570 vanished lives

337Cenozoic

A strong flyer belonged near lineages whose living members are mostly flightless.

338Recently extinct

This tall flightless island bird was closer to megapodes than its heavy build suggested.

339Recently extinct

Powerful legs and a heavy bill belonged to a flightless ground forager.

340Recently extinct

A flightless ibis turned thickened wrist bones into club-like weapons.

341Cenozoic

Deep jaws and slicing teeth suggest an ancient kangaroo relative that ate meat.

342Cenozoic

A bear-like carnivore used powerful jaws to pry and crush shellfish.

343Cenozoic

Long limbs converged on cheetah proportions, but its closest ties were to cougars.

344Cenozoic

Grasping feet and flexible shoulders reveal a large climbing marsupial.

345Recently extinct

Island scarcity shrank a giant-elephant lineage to about one meter at the shoulder.

346Recently extinct

It was hunted out for fur before scientists could describe a living animal.

347Recently extinct

Its blue cast likely came from gray hair over dark skin rather than bright fur.

348Recently extinct

Broad multi-tined antlers formed a crown above floodplain grasslands.

349Mesozoic

Four net-veined leaflets belonged to a seed fern rather than a true fern.

350Mesozoic

Silica replaced fallen trunks to create today's multicolored petrified forest.

351Mesozoic

A broad skull and massive body made it one of the largest known frogs.

352Mesozoic

A giant amphibian still occupied cold rivers where crocodyliforms were uncommon.

353Mesozoic

Two lower-jaw tusks passed through openings in the palate when the mouth closed.

354Mesozoic

It had a broad head and shortened trunk but lacked the full jumping machinery of modern frogs.

355Paleozoic

A frog-like head and salamander-like tail combine traits near the origin of living amphibians.

356Mesozoic

The adult tail was gone, but the trunk remained more primitive than in modern frogs.

357Mesozoic

A broad head, short trunk and long tail show the salamander plan already well established.

358Cenozoic

Its wedge-shaped skull belonged to an ancient amphibian lineage separate from frogs and salamanders.

359Paleozoic

An elongated nostril region may reflect life in drier upland settings.

360Paleozoic

More than forty trunk vertebrae formed a long body with extremely small limbs.