Word: extinct
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Ninety-nine percent of all the species that ever lived are now extinct," Wilson read. "The modern fauna and flora are composed of survivors that somehow managed to dodge and weave through all the radiations and extinctions of geological history...
...this is coming from a science that nearly became extinct. Following some excitement during the war on cancer in the early 1970s, many scientists abandoned the field in frustration for the more glamorous search for the genes of disease. Yet a handful pressed on, captives of their own curiosity. Many, like Harvard's Martin Hemler, had their research proposals regularly sent back from the U.S. National Institutes of Health stamped IRRELEVANT. Without a group to call their own, with no papers circulating, with no annual meetings, sticky cellsters worked in isolation, unaware that anyone else was keeping the faith...
With huge doors covered with giant insect sculptures, the Museum of Comparative Zoology features fossil invertebrates, whale skeletons, the largest turtle shell ever found, and extinct birds. It, too, is housed in the Peabody Building. The natural history museums are open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday...
...largest rodents, munch on the native grasses. Hyacinth macaws, the world's largest parrots, nest in trees and crack palm seeds disgorged by cattle, which eat the fruit around the nut. According to Charles Munn, an ornithologist with Wildlife Conservation International, the cattle fill a niche formerly occupied by extinct giant sloths, which dined on palm seeds thousands of years before the first Portuguese settlers arrived. This happy coincidence is one reason why humans here get along with the 80 species of mammals, 230 kinds of fish, 650 different birds and 1,100 types of butterflies...
While scientists would in general like to seehuman populations stabilize, many would also liketo see the diversity of other species remainconstant, rather than continue to decrease as moreand more species become extinct...