence of the high temperatures brought by the last years, temperatures which strongly affect the eggs laid by these reptiles.
Erik Wastra, a herpetologist from the University of Tasmania, has observed an alarming phenomenon over the last few years, regarding the lizards which populate the Tasmanian island: a proportional increase of the number of females, while the number of males shrinks from one year to another.
As regards all reptiles, from crocodiles to lizards or turtles, the temperature of the environment before the hatching is the only agent determining the sex. In prevailingly warm periods, the hatching brood will be female. If, before the hatching, the weather is a little cooler, the brood will be male. The border temperature at which there is male brood is up to circa 17 degrees Celsius. Until Erik Wastra’s study, carried out between 2000-2008, this phenomenon was only observed experimentally, in the lab. The study underlines the negative impact of the global warming in the perimeter of Tasmanian lizards: if only female brood survives, whole reptile species are facing total extinction.
Source: National Geographic
Posted in extinction, global warming, life | No Comments »
Anvita Abbie, the reputed linguist from Nehru University of New Delhi, India, announced with sadness that Boa Sr, an elderly woman of 85 years and the last speaker of an ancient language from the Andaman Islands just died.