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fossils & paleontology

Photograph of a rocky hillslope with two people sitting at the top, in the distance.
Posted inNews

UV Radiation Contributed to Earth’s Biggest Mass Extinction

by Rachel Fritts 10 February 202327 February 2023

To find the first direct evidence of heightened UV radiation during the end-Permian mass extinction, researchers turned to chemical evidence preserved in pollen grains.

Plants with thick, fleshy, pointed green leaves in the foreground, brown fossil in the background
Posted inNews

Small Shrubs May Have Played a Large Role in Decarbonizing the Ancient Atmosphere

by Meghie Rodrigues 9 February 20239 February 2023

Vascular plants may have contributed to shaping Earth’s atmosphere long before trees evolved.

An artist’s rendering of Earth covered in ice
Posted inNews

How Animals May Have Conquered Snowball Earth

by Chris Baraniuk 9 January 202323 January 2023

We know there were animals during Earth’s chilliest era. The question is, What did they look like?

Magnified black-and-white images of two fossils.
Posted inResearch Spotlights

Fluid Dynamics of Tiny, Ancient Marine Animals

by Sarah Stanley 2 November 202217 February 2023

Water flow simulations using 3D models of fossils yield new clues to the evolution of organisms known as medusozoans.

Australia’s remote Nullarbor Plain.
Posted inNews

A Mysterious Dome Reveals Clues to Australia’s Miocene History

by Nathaniel Scharping 17 October 202217 February 2023

The Nullarbor Plain has been relatively untouched by geological forces, leaving traces of the continent’s deep past.

Graph from the paper.
Posted inEditors' Highlights

Magnetofossils Unveil Paleoredox Conditions in Extreme Climate

by Mark J. Dekkers 30 August 20229 November 2022

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a thermal pulse about 56 million years ago, is an analog for future global warming. A new magnetofossil study shows progressive ocean deoxygenation.

Illustration of wildfire and wetland forest during the end-Permian extinction interval.
Posted inNews

A Spike in Wildfires Contributed to the End-Permian Extinction

by Jackie Rocheleau 2 August 20222 August 2022

An upward trend in fossilized charcoal indicates that wildfires may have contributed to extinctions during the Great Dying.

Electron microscopy image of the charcoal found at the Than Formation in Saurashtra Basin, Gujarat, India.
Posted inNews

Cretaceous Charcoal Gives a Glimpse of Plant Evolution

by Meghie Rodrigues 18 April 20221 August 2022

New data from vegetal charcoal in northwest India supports the theory of paleowildfires as a global phenomenon and an evolutionary force for biodiversity.

Yellow and orange swirls color a chunk of Navajo sandstone in Grand Staircase.
Posted inFeatures

When Climate Ruled the Dinosaurs of Grand Staircase

by Mary Caperton Morton 30 December 202115 April 2022

Living in Geologic Time: Navigate the prolific boneyards and shifting boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments.

Three woolly mammoths walk over a snowy steppe during the last Ice Age.
Posted inNews

Mammoths Lost Their Steppe Habitat to Climate Change

by Elise Cutts 19 November 202128 March 2023

Ancient plant and animal DNA buried in Arctic sediments preserve a 50,000-year history of Arctic ecosystems, suggesting that climate change contributed to mammoth extinction.

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Features from AGU Journals

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHTS
Earth’s Future
“How to Build a Climate-Resilient Water Supply”
By Rachel Fritts

EDITORS' HIGHLIGHTS
AGU Advances
“How Do Atmospheric Rivers Respond to Extratropical Variability?”
By Sarah Kang

EDITORS' VOX
Reviews of Geophysics
“Rare and Revealing: Radiocarbon in Service of Paleoceanography”
By Luke C. Skinner and Edouard Bard

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