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Every several hundred thousand years or so, Earth’s magnetic field dramatically shifts and reverses its polarity. Geologist found that the most recent field reversal, some 770,000 years ago, took at least 22,000 years to complete. That’s several times longer than … Continue reading
A new paper integrates 20 years of research by a diverse scientific team and describes the ancient Trans-Saharan Seaway of Africa that existed 50 to 100 million years ago in the region of the current Sahara Desert. The study is … Continue reading
New research settles a longstanding debate about whether the most ancient animal communities were deliberately mobile. It turns out they were, because they were hungry. Paleontology News — ScienceDaily
Ediacara biota were forming complex communities tens of millions of years before the Cambrian explosion. Paleontology News — ScienceDaily
Seismic waves are helping researchers uncover the mysterious subsurface history of the Tibetan Plateau, possibly lending insight to future earthquake activity in the region. Paleontology News — ScienceDaily
The discovery of Earth’s youngest-ever banded iron formation is changing how scientists understand the evolution of complex life. Paleontology News — ScienceDaily
Fossil records tell us that the first macroscopic animals appeared on Earth about 575 million years ago. Twenty-four million years later, the diversity of animals began to mysteriously decline, leading to Earth’s first know mass extinction event. A research team … Continue reading
Scientists have quantified the temperature of Earth’s oceans over half a billion years ago by combining fossil data and climate models. Paleontology News — ScienceDaily
Every 405,000 years, gravitational tugs from Jupiter and Venus slightly elongate Earth’s orbit, an amazingly consistent pattern that has influenced our planet’s climate for at least 215 million years and allows scientists to more precisely date geological events like the … Continue reading