They point out that because populations of hominids and early modern humans were small and closely concentrated, a major nearby impact would have wiped them out. The researchers say we may well be more the product of good fortune than millions of years of genetic selection. Panda habitat disappearing A recent U.S.-China study shows the natural habitat of the panda is disappearing, raising fears the endangered bear could be pushed closer to extinction. Wildlife conservationists are concerned that the creation of nature reserves in China has not stopped the destruction of the bear's habitat. Since the Wolong Nature Reserve was created in 1975, the human population in the reserve has nearly doubled.
Researchers say the people living in the area once used the lowland forests for cooking and heating.
But with those forests mostly gone, people have turned to the mountain forests where the Pandas live. Between 1974 and 1986, the giant panda population dropped from 145 to 72 in the reserve. It is estimated there are now about 1,000 wild pandas in the world. Scientists look to comets as the source of life Scientists recently simulated a comet's collision with the earth to prove that life on our planet may have originated far off in the galaxy. Some seventy types of amino acids have been found in meteorites and interstellar gas clouds.