Two hundred and fifty-two million years ago, a series of Siberian volcanoes erupted and sent the Earth into the greatest mass extinction of all time. Billions of tons of carbon were propelled into the ...

The narrative of life on Earth spans billions of years, with therapsids—ancient relatives of mammals—playing a pivotal role ...

Before dinosaurs walked the Earth and tens of millions of years before the first mammals appeared, distant mammal relatives with long, serrated canine teeth were the dominant carnivores on land.

Julien Benoit receives funding from the Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST) and its scatterlings projects; the NRF; and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE in Palaeosciences).

Therapsids, the ancient relatives of mammals, once roamed Earth in great numbers during the middle to late Permian period. These land-dwelling creatures would later evolve into mammals, but their ...

Scientists have developed a number of theories on the therapsids' success, including their fondness for underground living, their willingness to travel, and sheer dumb luck. The latest report proposes ...

T. rex may have been the most ferocious creature in the jungle, but something as simple as growing hair may have helped mammal-like reptiles to outlive this scary beast. By scanning the fossil remains ...

Palaeontologists now demonstrate that ancient mammal relatives, known as therapsids, adapted to drastic climate change by having shorter life expectancies. Two hundred and fifty-two million years ago, ...

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