How can we measure time more than 500 million years into the past? A study recently published in Nature Communications by researchers at the University of Lausanne presents a new geological "rock ...

Around 2.3 billion years ago, the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) marked a major turning point in Earth’s history. The increase ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A new study uncovers how amino acids could have linked with RNA under early Earth conditions, shedding light on the origin of life ...

There are many open questions about how our planet formed 4.55 billion years ago: When did plate tectonics start? When did the Earth's mantle begin to vigorously circulate in a process called ...

Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, possesses a thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere that bears striking similarities to that of early Earth. Scientists are fascinated by Titan’s atmospheric composition and its ...

The study of early Earth microbial life and its associated organic matter provides crucial insights into the origins and evolution of life on our planet. Recent work has illuminated the remarkable ...

New research shows that early land plants started influencing Earth’s climate hundreds of millions of years earlier than ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. We’ve pieced together a remarkably detailed timeline of ...

Scientists have confirmed that a tiny zircon crystal is the oldest piece of the Earth's crust, at 4.4 billion years old. The crystal was discovered on a sheep ranch in Perth, Australia in 2001, but ...