TOPICSMass extinction

Mass extinction

Image shows a type of plankton called Foraminifer – microscopic organisms, the size of a grain of sand – which float with fellow microorganisms close to the surface of the ocean.
Science

Some sea life could face extinction over the next century

Ashwini Sakharkar

Pioneering research shows sea life will struggle to survive future global warming.

Aerial image of farmland for dairy cattle next to a surviving forest patch.
Science

Ecuadorean cloud forest’s recent mass extinction found to be a mirage

Ashwini Sakharkar

Many of Centinela's plants are still on the brink of extinction.

The Broad-billed Tody, Todus subulatus, is a member of the bird group Coraciimorphae.
Science

Rapid evolution of bird genomes is linked to end-Cretaceous mass extinction

Amit Malewar

Life for non-avian dinosaurs ended, but the evolutionary story for the early ancestors of birds began.

New interpretation of Protemnodon shown next to a person and the largest of today’s kangaroos, the red kangaroo (Osphranter rufus).
Science

Ancient large kangaroo mainly used four legs to move

Ashwini Sakharkar

This 'giant wallaby' was a poor hopper.

Prehistoric humans hunt a woolly mammoth.
Science

Human hunting played a decisive role in the extinction of large mammals

Amit Malewar

Humans were responsible for the extinction of large mammals.

Birds flying from the tree during sun rise
Biology

Scientists built the most extensive and most detailed bird family tree to date

Pranjal Malewar

Computational tools fuel reconstruction of new and improved bird family tree.

dinosaur on top of mountain rock
Science

Dinosaurs’ range of locomotion made them incredibly adaptable; study

Amit Malewar

Dinosaurs’ success helped by specialized stance and gait.

Nature scene with trees on mountains with dinosaur
Science

Study offers new clues about the demise of dinosaurs

Amit Malewar

More than a meteorite.

Devonian brachiopod fossils
Earth

Exploring shell life species after Earth’s largest extinction

Pranjal Malewar

Shell life species not competitors as they adjusted to Earth’s largest extinction.

giant gorgonopsian
Biology

Fossil discovery of a saber-toothed creature connects northern and southern hemisphere faunas

Pranjal Malewar

New top predator in town (at least, temporarily).

Image showing earth biodiversity.
Environment

Biodiversity loss caused ecological collapse after the “Great Dying”

Vidya Nagalwade

Biodiversity loss could lead to ecological collapse.

Nevin Kozik
Science

Patterns of mass extinction coincided with rapid decrease in marine oxygen levels

Pranjal Malewar

This evidence has important implications for modern deoxygenation and biodiversity declines.

Ymer Island in eastern Greenland
Technology

Evolution of tree roots may have driven mass extinctions

Pranjal Malewar

Geologists find link between ancient, global-scale extinction events and modern threats to Earth’s oceans.

Chicxulub impact
Science

Dinosaurs killing impact triggered a “mega-earthquake” that lasted weeks to months

Amit Malewar

The amount of energy released in this "mega-earthquake" is estimated at 1023 joules

Lava fountaining above the volcanic fissure
Science

Most mass extinctions occurred after mega-eruptions

Amit Malewar

The impact of repeated eruptions over millennia.

Image showing dinosaur running out of fear by asteroid impact
Science

Climate cooling contributed to sulphurous end for the dinosaurs

Pranjal Malewar

The gases were ejected into the Earth’s atmosphere after a six-mile-wide asteroid slammed into the planet.

Image showing volcanic eruption
Science

Low volcanic temperatures led to the fourth mass extinction

Amit Malewar

Low volcanic temperature ushered in global cooling and the thriving of dinosaurs.

Rock samples record the first day the dinosaurs wiped out
Science

Rock samples record the first day the dinosaurs wiped out

Amit Malewar

That’s the scenario scientists have hypothesized.

Reconstruction of a late Maastrichtian (.66 million years ago) palaeoenvironment in North America, where a floodplain is roamed by dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex, Edmontosaurus and Triceratops. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna
Science

Dinosaurs were thriving before asteroid strike that wiped them out

Amit Malewar

Scientists believe that an asteroid impact, potentially combined with serious volcanic movement, wiped out the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period. Although,...

This illustration shows the percentage of marine animals that went extinct at the end of the Permian era by latitude, from the model (black line) and from the fossil record (blue dots). A greater percentage of marine animals survived in the tropics than at the poles. The color of the water shows the temperature change, with red being most severe warming and yellow less warming. At the top is the supercontinent Pangaea, with massive volcanic eruptions emitting carbon dioxide. The images below the line represent some of the 96 percent of marine species that died during the event. [Includes fossil drawings by Ernst Haeckel/Wikimedia; Blue crab photo by Wendy Kaveney/Flickr; Atlantic cod photo by Hans-Petter Fjeld/Wikimedia; Chambered nautilus photo by John White/CalPhotos.]Justin Penn and Curtis Deutsch/University of Washington
Environment

Global warming wiped out 95% of marine life 252 million years ago

Pranjal Malewar

A new study by the University of Washington has suggested that extreme global warming caused Earth's biggest-ever mass extinction. The largest extinction in Earth's history marked...

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