Karsten Schuhmann

1 month ago | science.org | Karsten Schuhmann |Adam Shaw |Sacha Vignieri |Jelena Stajic

Evolutionary Biology A bevy of behemothsSacha VignieriArtist’s illustration of the giant ground sloth, Megatherium americanum, one of many sloth species that thrived in the Americas before human arrival. ILLUSTRATION: MAURICIO ANTON/SCIENCE SOURCEToday, there are six species of sloths, all of which have similar ecologies such as arboreality and a slow metabolism. These species are a tiny remnant of a once diverse American clade that was mostly made up of large-bodied species. Boscaini et al.

1 month ago | science.org | Karsten Schuhmann |Adam Shaw |Sacha Vignieri |Stella Hurtley

Wildlife Disease A grim and unknown tollSacha VignieriAvian influenza, H5N1, has affected birds for decades. Less well known are its catastrophic effects in marine mammal populations, with recent estimates of mortalities in the tens of thousands across species. Campagna et al. modeled the long-term consequences of an H5N1 outbreak in an Argentine breeding colony of southern elephant seals in 2023 that killed nearly all the pups and an unknown number of adults.