25Recently extinct
Passenger Pigeon
Ectopistes migratorius
Flocks once darkened the sky, yet abundance could not protect a species dependent on immense colonies.
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.
26Recently extinct
Great Auk
Pinguinus impennis
This flightless North Atlantic seabird used its wings as powerful underwater paddles.
27Recently extinct
Steller’s Sea Cow
Hydrodamalis gigas
This enormous, slow sirenian grazed kelp in cold shallow water.
28Recently extinct
South Island Giant Moa
Dinornis robustus
One of the tallest birds ever known browsed forests without wings of any kind.
29Recently extinct
Haast’s Eagle
Hieraaetus moorei
The largest known eagle evolved to strike moa many times its own weight.
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.
40Mesozoic
Allosaurus
Allosaurus fragilis
A lightweight skull and serrated teeth equipped this large predator for repeated slashing bites.
41Mesozoic
Brachiosaurus
Brachiosaurus altithorax
Long forelimbs lifted its shoulders and neck toward the Jurassic canopy.
42Mesozoic
Diplodocus
Diplodocus carnegii
A whip-like tail balanced an extremely long neck on this lightly built giant.
43Mesozoic
Carnotaurus
Carnotaurus sastrei
Brow horns, a deep skull and extremely reduced arms marked this fast abelisaurid.
44Mesozoic
Giganotosaurus
Giganotosaurus carolinii
A giant narrow-skulled theropod shared its world with immense sauropods.
45Mesozoic
Deinonychus
Deinonychus antirrhopus
A stiff tail, grasping hands and enlarged foot claw made an agile feathered hunter.
46Mesozoic
Oviraptor
Oviraptor philoceratops
The supposed egg thief was found above a nest that probably contained its own young.
47Mesozoic
Therizinosaurus
Therizinosaurus cheloniformis
Meter-long hand claws belonged to a tall, feathered, pot-bellied herbivore.
48Mesozoic
Pachycephalosaurus
Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis
A thick dome of bone crowned the skull of this two-legged herbivore.