415Paleozoic
Receptaculites
Receptaculites oweni
Spiraled diamond plates formed a calcified pinecone-like body.
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.
416Paleozoic
Cyclocrinites
Cyclocrinites dactioloides
Whorled calcified branches surrounded a central axis like an underwater bottlebrush.
419Paleozoic
Wattieza
Wattieza casasii
Eight-meter leafless crowns formed one of the earliest known forests.
422Paleozoic
Gangamopteris
Gangamopteris obovata
Broad tongue-shaped leaves lacked the strong midrib of later glossopterids.
423Paleozoic
Alethopteris
Alethopteris serlii
Firm fern-like pinnules belonged to a seed plant rather than a true fern.
425Paleozoic
Megatypus
Megatypus schucherti
A wingspan near half a meter made it a major aerial predator.
426Paleozoic
Lithomantis
Lithomantis carbonarius
Leaf-like thoracic lobes accompanied four functional wings.
429Paleozoic
Aegirocassis
Aegirocassis benmoulai
A two-meter filter-feeding radiodont was an early analogue of giant plankton feeders.
430Paleozoic
Cambroraster
Cambroraster falcatus
A horseshoe-shaped carapace and rake-like appendages made a mobile sediment sifter.
431Paleozoic
Titanokorys
Titanokorys gainesi
An enormous head shield covered most of this bottom-feeding radiodont.
432Paleozoic
Isoxys
Isoxys curvirostratus
A spined bivalved shell enclosed a large-eyed swimming predator.
433Paleozoic
Olenellus thompsoni
Olenellus thompsoni
A broad head, long genal spines and many trunk segments marked an early trilobite radiation.
436Paleozoic
Hibbertopterus
Hibbertopterus scouleri
A two-meter eurypterid swept the bottom rather than sprinting after prey.
437Paleozoic
Entelognathus
Entelognathus primordialis
Placoderm armor enclosed jaw-margin bones resembling those of later bony fish.
438Paleozoic
Rhizodus
Rhizodus hibberti
Huge conical teeth armed a multi-meter freshwater lobe-finned predator.
441Paleozoic
Stethacanthus
Stethacanthus altonensis
Males carried a denticle-covered anvil-shaped structure on the back.
443Paleozoic
Diploceraspis
Diploceraspis burkei
Paired backward horns widened the skull of this small diplocaulid.
446Paleozoic
Amphibamus
Amphibamus grandiceps
A small light body combined traits near the ancestry of modern amphibians.
475Paleozoic
Protoascon
Protoascon missouriensis
Tiny sac-like structures in coal balls resemble an early ascomycete.
476Paleozoic
Winfrenatia
Winfrenatia reticulata
Fungal filaments surrounded cyanobacterium-like cells in an early lichen-style partnership.
479Paleozoic
Noeggerathia
Noeggerathia foliosa
A palm-like crown belonged not to a fern but to an extinct heterosporous seed-plant relative.
480Paleozoic
Archaeocalamites
Archaeocalamites radiatus
Hollow jointed stems let an early horsetail relative grow as a tall shrub or small tree.
481Paleozoic
Peltaspermum
Peltaspermum martinsii
Shield-shaped reproductive discs record an innovation among drought-tolerant seed ferns.
482Paleozoic
Meganeurula
Meganeurula selysii
Smaller than Meganeura but still broad-winged, this griffinfly hunted above coal forests.