Invasive annual grasses have increased eightfold in area in the Great Basin region since 1990, the team found. Smith and colleagues estimate that areas dominated by the grasses have grown more than 2,300 square kilometers annually, a rate of take-over proportionally greater than recent deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
Invasive grasses are taking over the American West’s sea of sagebrush
Drought, fire, this, the west is getting hammered.
Quetzalcoatlus, Earth’s largest flier ever
Very detailed new info on the pterosaur known as Quetzalcoatlus.
12 feet tall and with a 37- to 40-foot wingspan, it was the largest flying animal that ever lived on Earth.
This was an extraordinary critter.
Steve and I debated a pterosaur book, 20 years ago. It is likely that info is out of date now.
Update:
Darren Naish on the Age of Peak Azhdarchid
*update
Three flying giants from different time periodsQuetzalcoatlus from the Mesozoic, Argentavis from the Cenozoic and Meganeuropsis from the Paleozoic.by Fabio Alejandro
As usual, open in a new tab to embiggen pix.
In the five years we lived at Deep Springs, we saw tumbleweed in that valley and the adjacent ones go from nonexistent to everywhere. When we moved there, you could walk barefoot across the desert; three years on, forget it.
*updated