Hidden in the tusk of a 34-year-old mastodon was a record of time and space that helped explain his violent death.
Our climate models could be missing something big.
Whether our civilization is transient or not, its effects on the living world will last forever.
Humans could burn every living thing on the planet and still not dent its oxygen supply.
On geological timescales, human civilization is an event, not an epoch.
The worst extinction in Earth’s history offers chilling predictions for the planet’s future—and for humanity’s efforts to keep climate doom at bay.
“The need to understand strange events like the Carnian Pluvial Episode has taken on new urgency."
During the rise of mammals, Earth's temperatures spiked in a scary way that the planet may experience again soon.
The strange, cosmic reason our evolutionary path will look ever luckier the longer we survive.
The ocean is suffocating—but not for the first time.
Climate change is pushing more water into the atmosphere—with bizarre consequences.
A road trip through the geological ruins of our planet's worst mass extinction.
“As scientists we have a responsibility to be accurate about such comparisons.”
Whales have a history that is among the strangest and least-understood of any animal—and barnacles might be the key to unlocking their secrets.
What we can learn from the ruins of the HMS Terror
In the early 19th century, a series of massive quakes rocked Missouri. Some experts predict that the state could be in for another round of violent shaking, while others warn that a big quake could strike elsewhere in the center of the continent.