mass extinction News

If humans go on burning fossil fuels, a sixth mass marine extinction will be the inevitable result. By the year 2100, we will have added so much carbon to the world's oceans that the critical threshold will be reached.

There are only 7,100 cheetahs remaining in the wild. This had led to conservationists to renew calls for the big cats to be declared endangered.

Long before his historic trip to Cuba, President Barack Obama had been trying to close the infamous prison facility at Guantanamo Bay. Many Republicans have opposed this, insisting that the prison sends a strong message to would-be terrorists.

Mantua - It looks like a typical rock quarry behind a shopping mall just 15 miles away from Philadelphia, but it contains a trove of 66-million-year-old fossils that may provide evidence that the dinosaurs became extinct as a result of a massive meteor strike.

Cape Town - Human activity has sparked a mass extinction of species that may rival, and even surpass the death of the dinosaurs. With that in mind, a mother-and-son team is set to pedal across the Southern Atlantic on a customized boat powered only by foot pedals.

A recent study suggests that cycles of mass extinction, magnetic direction reversals, and crater impacts on Earth may be significantly influenced by rhythms of Earth's interaction with dark matter in the Galactic plane.

Canberra - Geophysicists have discovered evidence of what may be the world’s largest asteroid impact in central Australia. The impact zone from what would have been a huge meteorite stretches over 400 kilometers.

Dark matter could be the cause of mass extinctions, according to scientists who have analyzed the movement of the Earth through the region called the galactic disc.

Gothenburg - Plants are truly survivors and apparently aren't as affected as animals are during mass extinctions. In Earth's long history of five major extinction events, plants have fared better in the survival game than animals have, scientists say.

Edinburgh - And if that perfect storm hadn’t come about, say scientists, dinosaurs might still be with us today — except their continued existence might have meant a very different "us" having evolved — if at all.

A group of biologists is warning that the growing loss of species may mean that the planet is in the early stages of a sixth mass extinction. Another group of scientists say extreme and controversial methods may be needed to slow the rate of extinction.

Children are often scolded by their parents when they don't eat all the food on their plate, but researchers have discovered that picky eaters are also less likely to survive mass extinctions.

Something killed off 90 percent of the Earth’s living species 250 million years ago. The prevailing theory has been that increased volcanic activity caused drastic changes in the Earth’s climate and the species could not adapt fast enough.

Manchester - Fossil records show dinosaurs suffered mass extinction about 65 million years ago. Scientists have long suspected bees underwent a similar fate but they’ve only now documented a mass extinction event affecting bees.

In a move that might one day save the world, if not bring out the best minds in amateur science, NASA put out a call to citizens and space geeks everywhere today: if you have ideas on how to locate or destroy killer-asteroids, we want to hear from you.

An expert panel of scientists discovered the world's oceans are at a high risk of entering a phase of extinction unprecedented in human history.