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 mass extinctions throughout history.

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

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Mighty Mammoths Fell Prey to Rapidly Warming Earth

By Laura Geggel published

The mighty megafauna of the last ice age, including the wooly mammoths, short faced bears and cave lions, largely went extinct because of rapid climate-warming events, a new study finds.

Ichthyosaur fossils

An Asteroid Didn't Wipe Out Ichthyosaurs — So What Did?

By Laura Geggel published

Tennessee Myotonic buck - Chip

Heritage Livestock are Vanishing Across the United States (Photos)

By Josh Chamot published

Can unique and rare American livestock be saved from extinction?

florida-panther-100924-02

Fading Florida Panthers Need New Paths to Safety

By Michael Sainato published

Florida panthers are getting a lifeline in newly protected territory, but will it be enough?

Chart of extinction events that wiped out most life on Earth.

The New Dying: How Human-Caused Extinction Affects the Planet (Infographic)

By Karl Tate published

Scientists found that species are dying off more than 100 times faster than they would without human activity.

Giant Panda Mei Xiang

Here's More Proof Earth Is in Its 6th Mass Extinction

By Laura Geggel published

Diverse animals across the globe are slipping away and dying as Earth enters its sixth mass extinction, a new study finds.

Sudan is the last male northern white rhinoceros in the world.

Then There Were 5: Inside the Race to Save the Northern White Rhino

By Stephanie Pappas published

Only five northern white rhinoceroses are left on Earth. Can reproductive technology save a subspecies driven to near extinction?

Cute baby white rhino with its mama.

Dwindling Large-Mammal Populations Create Ripple Effects

By Michael Sainato published

Without elephants, hippos and rhinos, the world will not be the same.

Deccan Traps

Massive Lava Flows Linked to Dinosaur-Killing Impact

By Becky Oskin published

The Chicxulub meteor impact 66 million years ago may have triggered a magnitude-11 earthquake that shook loose massive amounts of lava in India.

An artist’s impression of the Chicxulub asteroid impacting the Yucatan Peninsula as pterodactyls fly in the sky above.

Dinos Died Here: Getting to the Core of Asteroid Impact Mystery

By Jeanna Bryner published

Scientists plan to drill deep into the Chicxulub crater formed by a space rock that smashed into Earth 65.5 million years ago, killing off the dinosaurs.

Touch of Light, Brandon Ballengée, extinction art

Framing the End: Extinction as Art (Interview)

By Paulette Beete published

A deformed frog, preserved and stained with its disfigurations, is a poignant statement on environmental destruction.

funerary urns, extinction art

The Brutal Art of Extinction (Gallery)

By Josh Chamot published

To understand extinction, art can bring a brutal power to the message of loss.

Finless porpoise

As China Saves its 'Smiling' Porpoise, It Saves Its People (Op-Ed)

By Karin Krchnak published

Save the river porpoise, save China.

asteroid impact rock

Biggest Asteroid Impact Zone Found Under Australia

By Megan Gannon published

Sometime between 300 million and 600 million years ago, a massive space rock split in two before colliding with the planet.

yellow-eyed penguins

Penguins Rapidly Conquered New Zealand After Humans Ate Rivals

By Becky Oskin published

Fossils left behind by a penguin that was hunted to extinction reveal a remarkably fast turnover in species occurred after Polynesians settlers wiped out New Zealand's weird island wildlife.

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 published

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 published

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 published

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 published

Megalodon Fighting Titanoboa

Solved: When Earth's Largest Shark Disappeared

By Kelly Dickerson published

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