Exotic Species News

November 13, 2025

Top Headlines

Microbes That Breathe Rust Could Help Save Earth’s Oceans

Nov. 9, 2025 — Researchers from the University of Vienna discovered MISO bacteria that use iron minerals to oxidize toxic sulfide, creating energy and producing sulfate. This biological process reshapes how scientists understand global sulfur and iron cycles. By ...

9,000-year-old Ice Melt Shows How Fast Antarctica Can Fall Apart

Nov. 9, 2025 — Around 9,000 years ago, East Antarctica went through a dramatic meltdown that was anything but isolated. Scientists have discovered that warm deep ocean water surged beneath the region’s floating ice shelves, causing them to collapse and ...

Deep-sea Mining Starves Life in the Ocean’s Twilight Zone

Nov. 8, 2025 — Scientists have discovered that deep-sea mining plumes can strip vital nutrition from the ocean’s twilight zone, replacing natural food with nutrient-poor sediment. The resulting “junk food” effect could starve life across entire marine ...

Antarctica’s Collapse May Already Be Unstoppable, Scientists Warn

Nov. 6, 2025 — Researchers warn Antarctica is undergoing abrupt changes that could trigger global consequences. Melting ice, collapsing ice shelves, and disrupted ocean circulation threaten sea levels, ecosystems, and climate stability. Wildlife such as penguins ...

Earth Has Hit Its First Climate Tipping Point, Scientists Warn

Oct. 29, 2025 — Global scientists warn that humanity is on the verge of crossing irreversible climate thresholds, with coral reefs already at their tipping point and polar ice sheets possibly beyond recovery. The Global Tipping Points Report 2025 reveals how rising ...

Scientists Just Found a Surprising Twist in Earth’s Extinction Story

Oct. 27, 2025 — Extinction rates are not spiraling upward as many believe, according to a large-scale study analyzing 500 years of data. Researchers found that species losses peaked about a century ago and have decreased since, with different drivers shaping past ...

Melting Ice Is Hiding a Massive Climate Secret Beneath Antarctica

Oct. 27, 2025 — The Southern Ocean absorbs nearly half of all ocean-stored human CO2, but its future role is uncertain. Despite models predicting a decline, researchers found that freshening surface waters are currently keeping deep CO2 trapped below. This ...

Scientists Turn Flower Fragrance Into a Mosquito Killer

Oct. 27, 2025 — A team of researchers has developed a floral-scented fungus that tricks mosquitoes into approaching and dying. The fungus emits longifolene, a natural scent that irresistibly draws them in. It’s harmless to humans, inexpensive to produce, and ...

“Lost” Giant Rat Found Alive in Papua Mountains After 30 Years

Oct. 23, 2025 — In the mist-shrouded mountains of New Guinea, a Czech researcher has achieved a world-first — capturing photos, video, and data of the elusive Subalpine Woolly Rat, Mallomys istapantap. Once known only from museum specimens, this giant, shaggy ...

China’s Coastal Cities Are Sinking as Seas Rise at Record Speed

Oct. 23, 2025 — Sea levels are rising faster than at any time in 4,000 years, scientists report, with China’s major coastal cities at particular risk. The rapid increase is driven by warming oceans and melting ice, while human activities like groundwater pumping ...

Atlantic Dolphins Are Dying Much Younger. Scientists Sound the Alarm

Oct. 22, 2025 — Common dolphins in the North Atlantic are living significantly shorter lives, with female longevity dropping seven years since the 1990s. Researchers found this decline by analyzing stranded dolphins, revealing a 2.4% drop in population growth ...

Thousands Fall Ill as Mosquito Fever Explodes Across Southern China

Oct. 10, 2025 — China’s Guangdong Province is battling its worst-ever chikungunya outbreak, with thousands of infections spreading across major cities and nearby regions. Transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, the disease underscores how climate change, urbanization, ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:35am EST

Earth’s “boring Billion” Set the Stage for Complex Life

Oct. 28, 2025 — Scientists have traced the origins of complex life to the breakup of the supercontinent Nuna 1.5 billion years ago. This tectonic shift reduced volcanic carbon emissions, expanded shallow seas, and ...

Record Amazon Fires Release More Carbon Than an Entire Country

Oct. 8, 2025 — The Amazon has suffered its most destructive fire season in more than two decades, releasing a staggering 791 million tons of carbon dioxide—on par with Germany’s annual emissions. Scientists ...

The Red Sea That Vanished and the Catastrophic Flood That Brought It Back

Oct. 8, 2025 — Researchers at KAUST have confirmed that the Red Sea once vanished entirely, turning into a barren salt desert before being suddenly flooded by waters from the Indian Ocean. The flood carved deep ...

Ocean Heatwaves Are Breaking Earth’s Hidden Climate Engine

Oct. 7, 2025 — Marine heatwaves can jam the ocean’s natural carbon conveyor belt, preventing carbon from reaching the deep sea. Researchers studying two major heatwaves in the Gulf of Alaska found that plankton ...

From Gentle Giants to Ghostly Hunters, Sharks Face an Unseen Peril

Oct. 5, 2025 — New research reveals that deep-sea mining could dramatically threaten 30 species of sharks, rays, and ghost sharks whose habitats overlap with proposed mining zones. Many of these species, already at ...

Japan’s Hot Springs Hold Clues to the Origins of Life on Earth

Oct. 3, 2025 — Billions of years ago, Earth’s atmosphere was hostile, with barely any oxygen and toxic conditions for life. Researchers from the Earth-Life Science Institute studied Japan’s iron-rich hot ...

Scientists Just Recreated a Wildfire That Made Its Own Weather

Oct. 2, 2025 — In 2020, California’s Creek Fire became so intense that it generated its own thunderstorm, a phenomenon called a pyrocumulonimbus cloud. For years, scientists struggled to replicate these explosive ...

Tiny Stones Rewrite Earth’s Evolution Story

Sep. 26, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered an unexpected witness to Earth’s distant past: tiny iron oxide stones called ooids. These mineral snowballs lock away traces of ancient carbon, revealing that oceans ...

Biochar’s Secret Power Could Change Clean Water Forever

Sep. 26, 2025 — Scientists found that biochar doesn’t just capture pollutants, it actively destroys them using direct electron transfer. This newly recognized ability accounts for up to 40% of its cleaning power ...

DNA from Old Ants Reveals a Hidden Insect Apocalypse in Fiji

Sep. 20, 2025 — Insects are essential for ecosystems, but mounting evidence suggests many populations are collapsing under modern pressures. A new study used cutting-edge genomic techniques on museum specimens to ...

Hungry Flathead Catfish Are Changing Everything in the Susquehanna

Sep. 9, 2025 — Flathead catfish are rapidly reshaping the Susquehanna River’s ecosystem. Once introduced, these voracious predators climbed to the top of the food chain, forcing native fish like channel catfish ...

Why Some Plants Are Taking Over the World

Sep. 9, 2025 — Plants are spreading across the globe faster than ever, largely due to human activity, and new research shows that the very same traits that make plants thrive in their native lands also drive their ...

The Ocean’s Most Abundant Microbe Is Near Its Breaking Point

Sep. 9, 2025 — Tiny ocean microbes called Prochlorococcus, once thought to be climate survivors, may struggle as seas warm. These cyanobacteria drive 5% of Earth’s photosynthesis and underpin much of the marine ...

A Monster Seaweed Bloom Is Taking Over the Atlantic

Sep. 1, 2025 — Sargassum has escaped the Sargasso Sea and exploded across the Atlantic, forming the massive Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt. Fueled by nutrient runoff, Amazon outflows, and climate events, these ...

Scientists Just Found Hidden Parasitic Wasps Spreading Across the U. S.

Sep. 15, 2025 — Researchers discovered two new parasitic wasp species living in the U.S., tracing their origins back to Europe and uncovering clues about how they spread. Their arrival raises fresh questions about ...

Maui’s Fires Drove a 67% Jump in Deaths. Most Went Uncounted

Aug. 25, 2025 — Researchers uncovered that the Maui wildfires caused a spike in deaths far higher than reported, with hidden fatalities linked to fire, smoke, and lack of medical access. They warn that prevention ...

Scientists Uncover Wildfire Paradox That’s Putting 440 Million People in Danger

Aug. 31, 2025 — A massive global study uncovered a striking paradox: even as total burned land has dropped by more than a quarter since 2002, human exposure to wildfires has skyrocketed. Africa accounts for a ...

The Surprising Reason Timber Plantations Explode Into Megafires

Aug. 21, 2025 — Industrial forests, packed with evenly spaced trees, face nearly 50% higher odds of megafires than public lands. A lidar-powered study of California’s Sierra Nevada reveals how dense plantations ...

Protected Seas Help Kelp Forests Bounce Back from Heatwaves

Aug. 20, 2025 — Kelp forests bounce back faster from marine heatwaves when shielded inside Marine Protected Areas. UCLA researchers found that fishing restrictions and predator protection strengthen ecosystem ...

This Is Where Tree Planting Has the Biggest Climate Impact

Aug. 21, 2025 — Planting more trees can help cool the planet and reduce fire risk—but where they are planted matters. According to UC Riverside researchers, tropical regions provide the most powerful climate ...

The Ocean’s Fragile Fortresses Are Crumbling Under Climate Pressure

Aug. 16, 2025 — Mediterranean bryozoans, including the “false coral,” are showing alarming changes in structure and microbiomes under acidification and warming. Field studies at volcanic CO₂ vents reveal that ...

Predator Fly Unleashes Chaotic Ant Wars That Could Save Coffee

Aug. 15, 2025 — In a Puerto Rican coffee farm, researchers uncovered a web of chaotic interactions between three ant species and a predator fly, revealing how shifting dominance patterns make pest management ...

The Hidden Climate Battle Between Forests and the Ocean

Aug. 2, 2025 — Between 2003 and 2021, Earth saw a net boost in photosynthesis, mainly thanks to land plants thriving in warming, wetter conditions—especially in temperate and high-latitude regions. Meanwhile, ...

Ancient Bird Droppings Reveal a Hidden Extinction Crisis

Aug. 4, 2025 — An intriguing new study reveals that over 80% of parasites found in the ancient poo of New Zealand’s endangered kākāpō have vanished, even though the bird itself is still hanging on. Researchers ...

Deep-Sea Fish Just Changed What We Know About Earth’s Carbon Cycle

July 27, 2025 — Mesopelagic fish, long overlooked in ocean chemistry, are now proven to excrete carbonate minerals much like their shallow-water counterparts—despite living in dark, high-pressure depths. Using the ...

Satellites Just Revealed a Hidden Global Water Crisis—and It’s Worse Than Melting Ice

July 27, 2025 — For over two decades, satellites have quietly documented a major crisis unfolding beneath our feet: Earth's continents are drying out at unprecedented rates. Fueled by climate change, ...

DNA from the Deep Reveals a Hidden Ocean “superhighway”

Aug. 7, 2025 — Deep beneath the ocean's surface, a groundbreaking DNA study reveals that the deep sea is far more globally connected than once thought. By analyzing thousands of brittle stars preserved in ...

This Plastic Disappears in the Deep Sea—and Microbes Make It Happen

July 24, 2025 — A new eco-friendly plastic called LAHB has shown it can biodegrade even in the extreme environment of the deep ocean, unlike conventional plastics that persist for decades. In real-world underwater ...

Scientists Just Uncovered Three Ancient Worlds Frozen Beneath Illinois for 300 Million Years

Aug. 9, 2025 — Over 300 million years ago, Illinois teemed with life in tropical swamps and seas, now preserved at the famous Mazon Creek fossil site. Researchers from the University of Missouri and geologist ...

332 Colossal Canyons Just Revealed Beneath Antarctica’s Ice

Aug. 9, 2025 — Deep beneath the Antarctic seas lies a hidden network of 332 colossal submarine canyons, some plunging over 4,000 meters, revealed in unprecedented detail by new high-resolution mapping. These ...