Biodiversity News & Events

News

Iberian Lynx not doomed by its genetics says GEE's Prof Mark Thomas co-author of study

The low genetic diversity of the Iberian lynx – the most endangered carnivore in Europe – may not decrease the species’ chance of survival, according to new research by geneticists.

Research looking at DNA from Iberian lynx fossils shows that they have had very little genetic variation over the last 50,000 years, suggesting that a small long-term population size is the ‘norm’ in the species and has not hampered their survival. The new study is published in the journal Molecular Ecology.

Full article here

Further links:

Mark Thomas's website

Molecular Ecology

Save the gibbon campaign

The plight of the great apes is well known, but did you know that the gibbon is the most endangered ape of all?  All 16 species of gibbon are threatened, including the Hainan black-crested gibbon, which is now thought to number less than 25 in the wild.

For more information click here

Evolution: a can of worms'

Study by GEE's Prof Max Telford et al published in Nature

For more information click here

Darwin 'would struggle to get funding today' debates GEE's Anjali Goswami

Charles Darwin may be considered one of the most influential scientists but would he get a job in science today? That's one of the questions being debated in a discussion at University College London tonight. UCL's Dr Anjali Goswami and Professor Scott Armbruster of Portsmouth University debate the issue on the BBC's Today programme.

Dr Anjali Goswami