570 vanished lives

193Mesozoic

Broad pads at the tips of long legs could grip a smooth wing membrane, suggesting a possible life on pterosaurs.

194Mesozoic

Only about a centimeter long, it already folded spine-lined grasping forelegs beneath its chest.

195Mesozoic

Cycad pollen lies beside it in amber, and its jaws bear small specialized pits for transporting pollen.

196Cenozoic

Queens reached about seven centimeters long with a 16-centimeter wingspan, among the largest hymenopterans known.

197Cenozoic

A nearly complete impression preserves venation, legs, antennae and mouthparts, making it one of the finest fossil butterflies.

198Cenozoic

This robust fossil vespid combines traits recalling modern hornets and paper wasps, and may already have lived socially.

199Cenozoic

Its leaflike abdomen closely matches foliage, proving that sophisticated mimicry existed at least 47 million years ago.

200Cenozoic

Amber sealed an extinct mason-bee relative whose long hind-leg hairs show that it actively collected and transported pollen.

201Precambrian

Rows of quilted sacks lived half-buried in sand, forming one of the Ediacaran seafloor's strangest communities.

202Precambrian

Six branching vanes surrounded a central axis, making the organism resemble a soft pine cone standing on the seabed.

203Precambrian

Three curving spiral arms created a body symmetry almost absent among living animals.

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.