Extinction as a research area encompasses the quantitative and theoretical study of processes leading to the disappearance of species, populations, or lineages, integrating ecology, evolutionary biology, conservation biology, and paleobiology. It investigates drivers such as habitat loss, climate change, overexploitation, invasive species, and stochastic demographic or genetic factors, often using statistical modeling, population viability analysis, phylogenetic methods, and fossil data. The field examines extinction dynamics across temporal and spatial scales, including background and mass extinction rates, extinction selectivity, and cascading ecosystem effects, with applications to biodiversity forecasting, conservation prioritization, and the design of management strategies to reduce extinction risk.
The end-Triassic mass extinction, 201 million years ago, is linked to volcanism that resulted from the break-up of Pangea and which pumped out vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, causing extreme global warming of 5 to ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 21, 2026
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For more than a century, astronomers have puzzled over a strange discrepancy in the historical record. Theta Eridani, a modest star in the constellation Eridanus, is the third-brightest star in its constellation, with a magnitude ...
Life on Earth took a long evolutionary journey that eventually created us, the purportedly intelligent species that dominates the planet. But there was no grand plan or design, only happenstance, nature and luck. Life on ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 24, 2026
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338
A great Tyrannosaurus rex strides through the conifer trees of her territory, sniffing the air. She picks up the scent from the carcass of a dead horned dinosaur, Triceratops, that she was feeding on yesterday. She walks ...
Paleontology & Fossils
May 11, 2026
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121
A team of professional and amateur Japanese astronomers have found evidence for a thin atmosphere around a small body in the outer solar system. The object is so small that it should not have a sustainable atmosphere, raising ...
Astronomy
May 4, 2026
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The mass extinction at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods was catastrophic, wiping out much of life on Earth. Vertebrate groups that dominated at the time, such as dinosaurs and many large marine reptiles, ...
Evolution
Mar 25, 2026
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121
A new study led by University of Colorado Denver has uncovered how climate change and intensifying wildfires are disrupting dragonfly mating traits—threatening to push some species toward local extinction.
Plants & Animals
Sep 10, 2025
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36
Hundreds of species have gone extinct in recent centuries, but losses are few among larger classification levels, meaning we are not witnessing a mass extinction just yet, according to a study published in the open-access ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 4, 2025
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36
Most people are aware that an asteroid wiped out much of life on Earth around 65 million years ago, and this knowledge contributes to that chill of fear that many people experience, at least occasionally, that something like ...
Suppose humanity was faced with an extinction-level event. Not just high odds, but certain-sure. A nearby supernova will explode and irradiate all life, a black hole will engulf the Earth, a Mars-sized interstellar asteroid ...
Astrobiology
Mar 27, 2025
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