A recently published study puts forth a new theory that volcanic eruptions combined with widespread ocean detoxification pushed Earth's biology to a tipping point in the Late Devonian era, triggering ...

Scientists discovered that ancient reef-building stromatoporoids survived the Late Devonian extinction, contrary to previous beliefs, and continued to thrive. The findings reveal how these organisms ...

Last year, hiking in Morocco’s eastern Atlas Mountains, I found an ammonite, a fossil of those spiral-shape cephalopods that to many symbolize paleontology itself. The fossilization process had turned ...

For decades, scientists have debated what wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The usual suspects? A massive asteroid or powerful volcanic eruptions. But now, researchers from Dartmouth ...

Exploding stars in near-solar space may have triggered at least two mass extinction events in Earth's history. An analysis of the frequency of supernova explosions in the Milky Way, led by ...

Violent supernovas may have caused two of Earth’s largest mass extinctions that have never been completely explained, according to a theory put forward in new research.During the final stages of a ...

Diverse and full of sea life, the Earth’s Devonian era — taking place more than 370 million years ago — saw the emergence of the first seed-bearing plants, which spread as large forests across the ...

Will modern coral reefs go extinct? The answer is uncertain, but some of their ancient counterparts managed to dodge a bullet — for a while, at least. Scientists from Osaka Metropolitan University ...