Extinction

Pangolin

These Eerie Portraits Capture Endangered and Extinct Animals in a Film That Is Also Vanishing

Denis Defibaugh uses Polaroid 55 film to give animal specimens an afterlife

How to Save the Monarchs? Pay Farmers to Grow Butterfly Habitats

A novel conservation effort aims to fund a habitat exchange to protect the iconic butterflies from extinction

The skeleton of a Steller's sea cow hangs in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

“Mermaid Ivory” Stirs Controversy Over How Extinct Species Are Studied

The carved bones of marine mammals highlight the squishy regulations around their trade and what that means for science

Cu Rua photographed in 2011 during a health check

Beloved Giant Turtle Dies, Leaving Only Three Alive on Earth

The recent death of Cu Rua pushes the Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle to the brink of extinction

Scientists Rediscover a Tree Frog Thought to Be Extinct for Over a Century

Last seen in 1870, Jerdon’s tree frog is alive and (mostly) well in India

This photo of two short-nosed sea snakes alerted researchers to the species' survival, even though they were thought to be extinct for 15 years.

They’re Back: Supposedly Extinct Sea Snakes Have Been Found in Australia

Nearly 15 years later and about 1,000 miles away from the last sighting, the snakes could be making a comeback

The rainforest edge at the Amazon river in Peru

Amazon Tree Census Makes Clear Just How Many Species are in Trouble

More than half of the Amazon's trees could qualify as threatened species

Nola poses for the camera earlier this fall

Northern White Rhinos Now Number Three

The 41-year-old Nola died this week, leaving only three northern white rhinos left in the world

Weak Skeletons May Have Spelled the End for Mammoths

New results suggest that weak bones made the beasts more susceptible to human hunters

A lava fountain on Kilauea Volcano

It Wasn’t Just an Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs, Epic Volcanoes Helped

A new study ignites a decades-old debate about what killed the dinosaurs

Early marine arthropods called trilobites disappeared—along with 90 percent of species in the ocean and 75 percent of those on land—at the end of the Permian period.

Massive Volcanic Eruptions Triggered Earth’s "Great Dying"

Geologists nailed down the timing of the ancient event and confirmed that it is a likely suspect in the Permian extinction

A collection of fish teeth and shark scales from the Early Cenozoic period.

After the Dinosaurs Died, Earth Experienced the Age of Fish

The fossil record shows how ray-finned fishes took over the planet's oceans

Asteroid Impacts Once Made the Earth's Oceans Boil for A Whole Year

Life had it rough back then

A giant rice rat specimen from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France

How Settlers Wiped Out the Caribbean’s Rodents of Unusual Size

The eradication of rice rats in the Lesser Antilles was part of a massive mammal extinction event

Could we bring back the woolly mammoth?

These Are the Extinct Animals We Can, and Should, Resurrect

Biologist Beth Shapiro offers a guide to the science and ethics of using DNA for de-extinction

White rhinos are considered a conservation sucess after near extinction in the 19th century, their numbers now classify them as Near Threatened

Here’s How to Avoid Losing Half of Earth’s Species

Basically, don’t stop trying to halt extinction

Ocean Acidification Could Have Driven Earth’s Biggest Mass Extinction

Study shows the world's oceans were dangerously acidic during the Permian Extinction Event

It's a beetle invasion! These lady beetles (also known as lady bugs) are just one of Earth's family of beetles.

Beetle Species, Weirdly, Almost Never Go Extinct

The world is disproportionately filled with beetles—now, a new study suggests that’s because few species have ever been wiped out

Divers Discover Graveyard Filled With Giant Lemur Skeletons

A Madagascar cave is packed with the bones of extinct species

The red fox is among two European imports that researchers say play a big part in the loss of some of Australia's native species.

One-Tenth of Native Mammals in Australia Are Extinct: Blame Cats And Foxes

No other country on Earth has lost a greater proportion of land mammals over the last two centuries; now, a new study zeros in on the cause

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