570 vanished lives

540Cenozoic

Long legs and a strong beak belonged to a terrestrial bird with little or no flight.

541Cenozoic

A deep beak and massive legs made a heavyweight South American terror bird.

542Cenozoic

A lighter terror bird had long toes suited to rapid pursuit.

543Cenozoic

Its complete inner ear reveals sensitivity to relatively low-frequency sound.

544Cenozoic

Robust leg bones belonged to a giant flightless African bird whose skull remains unknown.

545Cenozoic

Five-toed feet and generalized teeth record an early radiation of hoofed-mammal relatives.

546Cenozoic

A short trunk and upper and lower tusks mark an early stage of proboscidean evolution.

547Cenozoic

A bear-sized heavy body and five-toed feet belonged to a pantodont herbivore.

548Cenozoic

A hornless, long-limbed rhinoceros was built for travel across open woodland.

549Cenozoic

A small hornless body combined traits near the early split of rhinos and tapirs.

550Cenozoic

A barrel body, short legs and large canines marked one of the first widespread large mammals.

566Cenozoic

A near-human-height diving bird preserves feathers and melanosomes that opened direct study of ancient penguin color.

567Cenozoic

A slender trunk, long bill and large flippers produced a taller silhouette than modern penguins.

568Cenozoic

A short face, low-crowned teeth and three-toed feet belonged to a European herbivore near horse relatives.

569Cenozoic

A horse-like head and enormous curved claws belonged to a herbivorous perissodactyl walking on its knuckles.

570Cenozoic

Only tapir-sized and hornless, it already possessed the short face and teeth of early brontotheres.