570 vanished lives

379Cenozoic

Tiny ear canals in the forelegs show that it heard ultrasonic calls.

404Cenozoic

Its pleated bell cap may have deliquesced like a modern inkcap.

405Cenozoic

A golden-brown cap retained three-dimensional gills in amber.

406Cenozoic

Radial striations remained visible across a minute translucent cap.

451Cenozoic

A shell nearly two meters long came from hot wetlands soon after the dinosaur extinction.

452Cenozoic

A skull over a meter long belonged to a dominant Miocene caiman.

459Cenozoic

Three meters tall with a massive beak, it was among the heaviest birds.

460Cenozoic

A seventy-centimeter skull and hooked beak armed one of the largest terror birds.

461Cenozoic

A one-and-a-half-meter penguin lived near the equator with a spear-like beak.

462Cenozoic

At almost 1.8 meters, it was a giant diver on a warmer Antarctic coast.

465Cenozoic

A bear-sized Caribbean ground sloth survived near the period of human arrival.

466Cenozoic

A mobile snout, huge claws and strange forelimbs belonged to a marsupial unlike any tapir.

467Cenozoic

A cow-sized wombat relative carried a broad snout and heavy limbs.

468Cenozoic

Three pairs of skull bosses and long canines crowned a rhino-sized herbivore.

469Cenozoic

A short face, tusk-like canines and grinding cheeks marked a herd-forming artiodactyl relative.

470Cenozoic

Massive jaws and rounded carnassials crushed bone, though it was not a modern hyena.

471Cenozoic

Huge cutting teeth came from a hyaenodont predator heavier than a modern lion.

472Cenozoic

A flexible proboscidean crossed many habitats and ate mixed vegetation.

492Cenozoic

Long jaws and a powerful tail let choristoderes retain a crocodile-like niche after the dinosaurs.

496Cenozoic

Massive legs and a deep beak belonged to one of South America's heaviest flightless birds.

497Cenozoic

A near-six-meter wingspan and bony pseudoteeth armed a giant seabird.

498Cenozoic

This fox-sized perissodactyl was a palaeothere relative, not a direct horse ancestor.

499Cenozoic

Short legs, a broad body and high-set eyes adapted a hornless rhinoceros relative to semiaquatic life.

500Cenozoic

Palmate branching antlers made this East Asian giant deer especially conspicuous.