Tagged: mass extinction

Prehistoric creatures flocked to different latitudes to survive climate change – the same is taking place today - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jun 29, 2021 •

• Biodiversity,
• mass extinction,
• prehistoric life,
• slimate change

Emma Dunne, University of Birmingham and Bethany Allen, University of Leeds   Life on Earth is most diverse at the equator. This pattern, where species biodiversity increases as we move through the tropics towards the equator, is seen on land and in the oceans, and has been documented across a broad range of animal and plant groups, from mammals … Read More

How birds survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid - Guest Work

Guest Author • May 26, 2018 •

• asteroid,
• birds,
• Cretaceous,
• Dinosaurs,
• mass extinction

Daniel J. Field, University of Bath The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs also wiped out every land-dwelling animal weighing over five kilograms. It caused wildfires, acid rain, protracted darkness and global cooling that made the world as inhospitable as some of the most barren places known today. If the same asteroid struck this afternoon, it would … Read More

More bad news for dinosaurs: Chicxulub meteorite impact triggered global volcanic eruptions on the ocean floor - Guest Work

Guest Author • Feb 12, 2018 •

• Chicxulub,
• Dinosaurs,
• Earth,
• extinct,
• extraterrestial,
• gravity,
• lava,
• magma,
• Mars,
• mass extinction,
• Meteorite,
• ocean,
• planet,
• Venus,
• volcanic eruption

Leif Karlstrom, University of Oregon and Joseph Byrnes, University of Minnesota This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago was a rough time to be living on Earth. Three global catastrophes occurred nearly simultaneously: The Chicxulub meteorite slammed into … Read More

Radical overhaul needed to halt Earth’s sixth great extinction event - Guest Work

Guest Author • Nov 11, 2016 •

• conservation,
• ecology,
• Environment,
• extinction,
• human impact,
• mass extinction

By Bill Laurance, James Cook University and Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University Life has existed on Earth for roughly 3.7 billion years. During that time we know of five mass extinction events — dramatic episodes when many, if not most, life forms vanished in a geological heartbeat. The most recent of these was the global … Read More

The complex future of ecology - Infrequently Asked Questions

Lynley Hargreaves • Aug 27, 2015 •

• complexity,
• Dr Daniel Stouffer,
• ecology,
• mass extinction,
• University of Canterbury

If you believe the next mass extinction event (caused by humans) has begun, how do humans begin to choose which species to save? Rutherford Discovery Fellow Dr Daniel Stouffer may be able to help, although he isn’t looking at kiwi, lichens, or in fact any particular species. Instead, he’s working on ways to study all of them at the same … Read More