#megafauna — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #megafauna, aggregated by home.social.
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Are Colorado Moose Invasive? New Research Says NO
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https://www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2026/06/18/are-colorado-moose-invasive-new-research-says-no <-- shared technical article
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https://youtu.be/orpLT22YnKQ?si=aThWWjMhKOUELwuv <-- shared overview video
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https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.70279 <-- shared paper
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“The modern Colorado moose is often considered just that: modern - brought to the state by wildlife officials in the late 1970s, preceded by very occasional reports of moose sightings in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Since being translocated to Colorado, these charismatic megafauna have been a source of both fascination and concern. In Rocky Mountain National Park [RMNP], where moose populations have thrived, ecosystems have been changing, and moose-associated impacts have sparked renewed conversations about managing an animal labeled “non-native.”
However, newly published research [link above] by an interdisciplinary team of scientists, archivists and Tribal cultural heritage leaders shows that the “non-native” label is inaccurate. They present evidence demonstrating that moose have been in Colorado for at least centuries and likely longer.
The researchers analyzed newspaper archives, archaeological site reports, scientific journals, museum collections and photo archives to understand where and when moose were present in Colorado prior to the mid-1900s. Perhaps most importantly, notes lead author William Taylor, a University of Colorado Boulder associate professor of anthropology and CU Museum curator of archaeology, the scholars sought Indigenous histories, and in doing so found evidence of moose being well known and deeply integrated into traditional knowledge of Native people in the southern Rockies.
Crystal C’Bearing, a study co-author and Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, notes that among the Northern Arapaho, "the moose is considered a valued commodity among the Tribe.” She adds that societies within the Northern Arapaho "utilize many animals, including moose, in their clothing, society items and regalia. This tradition continues today."
The scholarly approach of joining Indigenous knowledge with historical accounts, archaeology and paleontology, "shows the power of multiple independent lines of evidence converging on the conclusion that moose were part of southern Rocky Mountain ecosystems long before modern reintroductions," says study co-author Jonathan Dombrosky of Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and the University of Alabama. "More broadly, the study demonstrates how historical sciences can help us better understand the origins of modern ecosystems and make more informed decisions about their future…"
#moose #populations #Colorado #USA #native #invasive #introduced #nonnative #translocated #megafauna #herbivore #ungulate #impacts #ecosystems #environment #vegetation #native #indigenous #tribal #FirstNation #archaeology #paleontology #symbology #reporting #historicalscience #history #RockyMountain #Rockies #regional #prehistory #Holocene #biogeography #archaeozoological #modern #premodern #management #archivists -
Fast jede zweite große Süßwassertierart, darunter Karpfen, Welse, Krokodile und Schildkröten, wurde gezielt außerhalb ihres natürlichen Verbreitungsgebiets angesiedelt. Doch was wirtschaftliche Vorteile verspricht, hat oft negative Folgen für Natur und Mensch: https://www.igb-berlin.de/news/40-der-grossen-suesswassertierarten-fremde-gewaesser-eingefuehrt
#Biodiversität #Fischerei #Aquakultur #Megafauna #InvasiveArt -
A case for the Jaguar as a native animal of the United States
https://old.reddit.com/r/Jaguarland/comments/oaglrg/a_case_for_the_jaguar_as_a_native_animal_of_the/
#Wildlife #Rewilding #Conservation #Megafauna #Jaguar #Panthera #BigCats
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Megafauna was the meat of choice for South American hunters
#HackerNews #Megafauna #SouthAmerica #IceAgeHunters #ExtinctSpecies #Archaeology
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The legacy of the extinct #megafauna (sensus https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27749-9) in the Colombian Dry Forest: Ceiba, Zanthoxylum, a palm.
#Evolutionary_anachronism
#anachronism #herbivory #spines #plant_defenses @ecology @plants @botany @plantscience @nature @biodiversity @conservation @evolution -
If you think a platypus is weird, or an echidna is strange, can you imagine what would happen if you combined the two?
The so-called "echidnapus" – an ancient creature recently identified from a batch of long-forgotten fossils at Australian Museum – may just be the Rosetta Stone of early mammal evolution!
Learn more about this awesome, ancient and frankly bizarre creature… https://ausgeo.co/echidnapus
#museum #museums #discovery #platypus #echidna #australia #seeaustralia #australiagram #australian #exploreaustralia #australianwildlife #animals #animal #megafauna #wildlife #nature #australianmuseum
👨🎨 Peter Shouten
#environment #academia #research #academicchatter #biology #history #histodon #nature #wildlife #science #scientist -
Today’s #megafauna is the Portuguese man o’ war. Although it is often mistaken for a #jellyfish, the man-o-war is actually a #siphonophore, composed of multiple, genetically distinct, individual polyps. One of these polyps is the gas-filled float, which projects above the surface of the water and helps the man o' war float through the #oceans. This purple-blue float apparently resembles the wind-filled #sail of the 18th century warship from which the man o' war gets its name. When the man o' war encounters a threat on the ocean’s surface, this float can temporarily deflate to escape.
Beneath the surface, three more polyps are attached to the float. One of these polyps digests food for the entire colony, another handles the man o' war’s sexual reproduction, and the third forms its #tentacles. These tentacles are, on average, 30 feet long, but can reach lengths up to 165 feet. They aid the man o' war in hunting by delivering a poison that paralyzes or kills smaller fish and sea creatures. The tentacles’ muscles then transport the unmoving prey upwards to the digestive polyp. For humans, the tentacles’ sting is incredibly painful–and it can be delivered even after the man o' war dies and washes ashore. Human deaths from man o' war stings are very rare, and usually involve allergic reactions or cardiac events.
Although the stinging tentacles protect the man-o-war from many threats, it does have some natural predators. Sunfish and loggerhead turtles, which also eat jellyfish, are common predators. Several species use the man o' wars tentacles for their own defenses: the blanket octopus attaches man o' war tentacles to their own, and blue sea dragons store the man o' wars' poison-delivering nematocysts for later use.
With no propulsive anatomy, man o' wars drift through the ocean with no control over their own location. Changes in wind and current patterns can drastically alter the distribution of this species from year to year. They are often found floating together in groups which can number in the thousands. Man o' wars are distributed throughout the warmer areas of Earth’s oceans–and rising temperatures are allowing them to survive in a larger range, with specimens washing ashore as far north as #Canada and #Scotland.
