The new study deciphered the single-most greatest mass extinction on Earth driven by a natural calamity that still exists.

in rocks that formed under shallow water at the time of the extinction. Pollution sometimes turns waters anoxic today in regions that lack good circulation. Local die-offs of marine life can result.

This long and catastrophic chain of events occurred during the Mesozoic era, when oxygen levels were so low it caused ...

The relative invulnerability of marine life is a key difference from previous mass extinctions, in which ocean species—particularly clams, snails, and ammonites—were slammed, Witts adds. “When we ...

This graph plots extinction rates of marine animal families over the last ... Some populations seem more vulnerable than others: tropical forms of life have been drastically affected, while ...

a rich variety of marine life flourished in the vast seas and the first primitive plants began to appear on land—before the second largest mass extinction of all time ended the period.

The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet. It consumes enormous quantities of tiny, shrimp-like animals known as ...

Life on Earth is anything but predictable. For evidence, look no further than the five mass extinctions that have ... survival during times when other marine resources were scarce.

"Somewhere between a quarter and a third of all marine species everywhere has some part of their life cycle in coral ... now also the phenomenon of a mass extinction event looming," he says ...

which filter seawater through their mouths to feed on small marine life, once teemed in Earth's oceans. Then over the past century they were hunted almost to extinction for their energy-dense blubber.