The planet is on the precipice of the sixth mass extinction event. Unlike previous mass extinctions caused by natural events such as asteroid collisions, volcanic activity, and climate change, the ...

Following the worst mass extinction event on Earth, the land was not entirely barren of life. In the wake of this cataclysm, ...

Mass extinction events are defined by a 75% loss in total species. These events can take tens of thousands to several million years. Experts are alarmed at today’s “unprecedented” population abundance ...

Sharks might be the all time bullet-dodging champions. They’ve been around for about 450 million years, longer than trees, longer than the rings of Saturn, and longer than most of the other life on ...

Ancient lycophytes may have survived extreme heat during Earth’s worst extinction using a rare photosynthesis method.

More than 250 million years ago, life on Earth faced its most devastating crisis — a global event so severe that it wiped out nearly three-quarters of life on land and an even larger share in the ...

An artistic rendering of an evening approximately 252 million years ago during the late Permian in the Luangwa Basin of Zambia. The scene includes several saber-toothed gorgonopsians and beaked ...

Learn how ancient plants survived extreme heat after the Permian–Triassic mass extinction and what their strategy could mean ...

Dinosaurs' extinction "re-engineered" Earth's surface, according to new research. The reptiles had such an "immense" impact on the planet that their sudden exit led to wide-scale changes in landscapes ...