Terrestrial Climate History 

The Great Dying [2-12-2002]
250 million years ago something unknown wiped out most life on our planet. Now scientists are finding buried clues to the mystery inside tiny capsules of cosmic gas.  

Jurassic Spark: Early Ancestor of Mammals Found [1-2-2002]
What is nearly 200 million years old, furry, weighed less than a paper clip and scurried beneath the feet of dinosaurs? A team of fossil-finders, led by researchers at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History, suggest the answer may include one of your relatives - a distant cousin of modern mammals.  

The Oldest Life on Land [12-28-2001]
Fossilized remnants of a microbial mat provide evidence that life existed on land as early as 2.6 to 2.7 billion years ago. The findings suggest that an oxygen atmosphere and a protective ozone layer were in place around Earth by that time.  

A Greener Planetary Greenhouse [9-14-2001]
In recent years Earth-orbiting satellites have seen plants growing more vigorously than usual over northern parts of our planet.  

Did Tectonics Get an Early Start? [8-1-2001]
A recent discovery near the Great Wall in China adds new support to the theory that plate tectonics began very early in the Earth's history.  

Do We Know What Killed the Dinosaurs? [6-15-2001]
What killed the dinosaurs? Many geologists and paleontologists now think that a large asteroid or comet impacting the Earth must have caused a global catastrophe that led to this extensive loss of life.  

Jurassic Spark: Early Ancestor of Mammals Found [6-8-2001]
What is nearly 200 million years old, furry, weighed less than a paper clip and scurried beneath the feet of dinosaurs? A team of fossil-finders, led by researchers at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History, suggest the answer may include one of your relatives - a distant cousin of modern mammals.