CHRISTINA LARSON

AP. Science Writer
This illustration provided by researchers depicts Gigantopithecus blacki in a forest in the Guangxi region of southern China. The extinct species of great ape that once stood around 10 feet tall and weighed up to 650 pounds was likely driven to extinction by environmental changes, scientists in China and Australia report on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in the journal Nature. (Garcia/Joannes-Boyau/Southern Cross University)
The largest great ape to ever live went extinct because of climate change, study finds
A study suggests an ancient species of great ape was likely driven to extinction by environmental changes. Scientists in China and Australia reported Wednesday on the demise of a great ape that once lived in southern China.
 
FILE - A Block Island Wind Farm turbine operates, Dec. 7, 2023, off the coast of Block Island, R.I., during a tour of the South Fork Wind farm organized by Orsted. Unfounded claims about offshore wind threatening whales have surfaced as a flashpoint in the fight over the future of renewable energy. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)
Contrary to politicians’ claims, offshore wind farms don’t kill whales. Here’s what to know.
Unfounded claims about offshore wind threatening whales have surfaced as a flashpoint in the fight over the future of renewable energy.
 
This image provided by Won Young Lee shows wild chinstrap penguins on King George Island, Antarctica. Researchers have discovered that some penguin parents sleep for only seconds at a time around-the-clock to protect their eggs and chicks. Sensors were attached to adult chinstrap penguins in Antarctica for the research. The results published Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023 show that during the breeding season, the penguins nod off thousands of times each day but only for about four seconds at a time. (Won Young Lee via AP)
Penguin parents sleep for just a few seconds at a time to guard newborns, study shows
Researchers have discovered that some penguin parents sleep for only seconds at a time around-the-clock to protect their eggs and chicks. Sensors were attached to adult chinstrap penguins in Antarctica for the research.
 
This image from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows the agency's new plant hardiness zone map updated on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023. The map was updated for the first time in a decade, and it shows the impact that climate change will have on gardens and yards across the country. (USDA via AP)
New hardiness zone map will help US gardeners keep pace with climate change
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated its “plant hardiness zone map” for the first time in a decade. It shows that the lowest likely winter temperature in a given region is 2.5 degrees warmer than when the map was last published in 2012.
 
Cowboy Alexandre Rodrigues speaks after finishing work weighing and marking calves, in a corral at the Fazenda Itaituba, a farm in the municipality of Bujari, near the city of Rio Branco, Acre state, Brazil, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
AP PHOTOS: The Brazilian Amazon’s vast array of people and cultures
“People usually think that the environment doesn’t contain and include people, but it does,” said soil scientist Judson Ferreira Valentim, who lives in Brazil’s Acre state.
 
A butterfly lands on Edson Polinario as he harvests Acai berries from a forest in the municipality of Nova California, state of Rondonia, Brazil, Thursday, May 25, 2023. Every day a worker comes to Polinario’s house to collect bags of açaí, then hauls them back to Projeto RECA’s campus on the back of a motorcycle. Açaí berries spoil quickly and are practically worthless if not processed and frozen within two days. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Poverty is killing the Amazon rainforest. Treating soil and farmers better can help save what’s left
Saving the remaining Amazon rainforest in Brazil will require ensuring that the 28 million people who live there can sustainably make a living.
 
In this photo provided by Briana Abrahms, a female cheetah and her cub sit watchfully in front of a herd of zebra in northern Botswana on Aug. 23, 2011. The female wears a GPS collar as part of a study. Cheetahs are usually daytime hunters, but the speedy big cats will shift their activity toward dawn and dusk hours during warmer weather, according to a study published Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Unfortunately for endangered cheetahs, that sets them up for more potential conflicts with mostly nocturnal competing predators like lions and leopards, say the authors of the paper. (Briana Abrahms via AP)
Cheetahs become more nocturnal on hot days. Climate change may trigger fights among predators
 
This photo provided by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service shows a Wilson's warbler bird in Alaska. The American Ornithological Society announced Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023, that birds in North America will no longer be named after people. In 2024, it will begin to rename around 80 species found in the U.S. and Canada. Birds that will be renamed include those currently called Wilson’s warbler and Wilson’s snipe, both named after the 19th century naturalist Alexander Wilson. (USFWS via AP)
Ornithological society to rename dozens of birds — and stop naming them after people
Birds in North America will no longer be named after people. The American Ornithological Society announced the move Wednesday. Next year, the organization will begin to rename around 80 species found in the U.S. and Canada.
 
This Oct. 2023 photo made available by the National Park Service shows Human footprints infilled with white gypsum sand. at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. Fossil human footprints discovered in White Sands, New Mexico likely date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, according to two lines of scientific evidence published Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. (NPS via AP)
Further evidence points to footprints in New Mexico being the oldest sign of humans in Americas
New research shows that fossil footprints discovered at the edge of an ancient lakebed in New Mexico’s White Sands National Park date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago.
 
FILE - A researcher holds a Coqui Guajon or Rock Frog (Eleutherodactylus cooki) at a tropical forest in Patillas, Puerto Rico on March 21, 2013. A study published Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023, in the journal Nature has found that amphibians are the world's most threatened group of vertebrate species. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo, File)
Amphibians are the world’s most vulnerable animals and threats are increasing
The world’s frogs, salamanders, newts and other amphibians remain in serious trouble. A new global assessment has found that 41% of amphibians that scientists have studied are threatened with extinction, meaning they are either vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.
 
This combo image shows Professor Emeritus Louis Brus, left, Alexei Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology Inc., center, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist Moungi Bawendi. The three scientists in the United States won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on quantum dots. (AP Photo)
3 scientists win Nobel in chemistry for quantum dots research used in electronics, medical imaging
Three scientists in the United States have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on quantum dots.
 
This photo provided by researchers shows a royal flycatcher bird in Las Cruces Biological Station in Coto Brus, Costa Rica in March 2018. Small farms with natural landscape features such as shade trees, hedgerows and tracts of intact forest provide a refuge for some tropical bird populations, according to an 18-year study in Costa Rica, published on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (J. Nicholas Hendershot via AP)
Farms with natural landscape features provide sanctuary for some Costa Rica rainforest birds
A study conducted over 18 years in Costa Rica shows that small farms with natural landscape features such as shade trees, hedgerows and tracts of intact forest can provide a refuge for some tropical bird populations.
 
FILE - Emperor penguin chicks stand together in Antarctica on Dec. 21, 2005. The loss of ice in a region near Antarctica’s Bellingshausen Sea in 2022 likely resulted in none of the emperor penguin chicks surviving in four colonies in that area, researchers reported Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023, in Nature Communications Earth and Environment. (Zhang Zongtang/Xinhua via AP, File)
Loss of Antarctic ice hurting survival of emperor penguin chicks, study says
Scientists say the loss of ice around Antarctica is hurting the survival of emperor penguin chicks. Emperor penguins hatch their eggs and raise their chicks on the ice that forms around the continent each winter and melts in the summer months.
 
This 2019 image from video provided by MBARI shows female pearl octopuses nesting at the “octopus garden” near the Davidson Seamount off the California coast at a depth of approximately 3,200 meters (10,500 feet). Research published Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, in Science Advance shows heat seeping up from the base of an extinct underwater volcano helps the octopuses’ eggs hatch faster. (MBARI via AP)
Deep-sea ‘hot tubs’ help octopus moms hatch their eggs faster
A new study suggests that deep-sea “hot tubs” may help octopus eggs hatch faster. Octopus usually live solitary lives. So scientists were startled to find thousands of them huddled together at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of California.
 
FILE - A golden lion tamarin sits in a tree in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Friday, July 8, 2022. There are now more golden lion tamarins bounding among branches of the Brazilian rainforest than any other time since modern conservation efforts to save the species started in the 1970s, a new survey released Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, reveals. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)
Once nearing extinction, Brazil’s golden monkeys have rebounded from yellow fever, scientists say
A new population study shows golden lion tamarins are rebounding in Brazil. The monkeys are endangered but are considered one of conservation’s rare success stories.
 
This image provided by researchers shows artifacts made of bony material from a giant sloth discovered at a rock shelter in Brazil, recovered from archaeological layers dated to 25,000 to 27,000 years ago. Research published Wednesday, July 12, 2023, in Britain's Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal, suggests humans lived in South America at the same time as now-extinct giant sloths, bolstering evidence that people arrived in the Americas earlier than once thought. (Thais Rabito Pansani via AP)
Pendants made from giant sloths suggest earlier arrival of people in the Americas
New research suggests humans lived in South America at the same time as now extinct giant sloths, bolstering evidence that people arrived in the Americas earlier than previously thought.
 
CORRECTS TO 3,200 AND 2,200 B.C., NOT YEARS AGO - This illustration provided by the ATLAS research group of the University of Seville in July 2023 depicts "The Ivory Lady" who was discovered in a tomb in Valencina, Spain, dated between 3,200 and 2,200 B.C. When archaeologists first discovered the ornate tomb, they assumed it was for a man. But now they’ve determined the remains are those of a woman by analyzing tooth enamel, according to a study published Thursday, July 6, 2023, in the journal Scientific Reports. (Miriam Luciañez Triviño/ATLAS - University of Seville)
Lavish tomb in ancient Spain belonged to a woman, not a man, new research shows
New research shows that a 5,000-year-old tomb in Spain contains the remains of a woman, not a man as originally thought. Archaeologists used a new scientific method of determining sex that analyzes tooth enamel.
 
In this undated photo, bottlenose dolphins swim in open waters off Sarasota Bay, Florida. Photo taken under NMFS MMPA Permit No. 20455 issued to the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. A new study has found that female bottlenose dolphins change how they vocalize when addressing their calves. (Sarasota Dolphin Research Program via AP)
Dolphin moms use baby talk to call to their young, recordings show
A new study has found that dolphin mothers also use a kind of high-pitched baby talk with their kids.
 
Fly without flapping? Andean condors surf air 99% of time
A new study sheds light on just how efficiently the world’s largest soaring bird rides air currents to stay aloft for hours without flapping its wings. The Andean condor has a wingspan stretching to 10 feet and weighs up to 33 pounds.
 
China’s skies are briefly clearer while factories stay shut
China’s far-reaching efforts to control the spread of the new coronavirus have shuttered factories, emptied airports and resulted in a steep drop in carbon emissions and other pollutants.
 
Courtroom psychology tests may be unreliable, study finds
A new study finds that courts are not properly screening out unreliable psychological and IQ tests, allowing junk science to be used as evidence.
 
Lion patrol: Learning to share the savannah with big animals
LOIBOR SIRET, Tanzania (AP) — Saitoti Petro scans a dirt road in northern Tanzania for recent signs of the top predator on the African savannah.
 
American families of missing Uighurs speak out at DC event
Nearly two years after the Chinese government began to detain members of Muslim minority groups, a growing number of family members abroad are refusing to remain silent.
 
Rare pangolins languish in China wildlife rescue system
The number of environmental laws on the books worldwide has increased 38-fold since 1972, according to an U.N. Environment report released on Thursday.
 
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