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

Understanding the Earth’s previous mass extinctions may be the key to saving ourselves from the next one. Could we be on the verge of the sixth mass extinction? To better understand what’s to come for ...

After years of searching worldwide, paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara found the extinction layer—and thousands of fossils—just minutes from home.

A comet explosion may explain mass extinctions 13,000 years ago, linking the Clovis people's vanishing and mammoth die-off to ...

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.

For decades, we’ve heard warnings that humanity is teetering on the edge of a new “mass extinction.” But a new study paints a ...

The researchers found humans are likely to go extinct in 250 million years- a stretch if we stop our fossil fuel burning and greenhouse gas emissions, which researchers say need to stop now.

A study published in Science China Earth Sciences (Issue 9, 2025) has quantitatively reconstructed changes in nitrate ...

Our planet’s first known mass extinction happened about 440 million years ago. Species diversity on Earth had been increasing over a period of roughly 30 million years, but that would come to a halt ...

Humans have wiped out hundreds of species — with many more on the brink or experiencing large declines in population. Some scientists have argued that we have entered a “sixth mass extinction” event ...

Mass extinction events represent intervals of abrupt, large‐scale loss of biodiversity that have repeatedly reshaped life on Earth. These crises are commonly linked to dramatic environmental ...

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