mass extinctions

Late Permian of the Luangwa Basin, Zambia An artist's impression of a scene from about 252 million years ago, during the Late Permian period, in the Luangwa Basin of Zambia. The scene includes a number of gorgonopsians (saber-toothed predators) and beaked dicynodonts. Credit: Gabriel Ugueto

The Forgotten Creatures Who Ruled Before the “Great Death”

Researchers have uncovered in "Southern Pangaea" (now the southern part of Africa) fossils of creatures that lived shortly before the event known as the "Great Dying," which wiped out about 70% of terrestrial species and an even larger proportion of species
Photo 1 of a seed fern from the pre-extinct tropical rainforest, Gigantopteris (giant leaves), courtesy of Dr Zhen Xu.

New fossils reveal: Tropical forest collapse caused extreme warming after the Great Extinction

New study finds that the extinction of vegetation during the Permian-Triassic mass extinction limited carbon absorption and led to a long-term increase in temperatures
Animals that have adapted to living in cold environments. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Research reveals critical evolutionary stages of animals during the Ice Age

New research provides new insights into how animals like the woolly mammoth, musk ox and Arctic fox evolved to survive the cold during the Ice Age.
Impact structure in Amelia Crater, Australia. Credit: NASA

600 million years ago, an asteroid impact shook the Earth – and its effects may still linger

How an ancient impact on Australia may have triggered global changes in climate and ocean chemistry
The evolution of horses. Image: Mcy jerry w CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98977446

A new evolutionary theory explains why animals shrink over time

Research: A New Understanding of Animal Size Changes Over Time: Competition, Ecological Pressures, and Cope's Law
An infographic illustrating the geological periods and the major extinctions in between. Illustration: shutterstock

Assessment: Huge emissions of C02 from volcanic activity caused a mass extinction of species about 200 million years ago

Skull of a Neanderthal who was hit in the head. Evidence of ancient violence. Photo: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Were other human species the first victims of the sixth mass extinction?

The extinction of the dinosaurs. Illustration: shutterstock

The dinosaurs thrived before the asteroid hit wiped them out

The fall of the asteroid and the extinction of the dinosaurs. Illustration: shutterstock

Why did the dinosaurs become extinct?

Endangered animals - the polar bear and the snow leopard. FROM PIXABAY.COM

Global warming as a "joke"

Dr Nick Longrich from the Milner Center for the Study of Evolution. Photo: Anthony Prothero, University of Bath

The mammals almost went extinct with the dinosaurs

The celestial body that wiped out the dinosaurs. Illustration: shutterstock

What killed the dinosaurs?

A herd of mammoths. Illustration: shutterstock

A world is disappearing

Biodiversity, a collage of plants and insects. Photos: shutterstock

Biodiversity - status report

A fossil of a trilobite - a common animal in the Permian period. Photo: shutterstock

Microscopic mass murderer / Cary Arnold

Horned rams, a species that is extinct in the wild and remains only in zoos and breeding centers. Photo: shutterstock

Are we in the middle of the sixth extinction?

brown bear From WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

heat shrink?

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

the great death

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

A new theory about the Great Mass Extinction

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

Neutron star WR 104 won't kill us

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

Is there a date for the next great extinction?

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

New software for modeling an asteroid impact in the DHA

The mammoths were exterminated by man. Illustration: From Jumpstory.com

Why are the big ones extinct?

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

The world as a bank

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

Low oxygen levels may have been beneficial to dinosaurs

Asteroid impact on Earth. Image: NASA

what the end will be?

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

The cold wiped out the dinosaurs even before the asteroid hit

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

The recovery was faster than expected

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

A star that exploded caused a disaster on Earth

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

The mass extinction may have been caused by a meteor