570 vanished lives

481Paleozoic

Shield-shaped reproductive discs record an innovation among drought-tolerant seed ferns.

482Paleozoic

Smaller than Meganeura but still broad-winged, this griffinfly hunted above coal forests.

483Paleozoic

A long piercing mouthpart and four patterned wings belonged to the vanished palaeodictyopterans.

484Paleozoic

Two broad valves enclosed a segmented body while antennae, limbs and a tail fan projected outside.

485Paleozoic

Its nervous, circulatory and limb anatomy makes it central to studies of early arthropod organization.

486Paleozoic

Paired fins, a funnel and tentacle-like appendages form one of the Cambrian's most puzzling swimmers.

487Paleozoic

A coiled gut lay inside a soft circular disc that may have drifted or lived near the bottom.

488Paleozoic

A broad flat placoderm independently converged on the body shape of a ray.

489Paleozoic

Crescent-shaped lateral horns widened the head armor of a small bottom-dwelling placoderm.

490Paleozoic

External gills and a long body show a temnospondyl that remained aquatic throughout life.

491Paleozoic

A broad head, strong trunk and compressed tail belonged to a large freshwater predator.

492Cenozoic

Long jaws and a powerful tail let choristoderes retain a crocodile-like niche after the dinosaurs.

493Paleozoic

Needle teeth and a flattened tail mark one of the earliest amniotes to return to water.

494Mesozoic

At least seventeen cervical vertebrae produced an unusually long neck for a stegosaur.

495Mesozoic

A long snout, conical teeth and low crest belonged to a spinosaurid that frequently ate fish.

496Cenozoic

Massive legs and a deep beak belonged to one of South America's heaviest flightless birds.

497Cenozoic

A near-six-meter wingspan and bony pseudoteeth armed a giant seabird.

498Cenozoic

This fox-sized perissodactyl was a palaeothere relative, not a direct horse ancestor.

499Cenozoic

Short legs, a broad body and high-set eyes adapted a hornless rhinoceros relative to semiaquatic life.

500Cenozoic

Palmate branching antlers made this East Asian giant deer especially conspicuous.

501Paleozoic

Diamond leaf cushions and a repeatedly forked crown marked a tall tree-sized lycopsid.

502Paleozoic

Narrow leaves repeatedly forked at their tips on an extinct seed-plant relative.

503Paleozoic

Needle-like leaves crowded the shoots of an early conifer-like tree.

504Mesozoic

Leaves of different lengths on one shoot record an early stage of modern conifer architecture.