Scientists have long treated mass extinctions as events locked deep in the fossil record. That framing now feels less distant. New research points to patterns that resemble earlier biological ...

A massive ice age wiped out ocean life 445 million years ago, reshaping ecosystems and setting the stage for jawed fish ...

About 445 million years ago, Earth’s oceans turned into a danger zone. Glaciers spread across the supercontinent Gondwana, ...

A fire-bellied newt (Cynops ensicauda) photographed on Amami Island (Japan). A recent study suggested that the extinction of this and other genera was part of a mass extinction event that threatens ...

Discover how the first mass extinction put jawed fishes on the map, species that would later come to dominate animal life on ...

Around 250 million years ago, one of Earth's largest known volcanic events set off The Great Dying: the planet's worst mass extinction event. The eruptions spewed large amounts of greenhouse gases ...

You’ve heard it before: we’re well into the sixth mass extinction of life on earth. Only this time, unlike the other five big ones, humans are overwhelmingly the killers responsible. As we continue to ...

Around 250 million years ago, one of Earth’s largest known volcanic events set off The Great Dying: the planet’s worst mass extinction event.... How did these species survive mass extinction events?