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Representative samples of the modern fauna (left three samples) and the Paleozoic fauna (right four samples). (Image credit: Sarah Leibovitz)

Researchers confirm cause of Earth’s biggest mass extinction

New research suggests that higher-latitude marine environments, such as those around the Selmaneset section in western Svalbard, seen here, may have provided a refuge for sea life during the Great Dying. Credit: Tereza Mosociova

How algae helped some life outlast extinction

Jacqueline Lungmus, an assistant professor of geosciences at the University of Oklahoma and UW undergraduate alum; Kenneth Angielczyk, curator of paleomammology at the Field Museum; and Brandon Peecook, associate professor of biological sciences at Idaho State University and a UW doctoral alum, excavate a fossilized dicynodont from the Permian of Zambia. Credit: Roger Smith/University of the Witwatersrand

Fresh fossil finds in Africa shed light on the era before...

Impressions of the Ediacaran fossils Dickinsonia (at center) with the smaller anchor shaped Parvancorina (left) in sandstone of the Ediacara Member from the Nilpena Ediacara National Park in South Australia. Photo courtesy of Scott Evans.

Geobiologists shine new light on Earth’s first known mass extinction event...

Examples of radiolarians, a type of microplankton. These tiny lifeforms need normal salinity seawater with plenty of nutrients including silica to grow and maintain their glassy shells. Researchers at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics found fossilized radiolarians in geologic samples dating back 56 million years, proving that life persisted in the Gulf of Mexico despite global warming that left many oceans barren. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey

Research shows how Gulf of Mexico escaped ancient mass extinction

Brachiopod fossils from the Ordovician Period outcrop on Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada. (Credit: André Desrochers, University of Ottawa)

Uncovering the secrets behind Earth’s first major mass extinction

Rafinesquina, seen in this close-up shot, was an ancient genus of brachiopod belonging to order Strophomenida. This order survived two mass extinction events, but the second represented a ‘death sentence’ from which they were unable to recover diversity, persisting for another hundred million years as a ‘dead clade walking’ before their eventual extinction. IMAGE: Provided by Benjamin Barnes

New insights into mass extinctions

These fossil ammonites have lost their outer coating of shell, revealing the iridescent nacre beneath. Now extinct, ammonites were a group of marine mollusks that first appeared about 409 million years ago, persisting until the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. Credit: Florida Museum photo by Jeff Gage

Rise of marine predators reshaped ocean life as dramatically as mass...

End Triassic vs Anthropocene

New placement for one of Earth’s largest mass extinction events

The origin of endothermy in synapsids, including the ancestors of mammals. The diagram shows the evolution of main groups through the Triassic, and the scale from blue to red is a measure of the degree of warm-bloodedness reconstructed based on different indicators of bone structure and anatomy. Credit: Mike Benton, University of Bristol. Animal images are by Nobu Tamura, Wikimedia

World’s greatest mass extinction triggered switch to warm-bloodedness

Summary of major extinction events through time, highlighting the new, Carnian Pluvial Episode at 233 million years ago. Credit: D. Bonadonna/ MUSE, Trento

Discovery of a new mass extinction

Roughly 66 million years ago an asteroid slammed into the Yucatan peninsula. New research shows darkness, not cold, likely drove a mass extinction after the impact. Credit: NASA

Fossil Pollen Record Suggests Vulnerability to Mass Extinction Ahead

A team of researchers led by professor Brian Fields hypothesizes that a supernova about 65 light-years away may have contributed to the ozone depletion and subsequent mass extinction of the late Devonian Period, 359 million years ago. Pictured is a simulation of a nearby supernova colliding with and compressing the solar wind. Earth’s orbit, the blue dashed circle, and the Sun, red dot, are shown for scale. Graphic courtesy Jesse Miller

Exploding stars may have caused mass extinction on Earth, study shows

URI graduate student Reilly Hayes (left) and undergraduate Amanda Bednarick examine an outcrop for fossils at Petrified Forest National Park as part of their research. Credit: Amanda Bednarick

Asteroid, climate change not responsible for mass extinction 215 million years...

Researchers dated ash deposits from this hill, called a koppie in South Africa. The lower part of koppie Loskop exposes strata from before the end-Permian extinction (Palingkloof Member of the Balfour Formation), while the upper part contains layers deposited after the extinction (Katberg Formation). Credit: John Geissman

In Earth’s largest extinction, land die-offs began long before ocean turnover

A reconstruction of Laurasichersis relicta which lived in the northen hemisphere 66 millons years ago. Credit: José Antonio Peñas (SINC)

One single primitive turtle resisted mass extinction in the northern hemisphere

A new study led by Yale University confirms a long-held theory about the last great mass extinction event in history and how it affected Earth's oceans. The findings may also answer questions about how marine life eventually recovered. Credit: Michael Henehan & Pincelli Hull

Mystery solved: Ocean acidity in the last mass extinction

This photograph shows rocks from the Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay, Canada, from which doctoral candidate Malcolm Hodgskiss collected barite samples dating 2.02 to 1.87 billion years old. Credit: Malcolm Hodgskiss

Ancient die-off greater than the dinosaur extinction

A volcano erupts

New evidence suggests volcanoes caused biggest mass extinction ever

foraminifera

Evolution imposes ‘speed limit’ on recovery after mass extinctions

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