About 445 million years ago, Earth nearly wiped out life in the oceans. Glaciers spread across the supercontinent Gondwana, ...

Scientists have long treated mass extinctions as events locked deep in the fossil record. That framing now feels less distant. New research points to patterns that resemble earlier biological ...

A mass extinction event is a term used to describe a large-scale event that wipes out species. It is usually not a short, one-time incident but rather something that occurs over thousands or millions ...

Supernova destroying planet, illustration. A rocky planet lies in the wake of its star, which has just gone supernova. The explosion shatters the planet. A complete census of massive stars in our part ...

A spectacular fossil trove on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen shows that marine life made a stunning comeback after Earth’s greatest extinction. Tens of thousands of fossils reveal fully aquatic ...

Everyone knows that dinosaurs are extinct, and most people have some idea about how it might have occurred. But the exact periods in history when it happened are less well known. Was it a single ...

The Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction, occurring approximately 66 million years ago, represents one of the most dramatic biotic crises in Earth’s history. It is marked by the abrupt disappearance ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Violent supernovas ...

But if there is one thing we’ve learned from the history of past mass extinctions, it is (with a nod to “Jurassic Park”): “Life finds a way.” The post The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs, As Explained by ...

At least two mass extinction events in Earth's history were likely caused by the 'devastating' effects of nearby supernova explosions, a new study suggests. Researchers say these super-powerful blasts ...

It had quite an impact — striking with the force of 10 million atomic bombs. Sixty-six million years ago, the asteroid that slammed into what is now the Yucatán Peninsula caused a mass extinction ...