570 vanished lives

275Mesozoic

A solid spike-like crest projected behind the skull and probably carried a strong visual signal.

276Mesozoic

A helmet-shaped hollow crest contained looping nasal passages that could shape resonant calls.

277Mesozoic

Its hatchet-shaped hollow crest changed dramatically as the animal matured.

278Mesozoic

A massive nasal boss replaced the long horn seen in many ceratopsians.

279Mesozoic

Long shoulder spikes and dense armor protected one of the largest nodosaurids.

280Mesozoic

Small bony plates embedded in the skin showed that some titanosaurs carried armor.

281Mesozoic

Two distinct tooth shapes gave this early pterosaur its name.

282Mesozoic

A toothed beak with matching crests helped seize slippery fish near the water surface.

283Mesozoic

An enormous branching crest crowned some adults, but there is no fossil evidence for a sail between its prongs.

284Mesozoic

A vast sail-like skull crest dominated the profile of this large toothless pterosaur.

285Mesozoic

More than a thousand bristle-like lower teeth formed a filter basket.

286Mesozoic

Flippers, a downturned tail fin and reduced armor transformed a crocodile relative into a pelagic swimmer.

287Mesozoic

A skull nearly two meters long and huge teeth formed an apex-predator bite apparatus.

288Mesozoic

More than sixty neck vertebrae formed an exceptionally long neck, while gastroliths filled the abdomen.

289Mesozoic

Only a few million years after the great extinction, ichthyosaurs had already reached whale-like scale.

290Mesozoic

A reduced shell and giant front flippers made it one of the largest Cretaceous sea turtles.

313Mesozoic

Its adult shell stretched into a near-straight rod while retaining ammonite sutures.

314Mesozoic

A huge internal shell identifies a large coleoidean, though total length remains uncertain.

315Mesozoic

The juvenile shell coiled tightly before the adult chamber uncoiled and hooked back.

316Mesozoic

Barbed teeth armed a long rostrum used to sense and sweep through bottom prey.

317Mesozoic

Its huge upturned mouth could swallow fish nearly half its own length.

318Mesozoic

Oversized palatine fangs made a modest fish into a formidable midwater hunter.

322Mesozoic

Broad crushing teeth paved its mouth for ammonites and shellfish.

323Mesozoic

A shovel-flat skull may have opened by lifting the upper jaw.