(Phys.org) -- The oceans teemed with life 600 million years ago, but the simple, soft-bodied creatures would have been hardly recognizable as the ancestors of nearly all animals on Earth today. Then ...

Scientists are floating a new way to explain a geological feature called the Great Unconformity, where the record of a billion years is just missing from between the layers of rock. Or, to be more ...

Las Vegas locals began a project in the 1990s to protect a geological marvel at the edge of town. They made educational signs and were joined by politicians including late Sen. Harry Reid and ...

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us? Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: In geological layers around the ...

A new study led by University of Colorado Boulder researchers sheds light on one of the world’s great geological mysteries: a missing chapter of the earth’s rock record known as the Great Unconformity ...

Martite, a rusted form of magnetite, preserves the moment rocks were exposed to surface air and water—becoming nature’s forensic timestamp for deep time events. These rusted rocks tell when buried ...

A billion years is missing from the geologic record; one UC Santa Barbara scientist believes he knows where it may have gone The geologic record is exactly that: a record. The strata of rock tell ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

Unconformity: An interruption between layers of rock, in which the upper layer is much younger (even by more than a billion years) than the lower layer. An interruption between layers of rock, in ...

The geologic record is exactly that: a record. The strata of rock tell scientists about past environments, much like pages in an encyclopedia. Except this reference book has more pages missing than it ...