extinction

Over 370 million years ago, the Devonian era saw significant biological evolution but ended in a mass extinction event. Recent research indicates that this extinction resulted from both volcanic activity and plant-driven deoxygenation. This study, combining various scientific disciplines, underscores the relevance of Earth’s history in addressing current environmental issues.A new study indicates that a combination of volcanic activity and oceanic purification processes drove Earth’s ecosystems to a tipping point.Diverse…

Birdlike dinosaur Eoneophron infernalis was about the size of an adult human. Credit: Zubin Erik DuttaNew findings, including the discovery of Eoneophron infernalis, suggest that dinosaurs, particularly caenagnathids, were not declining in diversity before the asteroid impact, contradicting earlier theories of their vulnerability.Were dinosaurs already on their way out when an asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago, ending the Cretaceous, the geologic period that started about 145 million years ago? It’s a question that…

As It Happens6:35How scientists tracked the 1,000 km journey of a woolly mammoth using its tuskWith nothing more than a tusk, researchers were able to track the 1,000 kilometre journey of a woolly mammoth that lived 14,000 years ago. "The fact that we can actually regenerate her movement, her place along a landscape … all comes from a few remains at this site gives us insight into behaviour of an animal that once existed and lived with ancestors of the first people here in Canada," Hendrik Poinar, an evolutionary…

Light microscope images of euglenoid cysts from the Triassic-Jurassic boundary (approx. 200 million years old) in the Schandelah-1 core in Germany (left) and from Triassic sediments in Winterswijk, the Netherlands (right). The specimens are between 20 and 30 micrometers in diameter. Credit: Bas van de Schootbrugge, Utrecht UniversityA 400-million-year evolutionary history.Euglenoids, a unique group of single-celled protists, occupy a mysterious niche, being neither fully plant nor animal. Unlike plants that solely rely on…

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.Were dinosaurs already on their way out when an asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago, ending the Cretaceous, the geologic period that started about 145 million years ago? It’s a question that has vexed paleontologists like us for more than 40 years.In the late 1970s, debate began about whether dinosaurs were at their peak or in decline before their big extinction. Scientists at that time noted that…

Ice climbers and ecosystems will be forced to adapt as winter patterns change—and Arnold believes the sport will survive. People who engage in outdoor activities are adaptive, he says. “Sometimes I am concerned. But I don’t think it will happen,” he says of the possibility of ice climbing going extinct.There is already research showing that mountaineers and climbers don’t want to give the sport up, and that they are ready to adapt their behaviors in order to keep climbing. Strategies include modifying when they chose to…

About 14,000 years ago, the tusk of a 20-year-old female mammoth ended up at a campsite in Swan Point, Alaska.How the tusk got there will likely remain a mystery – perhaps the campsite owners hunted her, or came across her remains and took the tusk home with them.Fortunately for us, the extinct mammoths' (Mammuthus primigenius) life journey is written in the chemistry of their bones. The tale told by this one specimen – named Élmayuujey'eh by the local counsil – could help us better understand how others of her kind…

Skeleton of the early dinosaur Coelophysis bauri from the Late Triassic. The protracted restructuring of Early Jurassic terrestrial ecosystems coincided with the diversification of dinosaurs. Credit: Courtesy of Natural History Museum of Los Angeles CountyA research team from USC Dornsife has made significant discoveries regarding the drastic changes caused by a surge in greenhouse gases and escalating temperatures, which resulted in a mass extinction event, paving the way for the emergence of Jurassic dinosaurs.Startling…

Gison Morib was home lying in bed, sick from exhaustion after a month-long jungle expedition, when his phone buzzed and a black-and-white photograph appeared. Morib ran outside, jumped on his motorbike and sped through the city of Sentani on Indonesian New Guinea to his colleagues’ expedition and research base—where he broke down in tears. “I cannot believe we found it,” was all he could say, over and over. The photograph showed the first recorded sighting in more than 60 years of an Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, an…

January 10, 20243min readThe massive ancient ape Gigantopithecus blacki disappeared in a mystery that scientists are eager to crackBy Meghan BartelsAn artist’s impression of a group of the extinct species Gigantopithecus blacki in a forest in southern China. The largest known primate ever to live, which may have stood some 10 feet tall and weighed between 440 and 660 pounds, lumbered through the lush forests of southeastern Asia for millennia. It has left scientists a few thousand teeth, four jawbones and one gigantic…