570 vanished lives

169Paleozoic

A tiny head joined a barrel-shaped giant body whose broad ribs enclosed a vast plant-fermenting digestive system.

181Paleozoic

A patterned wing only about two centimeters across pushes the secure record of insect flight into the Early Carboniferous.

182Paleozoic

Beyond four wings packed with netlike veins, the thorax carried a pair of small immobile winglets.

183Paleozoic

Scaling from the surviving giant wing suggests a four-winged span near half a meter, among the largest palaeodictyopterans known.

184Paleozoic

The largest estimates reach a 71-centimeter wingspan, placing it among the biggest flying insects in Earth history.

185Paleozoic

Banded dark patterns remain on its fossil wings, returning color pattern to a Permian insect rather than a blank outline.

186Paleozoic

A wing resembling that of a crane fly was once treated as an early dipteran clue, but its true affinity remains disputed.

204Paleozoic

Ten pairs of stubby legs beneath a soft body place it near the early history of velvet worms and arthropods.

205Paleozoic

A pair of great appendages ended in three long whips that could sense, seize and move food.

206Paleozoic

A huge domed carapace covered its head, giving this radiodont the outline of a tiny finned submarine.

207Paleozoic

A straight conical shell several meters long made it one of the most conspicuous large cephalopods of Ordovician seas.

208Paleozoic

It lacked jaws and paired fins, but its head and gill region were enclosed within strong armor.

209Paleozoic

Sensory fields beneath a broad crescent-shaped head shield helped it search through turbid bottom water.

210Paleozoic

Flattened swimming paddles and great toothed claws made it a formidable hunter in Silurian water.

211Paleozoic

A flat head with upward-facing eyes and limb-like bones inside its fins brought it close to the earliest tetrapods.

212Paleozoic

Each forelimb carried eight digits, yet the animal was still mainly aquatic—digits evolved before true land walking.

213Paleozoic

Its skull spread sideways into a boomerang, perhaps producing lift in current or making it hard to swallow.

214Paleozoic

A broad, heavily sculpted skull and strong limbs carried its massive body through shallow water and onto banks.

215Paleozoic

Its adult skeleton looked reptile-like, yet it belonged just outside the fully land-breeding amniotes.

216Paleozoic

A high bony sail towered above the squat body and may have served display, recognition or heat exchange.

217Paleozoic

A long, tooth-filled snout gave this giant amphibian a gharial-like aquatic profile.

218Paleozoic

A beak, short tusks and powerful forelimbs made this one of the most common burrowing herbivores of the Late Permian.

219Paleozoic

Long upper canines and a wide gape made it an early experiment in saber-toothed predation.

220Paleozoic

Nine pairs of broad, flattened ribs record an early stage in the evolution of the turtle shell.