Paleogeography is the scientific study and reconstruction of past geographic configurations of Earth’s surface, including the distribution of continents, oceans, mountain ranges, basins, and depositional environments through geologic time. It integrates data from plate tectonics, stratigraphy, paleomagnetism, sedimentology, paleontology, and geochronology to infer past positions and movements of tectonic plates and associated paleoenvironments. Paleogeographic reconstructions provide essential boundary conditions for paleoclimate modeling, basin analysis, sediment routing systems, and biogeographic studies, enabling quantitative assessment of how changes in Earth’s surface configuration have influenced climate systems, ocean circulation, biodiversity patterns, and the formation and distribution of natural resources.
Mass extinctions are extremely catastrophic events on Earth. Throughout Earth's evolutionary history, numerous mass extinctions have occurred, with five major mass extinctions being particularly representative. These extinctions ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 27, 2026
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Flinders University paleontology researchers—with local fossil experts—have discovered how prolific shorebirds, including the Plains-wanderer, once lived across South Australia's South-East during wetter times up to 60,000 ...
Ecology
Jan 21, 2026
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84
A new study led by researchers at the University of Oxford has shown that the shape and orientation of coastlines significantly influenced extinction patterns for animals living in the shallow oceans during the last 540 million ...
Ecology
Jan 15, 2026
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41
New research from Adelaide University suggests the power of the ancient Tethys Ocean might have shaped Central Asia's topography during the Cretaceous period.
Earth Sciences
Jan 14, 2026
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41
To understand how global warming could influence future climate, scientists look to the Paleogene Period that began 66 million years ago, covering a time when Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were two to four times ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 9, 2026
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Ceratopsians were horned, beaked dinosaurs that once stomped their way all over North America and Asia during the Late Cretaceous period, about 80 million years ago. Their abundance in the fossil records of these continents, ...
Earth system box models are essential tools for reconstructing long-term climatic and environmental evolution and uncovering Earth system mechanisms. To overcome the spatiotemporal resolution limitations of current deep-time ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 6, 2026
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25
What can mapped drainage systems on Mars teach scientists about the red planet's watery past? This is what a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences hopes to address as a team of scientists ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 6, 2025
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100
Atmospheric dust plays an important role in the way Earth absorbs and reflects sunlight, impacting the global climate, cloud formation, and precipitation. Much of this dust comes from the continuous reshaping of Earth's surface ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 3, 2025
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44
Billions of years ago, it rained on Mars. The water collected in valleys and rivers, filled and spilled over the rims of craters, and was funneled into canyons, perhaps even making its way to a large Martian ocean.
Astrobiology
Dec 1, 2025
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