Extinction

Find out everything there is to know about extinction and stay updated on the latest extinction news with the comprehensive articles, interactive features and pictures at LiveScience. Learn more about amazing discoveries scientists are making as they uncover the causes and other details of major extinctions throughout history.

Related Topics: Evolution, Climate Change, DNA and Genes, Fossils

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In Butterloch Gorge in northern Italy, the boundary between Permian-era rocks and Triassic-era rocks is exposed.

Ancient Earth Had Weird Chemistry: Vanilla Rocks, Lemon-Juice Soil

By Charles Q. Choi

During the worst mass extinction in Earth's history, the soil may have been as acidic as lemon juice, new research shows.

Permian Earth

Low Oxygen Hobbled Recovery from History's Worst Extinction

By Tia Ghose

Life didn't immediately rebound after the world's greatest extinction, but cropped up in fits and starts.

Deccan Traps

New Dates Tie Volcanic Flood to Dinosaur Extinction

By Becky Oskin

New, more precise dates for India's Deccan Traps eruptions could revive the idea that the massive set of lava flows caused the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) extinction.

T-Rex skeleton

Mass Extinctions: What Humans Can Learn from the Past

By Tanya Lewis

Megalodon Fighting Titanoboa

Solved: When Earth's Largest Shark Disappeared

By Kelly Dickerson

A new study of fossil records estimates that the 60-foot-long (18 meters) Megalodon shark went extinct 2.6 million years ago.

Wild loris, endangered species

5 Ways to Stop the World's Wildlife From Vanishing (Op-Ed)

By Paul Jepson

With more than 50 percent of wildlife disappearing in the last 40 years, something needs to change.

Egyptian knife with animal decoration

Climate and Civilization Killed Egypt's Animals

By Megan Gannon

Sumatran rhino

6th Mass Extinction? Humans Kill Species Faster Than They're Created

By Stephanie Pappas

Passenger pigeon painting by naturalist and artist John James Audubon

A Centenary for the Last Passenger Pigeon (Op-Ed)

By Steve Zack

On the one-hundredth anniversary of the last passenger pigeon's death, reflections on the loss of darkened skies.

the Punta Peligro fossil locality, Chubut Province, Patagonia.

Surprising Survivor: Little Ancient Reptile Outlived Dinosaurs

By Stephanie Pappas

A new fossil find reveals that a family of lizardlike reptiles survived the Cretaceous extinction that killed the dinosaurs and lived for millions more years in South America.

sharks, shark week, endangered species

As Sharks Disappear, So Could Shark Week​ (Op-Ed)

By Caleb McClennen

Shark Week can be terrifying, but sharks have much more to fear than we do.

Arapaima Fish

Amazon's Biggest Fish Faces Threat of Extinction

By Elizabeth Palermo

Mass Extinction Elephants

Earth May Be in Early Days of 6th Mass Extinction

By Laura Geggel

asteroid impact illustration

Could Dinosaurs Have Survived the Impact that Killed Them?

By Tanya Lewis

Greater stick-nest rat, extinction, endangered species

From the Frontline: Saving Australia's Threatened Mammals

By By Tyrone Lavery, Katherine Moseby

illustration of a nothosaur

Ancient Long-Necked 'Sea Monsters' Rowed Their Way to Prey

By Tia Ghose

Nothosaurs, ancient marine predators that paddled the Mesozoic oceans, swam with a rowing motion that dredged up prey, new track marks reveal.

illustration of a nothosaur

In Images: The Tracks of an Ancient Sea Monster

By Tia Ghose

Hundreds of well-preserved tracks may resolve a debate about how an ancient marine predator trawled the oceans.

Humans Blamed for Extinction of Mammoths, Mastodons & Giant Sloths

By Stephanie Pappas

diversity map of birds in the americas

Extinction Rates Soar to 1,000 Times Normal (But There's Hope)

By Stephanie Pappas

threatened and endangered species Map

Biodiversity Threats: Maps of Species Hotspots

By Stephanie Pappas