Illustration of Volcanic Eruption
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The "Press"
An illustration of a large-scale volcanic eruption. In a recent paper, scientists argue that there are two types of events that can cause extinctions -- "pulses" such as asteroid impacts and "presses" such as million-year-long eruptions. The chances of a mass extinction event go way up when both happen together, they said. | Discovery News Video

 
 
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Get the Wide Angle on Mass Extinction


My Take: The Real Dino Killer
It wasn't a meteor impact, says paleontologist Gerta Keller. She and her colleagues are pioneering research that could dethrone the famous Chicxulub impact as the prime killer of the dinosaurs.


Interactive: Timeline of Death!
Spin back through deep time to the biggest and baddest events in Earth's history.


Slideshow: Strangest Beasts That Ever Died
Some you know and others you never heard of. Take a look at ten weird creatures that are no more, courtesy of the International Year of Planet Earth.


Slideshow: The Cockroach Secret
Want to know the secret to surviving a mass exinction? Learn from the species that know best - the survivors.


Video: Why? Tell Me Why!: Mass Extinctions
Why do mass extinctions happen at all? Kasey-Dee Gardner tackles this basic, but important, question.


HowStuffWorks: What is the Oxygen Holocaust?
Find out about Earth's first, and strangest mass extinction.

 
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