Copper-rich minerals indicating widespread volcanic activity at the end-Permian mass extinction in different regions in southern China (A: Taoshujing locality; B: Lubei locality; C: Guanbachong; D: Taoshujing locality; E: Longmendong locality). The minerals are all copper sulfides, mostly Malachite--the minerals' green patches. Photo credit: H. Zhang, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology.

‘Volcanic winter’ likely contributed to ecological catastrophe 250 million years ago

Living reconstruction of Issi saaneq / Photo: Victor Beccari

‘Cold bone’: Researchers discover first dinosaur species that lived on Greenland...

Woolly mammoth illustration Mauricio Antón © 2008 Public Library of Science

Humans hastened the extinction of the woolly mammoth

Long neck, long tail, tiny head, tiny teeth. These iconic, gargantuan dinosaurs developed a wholly unique dining strategy to support their massive size. Image by Stephanie Abramowicz, courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM).

Tooth Fast, Tooth Curious?

Brighstoneus simmondsi reconstruction. Credit: John Sibbick

New species of iguanodontian dinosaur discovered from Isle of Wight

Pleurosaurus from the Late Jurassic, some 150 million years ago, of southern Germany, a remarkable, long-bodied swimming rhynchocephalian.

Rapidly evolving species more likely to go extinct, study suggests

Laser-stimulated fluorescence imaging of a pterosaur fossil reveals flight-related soft tissues. The imaging revealed a muscular wing root fairing that smooths airflow around the wing-body junction and reduces drag, as in the wing root fairings of modern aeroplanes. (Image credit: Michael Pittman)

Muscular wing-body junction improved Pterosaur flight performance

The model offers new insights into how the plate subducted under Japan breaks into segments by bending and thereby crushing olivine grains on its underside. (Graphic: Taras Gerya / ETH Zurich)

Crushed resistance: Tectonic plate sinking into a subduction zone

Despite ESA’s GOCE mission ending over seven years ago, scientists continue to use this remarkable satellite’s gravity data to delve deep and unearth secrets about our planet. Recent research shows how scientists have combined GOCE data with measurements taken at the surface to generate a new model of Earth’s crust and upper mantle. This is the first time such a model has been created this way – and it is shedding new light on the processes of plate tectonics. The new model produced in ESA’s 3D Earth study shows for the first time how dissimilar the sub-lithospheric mantle is beneath different oceans, and provides insight as to how the morphology and spreading rates of mid-oceanic ridges may be connected with the deep chemical and thermal structure. Credit: ESA/Planetary Visions)

Researchers recreate deep-Earth conditions to see how iron copes with extreme...

Boudins of amphibolite layers (metamorphosed basalts) that were stretched within quartz schists (Norway). Photo credits © Haakon Fossen.

Fate of sinking tectonic plates is revealed

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