A new analysis suggests that recent extinctions have been rare, limited mostly to islands and slowing. But others argue this is all just semantics.

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An image of Cassiopeia A (Cas A), the remnant of a massive star that exploded about 300 years ago ...

concept image of a mass extinction event destroyed city with rubble and smoky air - Dezzzy/Shutterstock A mass extinction event is a term used to describe a large-scale event that wipes out species.

Some 66 million years ago, a devastating asteroid strike is believed to have been behind the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

Scientists don't call it the "Great Dying" for nothing. About 252 million years ago, upward of 80% of all marine species vanished during the end-Permian mass extinction—the most extreme event of its ...

Mass extinction sounds scary, but it’s basically nature’s biggest reset button. Throughout Earth’s history, there have been ...

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 ...

According to a recent study, events geologists use to distinguish transitions between geological chapters in Earth's story follow a hidden hierarchical pattern, one that could shed light on both past ...

Mass extinctions, volcanism, and impacts: The geological extinction record : history, data, biases, and testing / Norman MacLeod -- Large igneous provinces and mass extinctions : an update / David P.G ...

Introduction -- Beginnings -- The end-Ordovician mass extinction -- The late Devonian mass extinction -- The end-Permian mass extinction -- The end-Triassic mass extinction -- The end-Cretaceous mass ...

Our species likes it cold. Homo sapiens evolved in — and still inhabits — one of Earth’s rare and fragile ice ages, periods distinguished not by an abundance of saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths ...

The explosive supernova deaths of nearby massive stars may have played a significant role in triggering at least two mass extinction events in Earth's history, according to new research. As some of ...