01CenozoicWoolly Mammoth
Mammuthus primigenius
They lived not on endless ice, but in a wind-shaped grassland ecosystem.
- Time range
- About 400,000–4,000 years ago
- Range
- Northern Eurasia · North America
LIFE ON EARTH · LOST FILE 001
Let vanished life be seen again
Explore Extinct Animals
& Prehistoric Life
Browse 570 extinct-life profiles, from dinosaurs and Ice Age mammals to ancient plants. Explore fossil evidence, size comparisons and extinction guides.
01 / WHY THEY MATTER
Extinction is not a full stop,
but a letter to the future.
Fossils are not silent stones. Every line in bone and every layer of sediment records the intimate ties among climate, environment and species.
5mass extinctions
1.9Byears of deep time
570life archives
02 / THE ARCHIVE
Extinct Life Profiles
570 species span five chapters of Earth history. The homepage presents a curated selection; the complete index supports search, filters and crawlable pagination.
Featured reconstructions4 / 570 ARCHIVES
01Cenozoic
02CenozoicSaber-toothed Cat
Smilodon fatalis
Its enormous canines were only part of the weapon; the real power lay in exceptionally strong forelimbs.
- Time range
- About 700,000–11,000 years ago
- Range
- North America · South America
03Recently extinctDodo
Raphus cucullatus
A flightless Mauritian pigeon, about 70 cm tall and typically estimated at 10–14 kg. Compare its size, surviving evidence and extinction history.
- Time range
- Historical records: 1598–1662; extinct in the 17th century
- Range
- Mauritius
04PaleozoicTrilobites
Trilobita
They occupied seafloors for nearly 300 million years, and their compound eyes preserve secrets of early vision.
- Time range
- About 521–252 million years ago
- Range
- Paleozoic oceans worldwide
Complete species index
570 life archives
Explore geological time
Paleozoic
- Cambrian538.8–486.85 million years ago34 records ↗
- Ordovician486.85–443.1 million years ago12 records ↗
- Silurian443.1–419.62 million years ago14 records ↗
- Devonian419.62–358.86 million years ago41 records ↗
- Carboniferous358.86–298.9 million years ago61 records ↗
- Permian298.9–251.902 million years ago51 records ↗
Geography
Explore the atlas by continent, country and state. Follow fossil localities into regional guides, compare animals across time and return to the evidence in each species profile.
Dinosaurs by continent
Countries and states
- Dinosaurs Found in Utah: Jurassic Giants & Utahraptor4 atlas records ↗
- Dinosaurs Found in Colorado: Stegosaurus & Garden Park Fossils3 atlas records ↗
- Dinosaurs Found in California: Fossils & Local EvidenceLocal fossil evidence ↗
- Dinosaurs of the United States14 atlas records ↗
- Dinosaurs Found in Canada: Species, Fossils & Evidence7 atlas records ↗
- Dinosaurs of the United Kingdom5 atlas records ↗
- Dinosaurs Found in Texas1 atlas records ↗
- Dinosaurs Found in Montana4 atlas records ↗
- Dinosaurs Found in Argentina11 atlas records ↗
- Dinosaurs Found in China10 atlas records ↗
FIELD GUIDES
Prehistoric Life Guides
Giants, strange body plans and lives within human memory. Follow a question into the atlas, then explore the animals behind it.
Questions about vanished life
03 / DEEP TIME
Five events rewrote
the rules of life
Life on Earth did not simply flourish. Crises emptied ecological niches and opened the stage to new evolutionary branches.
- 01
End-Ordovician
Falling seas and abrupt cooling reshaped early marine ecosystems.
- 02
Late Devonian
A series of crises spanning millions of years struck reef ecosystems first.
- 03
End-Permian
The largest known biological crisis brought the trilobites’ long history to an end.
- 04
End-Triassic
Vacated niches helped dinosaurs become the dominant large animals on land.
- 05
End-Cretaceous
Impact and environmental upheaval ended the age of non-avian dinosaurs.
04 / FIELD FILM
Twenty seconds
across nearly two billion years.
A silent prologue built from our reconstructions: seafloor, forest, grassland and ice steppe flow through one river of time.
PROLOGUE 001From trilobites to mammoths
05 / ERA FILMS
Cross deep time
in sixty-eight living scenes.
Sixty-eight original silent films created from the species reconstructions. Each follows one theme and can be played or looped independently.
FILM 001
Paleozoic · Armor and giant limbs
From Dunkleosteus jaw plates to Arthropleura in the Carboniferous forest.
FILM 003
Cenozoic · Afterglow of giants
Megalodon, ground sloths and Ice Age giants witness changing climates and food webs.
FILM 004
Recent · The final sightings
From the great auk to the thylacine, extinction enters recorded human memory.
Film gallery
Sixty-eight original silent films created from the species reconstructions. Each follows one theme and can be played or looped independently.
THE ARCHIVE REMAINS OPEN
“Understand one disappearance,Continue through the life archive
and we may prevent the next.”