Scientists have long treated mass extinctions as events locked deep in the fossil record. That framing now feels less distant ...

Quick Take Six animal species, including the slender-billed curlew and Christmas Island shrew, were confirmed extinct in 2025 ...

A massive ice age wiped out ocean life 445 million years ago, reshaping ecosystems and setting the stage for jawed fish ...

During these waves of mass extinction, most vertebrate survivors were confined to refugia, or isolated biodiversity hotspots ...

A rapid climate collapse during the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction devastated ocean life and reshuffled Earth’s ecosystems.

About 445 million years ago, Earth nearly wiped out life in the oceans. Glaciers spread across the supercontinent Gondwana, ...

The millions of species humans share the world with are valuable in their own right. When one species is lost, it has a ...

A spectacular fossil trove on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen shows that marine life made a stunning comeback after Earth’s ...

If — when? — the African elephant goes extinct in an estimated two decades, there will be mourning and memory and tribute. People will post photos of themselves at the circus as kids. They'll mimic ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. De-extinction starts with DNA samples from the lost species. Sometimes this is the complete ...

The tragic news of the loss of the world's last remaining northern white rhino begs the question: Can it be brought back?

Most closely related to dugongs, it was discovered in 1741 by biologist Georg Wilhelm Steller, after the expedition to North ...