A cataclysm engulfed the planet some 252 million years ago, wiping out more than 90% of all life. Known as the Great Dying, the mass extinction that ended the Permian geological period was the worst ...

The Permian Period, which lasted from about 299 to 252 million years ago, was one of the most fascinating and dangerous times in Earth’s history. It ended with the largest mass extinction ever ...

Lindsay Nikole takes us on a bold, hilarious, and chaotic journey through the history of our planet, packed with bizarre ...

For instance, at the end of the Permian period, a mass extinction driven by carbon-dioxide-spewing volcanic eruptions killed ...

The West Texas desert has a surprising feature: a prehistoric ocean reef. There is a surprising natural wonder in the middle of the vast West Texas desert: a prehistoric ocean reef built from the ...

Volcanoes spewing carbon dioxide 250 million years ago heated the climate so much that extreme El Niño events became the norm, pushing most life on Earth past its limits. When you purchase through ...

Therapsids, the ancient relatives of mammals, once roamed Earth in great numbers during the middle to late Permian period. These land-dwelling creatures would later evolve into mammals, but their ...

Our species likes it cold. Homo sapiens evolved in — and still inhabits — one of Earth’s rare and fragile ice ages, periods distinguished not by an abundance of saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Known as the Great ...