The new 'Anthropocene Epoch' Means the Doom of Most Species on Earth

by RobertConnors

The 10,000+ years of the Holocene Epoch have ended abruptly, and a new Epoch is coming to dominate the Earth: that of the Anthropocene.

continued at Daily Kos....

Rolling the dice with evolution

by mwmwm

A new study by J. Alroy, just published in Science (subscription required for full text), has been getting some reporting by other sources. It's mildly entitled "The Shifting Balance of Diversity Among Major Marine Animal Groups."

It prods me to my keyboard.

Evolution, and biodiversity, and the interrelationships of biosystems, are to me the imprint of the universe's organizing principles. It's what I grew up with instead of religion.

My father was an evolutionary biologist and animal behaviorist, and so I grew up with dinnertime discussions about evolutionary pressures on butterfly wing designs, or the evolutionary explanations for beehive altruism, or why mating behavior affected peacock feather development.

Elroy's analysis -- while not a surprise -- hit me surprisingly hard, because it drove home the full impact of the "sixth extinction."

continued at Daily Kos....

Bioaccumulation: the gift that keeps on giving

by mwmwm

Bioaccumulation.

It's what's for dinner.

And lunch, and breakfast. Its danger depends a bit on whether you're flora or fauna, insect or mammal, baby or oldster -- and, of course, what you've accumulated.

But it's dangerous, and on the rise.

continued at Daily Kos....