Tom Major

Feb 7, 2025 | theconversation.com | Tom Major |Wolfgang Wüster

All animals live in or seek a set of climate conditions they find tolerable. This “climate envelope” partially determines where animals are found, but the continued existence of many species now rests on the outcome of human-driven climate change. Rising temperatures are moving the available climate niches of many species into areas which were previously too cool.

Oct 17, 2023 | science.thewire.in | Tom Major |Axel Barlow |Wolfgang Wüster

Hemachatus nyangensis in Nyanga National Park, Zimbabwe. Donald Broadley, Author providedAround the world, natural history museums hold a treasure trove of knowledge about Earth’s animals. But much of the precious information is sealed off to genetic scientists because formalin, the chemical often used to preserve specimens, and makes sequences hard to recover.

Oct 2, 2023 | theconversation.com | Tom Major |Axel Barlow |Wolfgang Wüster

Around the world, natural history museums hold a treasure trove of knowledge about Earth’s animals. But much of the precious information is sealed off to genetic scientists because formalin, the chemical often used to preserve specimens, and makes sequences hard to recover. However, recent advances in DNA extraction techniques mean that biologists can study the genetic code of old museum specimens, which include extremely rare or even recently extinct species.