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Extinct: Mass Extinctions

Discover strange facts about mass extinctions: the Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Triassic, and Cretaceous-Paleogene events that reshaped life on Earth five...

5 articles
Mass Extinctions: The Five Times Earth Nearly Died
Mass Extinctions

Mass Extinctions: The Five Times Earth Nearly Died

Expert-written guide to the Big Five mass extinctions, from the Ordovician ice age to the Chicxulub asteroid. Covers causes, recovery timelines, survivor traits, and the current Sixth Extinction debate with specific data and peer-reviewed sources.

Mar 8, 2026 20 min read
Dunkleosteus
Mass Extinctions

Dunkleosteus

Everything about Dunkleosteus: size, armour, bite force, hunting, evolution, the Late Devonian extinction, and the strange facts that make Dunkleosteus terrelli one of the most formidable predators that ever lived.

Jul 16, 2025 14 min read
Ammonite
Mass Extinctions

Ammonite

Everything about ammonites: shell shape, suture patterns, size range, 340-million-year fossil record, closest living relatives, the K-Pg extinction that killed them, and the cultural legends that grew up around their spiral shells.

May 19, 2025 14 min read
Cameroceras
Mass Extinctions

Cameroceras

Everything about Cameroceras: the giant Ordovician nautiloid with a straight conical shell up to six metres long, apex predator of 470-million-year-old seas, its role in end-Ordovician extinction, anatomy, diet, and why it may be the largest mollusc ever.

Mar 20, 2025 13 min read
Brachiopod
Mass Extinctions

Brachiopod

Everything about brachiopods: lophophore feeding, chitin-phosphate shells, the 540-million-year fossil record, the end-Permian mass extinction that wiped out 95%, and Lingula - the living fossil genus that has survived half a billion years largely unchanged.

Jan 18, 2025 15 min read