Mass Extinction
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Climate change took away ancient animals’ food supply; holds implications for today’s wildlife
Analysis suggests that climate change had a significant impact on megafauna diets and was a primary factor in their extinction. Read MoreJun 2, 2017
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Climate change helped kill off super-sized Ice Age animals in Australia
A new study has compared the diet of a variety of Australian megafaunal herbivores from the period when they were widespread (350,000 to 570,000 years ago) to a period when they were in decline (30,000 to 40,000 years ago) by studying their fossil teeth. The analysis suggests that climate change had a significant impact on their diets and may well have been a primary factor in their extinction. Read MoreJan 26, 2017
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Newly discovered fossils strengthen proposition that world’s first mass extinction engineered by early animals
New fossil evidence strengthens the proposition that the world’s first mass extinction was caused by ‘ecosystem engineers’ – newly evolved organisms that radically altered the environment. Read MoreJul 29, 2016
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Evidence that Earth’s first mass extinction was caused by critters, not catastrophe
The Earth's first mass extinction event 540 million years ago was caused not by a meteorite impact or volcanic super-eruption, but by the rise of early animals that dramatically changed to prehistoric environment. Read MoreSep 2, 2015