+Oceans | November 25, 2011
Photographer's Choice RF / Getty Images

Life in the Time of the Great Dying

By Tara Thean

Earth history is different from ordinary history: it’s much harder to nail down specific dates when everything happened millions of years ago and over huge, slow timescales. But it can be done, as shown by paleontologists who have pinpointed the exact date of the largest mass extinction to ever occur on earth. The end-Permian mass [...]

+Wildlife | March 3, 2011

The Next Great Extinction Could Be Coming Sooner Than You Think

By Bryan Walsh

It’s no secret that wildlife around the world is under severe stress. The most recent Red List from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimated that 33% of the species evaluated by the group are at least threatened. The causes are many—hunting, disease, habitat loss, invasive species, even climate change—but they mostly boil [...]