New research finds extinction rates have been declining for a century, challenging assumptions of an ongoing mass extinction.

Scientists have documented five major mass extinction events in Earth's history, during which at least three-quarters of life went extinct. But with humans clearing habitats, exterminating species and ...

Could you run for 100 hours this year? How about just doing a little more than 15 minutes each day? In fact, these goals are essentially equivalent, but one certainly sounds more ambitious than the ...

Farther back in our planet’s history, volcanic eruptions, rapid climate change, and plummeting oxygen levels have caused at least four additional mass extinctions, with smaller pulses of biodiversity ...

Could we be on the verge of the sixth mass extinction? To better understand what’s to come for life on Earth–and the current harm we’re doing to our own environment–we have to look into the past. But, ...

Welcome to what scientists call the Sixth Mass Extinction. Unlike previous mass extinctions caused by asteroids or volcanoes, this one’s on us. Climate change, habitat destruction, pollution, ...

Humans have wiped out hundreds of species — with many more on the brink or experiencing large declines in population. Some scientists have argued that we have entered a “sixth mass extinction” event ...

(CNN) — No species lasts forever — extinction is part of the evolution of life. But at least five times, a biological catastrophe has engulfed the planet, killing off the vast majority of species from ...

The Sepkoski Curve, representing marine diversity at the taxonomic level of families over the last 600 million years. The 'Big Five' mass extinctions are labeled at the troughs of the diversity curve, ...