04Paleozoic
Trilobites
Trilobita
They occupied seafloors for nearly 300 million years, and their compound eyes preserve secrets of early vision.
LIFE ARCHIVE
570 vanished lives
Browse extinct life from traces nearly 1.9 billion years old to historically recorded extinctions.
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 ago60 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 of the United States13 atlas records ↗
- Dinosaurs of Canada7 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
Field guides
Giants, strange body plans and lives within human memory. Follow a question into the atlas, then explore the animals behind it.
15Paleozoic
Dunkleosteus
Dunkleosteus terrelli
Sharpened jaw plates replaced teeth in this heavily armored apex fish.
17Paleozoic
Arthropleura
Arthropleura armata
This many-segmented arthropod grew longer than a person in coal-swamp forests.
18Paleozoic
Dimetrodon
Dimetrodon grandis
This sail-backed predator was closer to mammals than to dinosaurs.
19Paleozoic
Lystrosaurus
Lystrosaurus murrayi
A beaked, tusked survivor became extraordinarily common after Earth’s greatest mass extinction.
30Paleozoic
Anomalocaris
Anomalocaris canadensis
A meter-long swimmer with grasping frontal appendages was a giant of Cambrian seas.
31Paleozoic
Opabinia
Opabinia regalis
Five eyes and a grasping proboscis made this small swimmer one of the Cambrian’s strangest forms.
32Paleozoic
Hallucigenia
Hallucigenia sparsa
Paired spines guarded a soft-bodied walker once reconstructed upside down.
33Paleozoic
Jaekelopterus
Jaekelopterus rhenaniae
This giant sea scorpion may have exceeded two meters in length.
34Paleozoic
Cameroceras
Cameroceras trentonense
A long straight shell housed one of the largest predators of Ordovician seas.
35Paleozoic
Helicoprion
Helicoprion davisii
Its spiral tooth whorl worked like a permanent slicing blade inside the lower jaw.
36Paleozoic
Edestus
Edestus heinrichi
Opposing tooth blades projected from its jaws like curved shears.
37Paleozoic
Eusthenopteron
Eusthenopteron foordi
Bones inside its fleshy fins foreshadowed the limb pattern of land vertebrates.
38Paleozoic
Inostrancevia
Inostrancevia alexandri
Long saber canines armed one of the largest predators of the latest Permian.
39Paleozoic
Scutosaurus
Scutosaurus karpinskii
A barrel-bodied herbivore carried bony armor beneath its skin.
80Paleozoic
Pikaia
Pikaia gracilens
A slender body preserves repeated muscle blocks and internal traces important for interpreting early chordates.
81Paleozoic
Wiwaxia
Wiwaxia corrugata
Rows of scales and long spines armored this small seafloor grazer.
82Paleozoic
Tiktaalik
Tiktaalik roseae
A flat-headed fish with a mobile neck and wrist-like fin bones approached the anatomy of early tetrapods.
83Paleozoic
Meganeura
Meganeura monyi
This griffinfly’s wings spanned roughly seventy centimeters above Carboniferous forests.
84Paleozoic
Moschops
Moschops capensis
A thick skull roof capped this heavy plant-eating mammal relative.
101Paleozoic
Eurypterus
Eurypterus remipes
Paddle-shaped hind limbs carried this sea scorpion through shallow coastal water.
102Paleozoic
Bothriolepis
Bothriolepis canadensis
Bony armor enclosed its head and chest while jointed pectoral appendages steadied it on the bottom.
103Paleozoic
Ichthyostega
Ichthyostega stensioei
Weight-bearing limbs accompanied a fish-like tail in an animal still deeply tied to water.
104Paleozoic
Hylonomus
Hylonomus lyelli
This tiny insect hunter belonged to an early generation of vertebrates freed from laying eggs in water.