Study reveals new mechanism to explain how continents stabilized

Ancient, expansive tracts of continental crust called cratons have helped keep Earth's continents stable for billions of years, even as landmasses shift, mountains rise and oceans form. A new mechanism proposed by Penn State ...

Cosmic dust could have helped get life going on Earth

Life on our planet appeared early in Earth's history. Surprisingly early, since in its early youth our planet didn't have much of the chemical ingredients necessary for life to evolve. Since prebiotic chemicals such as sugars ...

Mammoth problem found with extinction timeline

Precisely when mammoths went extinct has fascinated paleontologists for generations, perhaps because their decline coincided with the arrival of people to North and South America.

Study finds effect of Earth's orbit on ancient microorganisms

Curtin University researchers studying molecular fossils or "biomarkers" from deep beneath the Chicxulub impact crater have found evidence of how microorganisms changed in response to fluctuations in the Earth's climate, ...

Early human ancestors one million years older than thought

The fossils of our earliest ancestors found in South Africa are a million years older than previously thought, meaning they walked the Earth around the same time as their East African relatives like the famous "Lucy", according ...

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