The discovery is part of a new area of research in which ecologists and economists find hidden ways many plants and animals — including wolves, bats, birds and trees — underpin human well-being

They are learning that without saving nature, we can’t save ourselves 3/5

As a frog-killing fungus swept Central America, scientists saw a remarkable chain of events

With fewer tadpoles to eat mosquito larvae, rates of mosquito-borne malaria climbed 2/5

In biblical times, frogs were seen as a plague

Today, thanks to new research, we know they’re actually guardians against disease 1/5

Everyone knows about the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs

🦖🦕☄️

But a question remains:

Were they the thriving kings of the Cretaceous right before impact?

Or were dinosaurs already in decline, with the asteroid merely delivering a knockout blow?

NEW: This million-year-old skull was badly broken💀🔨

So researchers decided to digitally reconstruct it, and came to a startling conclusion: Our species may be much older than once thought

Now, finally, the crabs are catching a break

A key group that sets standards for drugmakers has officially OK'd a human-made alternative

But so far, only a handful of drugmakers have begun to adopt it

But bird lovers say modern medicine’s dependence on this bloodletting is upending a globe-spanning ecosystem

Birds bulk up on fatty crab eggs on the East Coast before migrating north

This is a horseshoe crab

For decades, we've relied on an extraordinary chemical in its blood to protect medical equipment from contamination, saving untold lives

For more than a decade, scientists didn't know what was causing billions of sea stars to melt away from Alaska to Mexico

Now, they say they've finally found the culprit: a bacterial cousin of the pathogen behind cholera (2/3)

It starts with a twist. One arm pretzels in on itself. Then another... and another...

Before long, the arms detach and crawl away zombielike

By the end, the starfish is nothing more than a puddle of goo (1/3)

Overjoyed and honored to be a part of this team, which was a Pulitzer finalist for national reporting!

NEW: Claims of bringing back extinct dire wolves caught a lot of attention — including the Trump administration's

Now, Trump's team is trumpeting the wolf as an argument for slashing regulations around still-living endangered species