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 ...

The term “mass extinction” conjures up apocalyptic images of the world coming to an end, but a massive event like this can be a much slower process than many people realize. By definition, a mass ...

A gamma-ray burst, the most powerful kind of explosion known in the universe, may have triggered a mass extinction on Earth within the past billion years, researchers say. These deadly outbursts could ...

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 ...

Last week, a group of Stanford researchers published a paper with a very simple, very terrifying message. The number of species that have gone extinct over the past few centuries is high—as in, up to ...

Supernova X-rays zap planets' atmospheres, 160 light-years away https://earthsky.org/space/supernova-x-rays-planets-within-160-light-years/ In previous research, when ...