Biology

By Alyssa Gu ’28 Contrary to popular belief, woolly mammoths, the famous prehistoric behemoths, coexisted with human beings for thousands of years and only became extinct around 4,000 years ago. The possibility of bringing back woolly mammoths from extinction has become more realistic thanks to recent scientific advances and discoveries of the mammoths’ well-preserved remains. Woolly mammoths had a profound impact on the environment during their existence in the Arctic Tundra. They prevented the spread of trees and tall plants with their heavy footsteps, allowing grasses and shorter vegetation to thrive; these grasslands were more carbon-absorbent than their forest and wetland counterparts. As a result, mammoths’ movements across the landscape maintained and promoted biodiversity. ...

By Eric Yang ’28 Amphibian species are today considered by biologists at Harvard the vertebrate class most threatened by the onslaught of climate change and various other factors, with 2 out of every 5 amphibians facing extinction. Climate change, a largely man-made crisis, is the main culprit for these problems, particularly its role in creating devastating droughts. With so much land and potential frog habitats being destroyed in favor of agriculture, frogs and other amphibians are already contending with limited space and resources to survive. Droughts are especially catastrophic, as frogs need to stay moist in order to absorb water and thus the oxygen they need to breathe. However, oxygen intake through a frog’s skin is equally useless if the body of water a frog occupies doesn’t...