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 ...

About 445 million years ago, Earth nearly wiped out life in the oceans. Glaciers spread across the supercontinent Gondwana, ...

Exploding stars in near-solar space may have triggered at least two mass extinction events in Earth's history. An analysis of ...

It had quite an impact — striking with the force of 10 million atomic bombs. Sixty-six million years ago, the asteroid that slammed into what is now the Yucatán Peninsula caused a mass extinction ...

A spectacular fossil trove on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen shows that marine life made a stunning comeback after Earth’s greatest extinction. Tens of thousands of fossils reveal fully aquatic ...

The Late Devonian represents a critical interval in Earth’s history, marked by a profound restructuring of marine biodiversity and a series of mass extinction events. This period witnessed extensive ...

(CNN) — Humans have wiped out more than 100 species — with many more on the brink or experiencing large declines in population. Some scientists have argued that we have entered a “sixth mass ...

Everyone knows that dinosaurs are extinct, and most people have some idea about how it might have occurred. But the exact periods in history when it happened are less well known. Was it a single ...

At least two mass extinction events in Earth's history were likely caused by the 'devastating' effects of nearby supernova explosions, a new study suggests. Researchers say these super-powerful blasts ...

Supernova destroying planet, illustration. A rocky planet lies in the wake of its star, which has just gone supernova. The explosion shatters the planet. A complete census of massive stars in our part ...

The Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction, occurring approximately 66 million years ago, represents one of the most dramatic biotic crises in Earth’s history. It is marked by the abrupt disappearance ...