Scientists have successfully sequenced the genome of the long-extinct woolly rhinoceros from an unusual place: the stomach ...

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 ...

A massive ice age wiped out ocean life 445 million years ago, reshaping ecosystems and setting the stage for jawed fish ...

About 66 million years ago – perhaps on a downright unlucky day in May – an asteroid smashed into our planet. Even groups that weathered the catastrophe, such as mammals, fishes and flowering plants, ...

A devastating ice age wiped out most marine life, yet new research reveals how this ancient disaster unexpectedly paved the ...

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 ...

Some 445 million years ago, life on Earth was forever changed. During the geological blink of an eye, glaciers formed over ...

Discover how the first mass extinction put jawed fishes on the map, species that would later come to dominate animal life on ...

A new study by the University of Minnesota challenges previous classifications paleontologists use to determine how the ...

In a case of mistaken identity, fossils from two whales were disguised as the backbones of a woolly mammoth. The fossilized ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Stewart Edie, Smithsonian Institution (THE CONVERSATION) About 66 million years ago – ...