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When tectonics killed everything

A new paper reveals how the worst extinction in Earth's history may have been tied to the formation of Supercontinent Pangea. The catastrophe wasn't triggered by an impact from above—unlike another...

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Counting calories in the fossil record

Starting about 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, brachiopod groups disappeared in large numbers, along with 90 percent of the planet's species. Today, only a few groups, or...

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Methane-producing microbes may be responsible for the largest mass extinction...

Evidence left at the crime scene is abundant and global: Fossil remains show that sometime around 252 million years ago, about 90 percent of all species on Earth were suddenly wiped out—by far the...

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How were fossil tracks made by Early Triassic swimming reptiles so well...

A type of vertebrate trace fossil gaining recognition in the field of paleontology is that made by various tetrapods (four-footed land-living vertebrates) as they traveled through water under buoyant...

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Rich diversity of present-day beetles may be due to extinction resistance

Today's rich variety of beetles may be due to an historically low extinction rate rather than a high rate of new species emerging, according to a new study. These findings were revealed by combing...

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End-Permian mass extinction may have been driven by an ocean teeming with life

(Phys.org)—The Permian geologic period that ended the Paleozoic era climaxed around 252 million years ago with a sweeping global mass extinction event in which 90 to 95 percent of marine life became...

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Study ties most severe extinction to ancient volcanic activity

(Phys.org)—A pair of researchers with MIT has found a way to set a time line for volcanic activity in what is now Siberia, over 250 million years ago, and the worst mass extinction that ever occurred...

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Siberian Traps likely culprit for end-Permian extinction

Around 252 million years ago, life on Earth collapsed in spectacular and unprecedented fashion, as more than 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species disappeared in a geological...

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The Karoo Basin and the end Permian mass extinction

Earth's biosphere witnessed its greatest ecological catastrophe in the latest Permian, dated to about 251.9 million years ago. The current model for biodiversity collapse states that both marine and...

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Elementary new theory on mass extinctions that wiped out life

Throughout the past 600 million years there have been five major mass extinction events that devastated life on Earth. While some of these events are very well studied, such as the killer asteroid that...

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Oldest footprints in Catalonia

The ichnites or fossilised footprints of the Manyanet Valley (within the municipality of Sarroca de Bellera) are in two areas that differ in their environments: meandering fluvial systems in one and...

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Oxygen-starved oceans held back life's recovery after the 'Great Dying'

Stanford scientists have found that chronically low levels of oxygen throughout the oceans hampered the recovery of life after the Permian-Triassic extinction, the most catastrophic die-off in our...

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Neopterygian fish with secondary sexual characteristics found from the Middle...

Secondary sexual characteristics are features that appear at sexual maturity and distinguish the two sexes of a species. Studies of secondary sexual characteristics in a species are vital for fully...

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The 'ugliest fossil reptiles' that roamed China

Long before the dinosaurs, hefty herbivores called pareiasaurs ruled the Earth. Now, for the first time, a detailed investigation of all Chinese specimens of these creatures – often described as the...

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Rapid rise of the Mesozoic sea dragons

In the Mesozoic, the time of the dinosaurs, from 252 to 66 million years ago, marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs were top predators in the oceans. But their origins and early rise to...

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230-million-year-old Texas reptile had bizarre 'dinosaurian' features

Iconic dinosaur shapes were present for at least a hundred million years on our planet in animals before those dinosaurs themselves actually appeared.

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New fossil discovery suggests sea life bounced back after the 'Great Dying'...

(Phys.org)—An international team of researchers has found a trove of marine fossils at a North American site that offers evidence of life bouncing back faster than thought after the most devastating...

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Recovery after 'great dying' was slowed by more extinctions

Researchers studying marine fossil beds in Italy have found that the world's worst mass extinction was followed by two other extinction events, a conclusion that could explain why it took ecosystems...

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Paleozoic echinoderm hangover: Waking up in the Triassic

The end-Paleozoic witnessed the most devastating mass extinction in Earth's history so far, killing the majority of species and profoundly shaping the evolutionary history of the survivors. Echinoderms...

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Ancient reptile tracks in the Pyrenees may include evidence of a new type of...

A large set of tracks made by archosauromorphs in the Pyrenees mountain range may include a new type of footprint made by reptiles that lived 247 million years ago, according to a study published April...

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Five mass extinctions—and what we can learn from them about the planet today

Of all the species that have ever lived, more than 99% are now extinct. Most of them quietly disappeared during periods of "background extinction", whereby a handful of species become extinct every...

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Earth's major 'mass extinction' events

Most scientists agree that a "mass extinction" event is underway with the Earth's wildlife disappearing at an alarming rate, mainly due to human activity.

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Geologists offer new clues to cause of world's greatest extinction

A study by a researcher in the Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences offers new clues to what may have triggered the world's most catastrophic extinction, nearly 252 million years ago.

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Variation in the recovery of tetrapods

The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) occurred about 250 million years ago and represents the Earth's most catastrophic extinction event. Up to 96% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate...

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By 2100, oceans may hold enough carbon to launch sixth mass extermination of...

In the past 540 million years, the Earth has endured five mass extinction events, each involving processes that upended the normal cycling of carbon through the atmosphere and oceans. These globally...

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Ancient, lost, mountains in the Karoo reveals the secrets of massive...

Millions of years ago, a mountain range that would have dwarfed the Andes mountains in South America, stretched over what is currently the southern-most tip of Africa.

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Geologists uncover Antarctica's fossil forests

During Antarctica's summer, from late November through January, UW-Milwaukee geologists Erik Gulbranson and John Isbell climbed the McIntyre Promontory's frozen slopes in the Transantarctic Mountains....

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How much can late Permian ecosystems tell us about modern Earth? A lot.

A whopping two hundred and fifty-two million years ago, Earth was crawling with bizarre animals, including dinosaur cousins resembling Komodo dragons and bulky early mammal-relatives, millions of years...

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Life on land and tropical overheating 250 million years ago

One of the key effects of the end-Permian mass extinction, 252 million years ago, was rapid heating of tropical waters and atmospheres.

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Scientists have accidentally found the oldest ever butterfly or moth fossils

Butterflies and moths, the Lepidoptera, are among the most beautiful of insects, familiar to almost everyone through thousands of different species from all around the world. But how they evolved has...

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