Nature Hub

              From Mongabay Magazine,               Edited by - Vinuri Randhula Silva,                   Illustration courtesy Peter Schouten. The animals that live in the world today also have extinct relatives that lived thousands or millions of years ago. We know about these extinct species because we find their fossils. A team of paleontologists from Flinders University in Australia has used a fossil to identify a previously unknown type of primitive giant kangaroo. This giant kangaroo lived in the rainforests of New Guinea. This is an artist’s impression of the new kangaroo: Can you find this kangaroo in the forest scene below? Artist’s impression of Nombe Rockshelter megafauna, showing the Nombe kangaroo on the right. Illustration courtesy Peter Schouten. About 5 – 8 million years ago, the island of New Guinea was connected to mainland Australia by a land bridge. At that time, sea levels were lower than they are now.  Today, the islands of New Guinea and Australia are separated b

  From - Mongabay Magazine, By  Rhett A. Butler , Eited by- Vinuri Randhula Silva, Pygmy house made with sticks and leaves in northern Republic of the Congo. (Photo courtesy of "Tornasole") Tropical rain forests have long been home to Indigenous peoples who have shaped civilizations and cultures based on the environment in which they live. Great civilizations like the Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs developed complex societies and made important and lasting contributions to science. African Forest Peoples 2019 note : for this section, references to "African forest peoples" generally refers to the traditional practices and way of life for a subset forest-dependent people who live in tropical forests, rather than farming communities (typically Bantu or Sudanic in ethnicity) that live in villages in forests. It's important to recognize that the context of these communities has been changing rapidly over the past 20 years due to a variety of factors. Today the African rain

 From Mongabay for Kids, Edited by -Vinuri Randhula Silva, Fulgoromorpha (Hemiptera), a wax-tailed planthopper in the Santarém region, Brazilian Amazon. Image by Filipe França. Insects are really important Insects are important in almost every terrestrial (land-based) ecosystem on Earth. Insects recycle waste and build fertile soil. They pollinate plants. And they are a source of prey for many other species.  A famous entomologist named E.O. Wilson wrote about the importance of insects. He called insects “the little things that run the world.” A Hamadryas laodamia butterfly in Brazil. Image by André Lucci Freitas. What is the status of insects around the world? Many entomologists, ecologists, and nature lovers have noticed that insect populations seem to be declining in many places. Some people have called this pattern of insect decline the “Insect Apocalypse.” Other people note that most of the reports of declining insect populations come from Europe and North America. The highest i