extinction

With a lava flow in the distance, a primitively feathered theropod dinosaur carries off a mammalian victim during a snowy volcanic winter caused by massive eruptions during the Triassic-Jurassic Extinction. A new study says dinosaurs survived because they were already adapted to freezing conditions at high latitudes. Credit: Painting by Larry FelderThriving in a Series of Sudden Global Chills That Killed CompetitorsMany of us are familiar with the popular theory of how the dinosaurs died 66 million years ago: in Earth’s…

Dinosaurs ruled the earth during the Jurassic period. But first, they had to make it through the end of the world. Most geologists suspect enormous volcanic eruptions were to blame for the mass extinction event at the end of the preceding Triassic period. This cataclysm spewed huge amounts of gases that geologists suspect altered the global climate and led to the extinction of nearly 80 percent of life on the planet—though the dinosaurs somehow survived and later thrived. Scientists know most extinctions took place among…

The Permian–Triassic extinction event, which happened roughly 252 million years ago, is colloquially known as the Great Dying because of the way it obliterated life on Earth – almost ending it completely. It's the most severe extinction event in history.  Life did recover however, and new research identifies that deposit feeders like worms and shrimps – animals that feed off organic matter settled at the bottom of the ocean – were the first to bounce back in terms of population numbers and biodiversity.Suspension…

During the worst mass extinction event in Earth's history, vast wetlands suffered increased wildfires, turning the world's largest carbon sinks into carbon sources. Credit: Victor O. Leshyk Researchers at University College Cork (UCC) and the Swedish Museum of Natural History examined the end-Permian mass extinction (252 million years ago) that eliminated almost every species on Earth, with entire ecosystems collapsing. The…

Mineralogical data across the extinction event. Mineralogical data from (A) Ubara and (B) Akkamori. Quartz (qtz); pyrite (pyr); berthierine (bth); Fe-illite; and frw_s. Credit: Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31128-3 The end-Permian mass extinction is the most severe mass extinction event ever recorded, during which ~80% of marine species went extinct.…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The end-Permian extinction (EPE) was the greatest biotic crisis in Earth's history, eliminating more than 90% of species in the oceans and more than 70% of species on land. …

His striking, vulnerable eyes pounced on every object in the large earthen compound where he gathered his toys. Mojeed flocked around his 25-year-old mother, Taiwo Abduljelil, while she got busy with cloth weaving. His father was also seated at the entrance of the compound where he was weaving a bundle of polychrome threads. Mojeed was born a few months after Nigeria announced its first total lockdown in March 2020 as part of measures to check the spread of the COVID-19 in the country.…

The Mississippi River flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. According to researchers at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, river sediments and ocean currents helped simple sea life in the Gulf survive a deep-ocean mass extinction 56 million years ago. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey An ancient bout of global warming 56 million years ago that acidified oceans and wiped-out marine life had a milder effect in the Gulf…

A team led by Jeremy McCormack at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has found evidence that competition with great white sharks may have contributed to the extinction of the megalodon, the largest shark that ever lived. Living in oceans all over the world 23 to 3.6 million years ago, Otodus megalodon and other megatooth sharks grew to lengths of up to 20 m (65 ft) and weighed up to 103 tonnes, making them arguably the most powerful predators in history. By contrast, the famous great white shark only…

Megalodon. The very name conjures awe: A giant shark that once dominated the world's oceans, big enough to swallow a human whole. Such a beast – known only from teeth and vertebrae that survived the 3.6 million years since it went extinct – must have been fearsome indeed.  It was one of the largest carnivores ever to have lived… and yet, there is one predator still living today whose very existence may have brought the mighty megalodon (Otodus megalodon) to its fins: the great white shark  (Carcharodon carcharias).Recent…