Extinct Animals and When They Lived

Early Jurassic theropod carrying a pair of thin bony crests along the top of its skull

Large Jurassic theropod of England, the first dinosaur ever given a scientific name

Large carnivorous theropod of the late Jurassic that preyed on sauropods and stegosaurs

Massive long-necked sauropod, long confused with Brontosaurus in museum displays and in print

Long-necked sauropod of the late Jurassic that carried its head high, with forelimbs longer than its hind legs

Extremely long-tailed sauropod of the late Jurassic, whose tail may have been cracked like a whip

Plated herbivore of the late Jurassic with a double row of plates along its back and a spiked tail

Feathered dinosaur with true flight feathers, sitting between the non-avian dinosaurs and birds

Small chicken-sized theropod that lived alongside Archaeopteryx in the same European lagoons

Large herbivorous dinosaur with thumb spikes that lived during the early Cretaceous period

Largest of the sickle-clawed dromaeosaurs, heavier than a person and built to grapple

Sickle-clawed predator of the early Cretaceous whose discovery tied dinosaurs to birds

Sail-backed theropod of the Cretaceous that hunted in rivers, with jaws and teeth built for fish

South American theropod slightly larger than Tyrannosaurus that lived in the late Cretaceous

Titanosaur of Patagonia, among the largest land animals that has ever existed anywhere

Duck-billed dinosaur whose name means good mother lizard, given for the nesting grounds it was found in

Crested duck-billed dinosaur whose hollow helmet-shaped crest may have amplified the calls it made

Crested duck-billed dinosaur carrying a hollow hatchet-shaped ornament above and behind the skull

Crested duck-billed dinosaur whose long hollow crest connected to its nasal passages

Crested theropod once thought to steal eggs but actually brooding its own nest

Small horned dinosaur from Mongolia whose fossils helped solve the origin of griffin myths

Small feathered carnivore from Mongolia, known for the large sickle-shaped claw on the second toe of each foot

Large duck-billed dinosaur that moved in herds across the late Cretaceous of North America

Fast-running horned theropod from South America with unusually short arms and a deep skull

Ostrich-like dinosaur of the late Cretaceous, long-legged and among the fastest of its time

Giant long-necked herbivore whose hands carried the longest claws of any animal known

Heavily armored herbivore with a clubbed tail that lived at the end of the Cretaceous

Dome-headed dinosaur whose skull roof was thickened into a solid mass of bone

Horned herbivorous dinosaur with a large bony frill that lived in the late Cretaceous of North America

Large predatory dinosaur of western North America, among the very last non-avian dinosaurs before the mass extinction

Long-necked South American mammal with camel-like proportions and nostrils high on its skull

Heavy South American grazer with a rhinoceros-like body and teeth that never stopped growing

Forest-dwelling relative of elephants with cone-shaped teeth for chewing leaves and twigs in North America

Massive South American herbivore that walked on its knuckles and reached heights of over three meters

Enormous long-legged rhinoceros of the Eurasian steppe, probably carrying a single massive horn on its forehead

North American cat resembling a cheetah, and the reason the pronghorn still runs faster than anything chasing it

Large Pleistocene felid with elongated upper canine teeth used for stabbing prey in the Americas and Eurasia

South American glyptodont with a spiked tail club and heavy armored shell

Largest ape that ever lived, known from jaws and thousands of teeth found in Chinese caves

Tank-like South American mammal covered in a solid bony shell resembling a giant armadillo

Large European hippopotamus that lived in the rivers during the warm gaps between glaciations

Long-legged North American bear that stood nearly two meters at the shoulder and ran at high speed

Marsupial predator of Australia with bolt-cutter premolars and a thumb claw, unrelated to any cat

Largest marsupial ever known, a wombat relative the size of a rhinoceros that browsed across inland Australia

Australian kangaroo standing over two meters tall, with a flat face and a single large toe on each hind foot

Large grassland elephant of southern North America that lacked the heavy wool of its northern relative

Widespread North American sloth that ranged from Alaska to Mexico in mixed woodland habitats

North American rodent the size of a black bear that built lodges along Pleistocene rivers and lakes

Forest elephant of interglacial Europe whose tusks grew almost straight rather than curving outward

Spotted hyena of Pleistocene Europe that dragged bones into dens leaving tooth-marked fragments

Powerful Eurasian felid that preyed on reindeer and horses and left paw prints in cave sediments

European rhinoceros of the warmer interglacial forests, with a narrow snout for browsing

Slender saber-toothed felid with shorter canines that specialized in hunting young mammoths and bison

Long-horned grazer of Eurasian and North American grasslands that gave rise to the modern American bison

Hairy two-horned rhino that grazed the cold grasslands of Europe and northern Asia during glacial periods

Giant deer of Eurasia whose antlers spanned up to three and a half meters across at their widest

Cold-adapted elephant of the northern steppe, covered in long hair and carrying long curved tusks for sweeping snow

Large Pleistocene cat of North America that shared a common ancestor with the modern African lion

Large European bear that hibernated in limestone caves and fed mainly on vegetation rather than meat

Stocky Pleistocene canid larger than the gray wolf that hunted in packs across North and South America

Enormous freshwater fish of the Yangtze with a long paddle-shaped snout, reaching seven meters

Flightless pigeon of Mauritius, driven to extinction within about a century of Europeans first reaching the island itself

Freshwater dolphin of the Yangtze, nearly blind and navigating by sound, declared functionally extinct after a full survey

Giant flightless bird of Madagascar whose eggs were larger than any dinosaur egg

Flightless seabird of the North Atlantic, the original penguin before the name was transferred

Largest of the New Zealand moa, the females standing three meters tall with the neck raised

Giant sirenian of the Bering Sea, up to ten meters long and weighing several tonnes

Wild European cattle ancestor that survived in forests until the seventeenth century

Plains zebra of southern Africa whose hindquarters lacked stripes and were plain brown

Marsupial carnivore of Tasmania and mainland Australia, striped like a tiger and dog-like in build

Largest eagle known, of the New Zealand forests, heavy enough to take a standing moa off its feet

Galapagos giant tortoise subspecies from one island, reduced to a single male in his final decades

North American locust whose swarms were the largest congregations of animals ever recorded

Wild horse of the Eurasian steppe and forest, small, gray and stiff-maned

Subspecies of black rhino of the west African savannah, hunted out for its horn

Only native parrot species of the eastern United States, bright green with yellow head

Eastern subspecies of prairie chicken once common from New England to Virginia

Sea duck of the North American Atlantic coast with a distinctive wedge-shaped bill

Thai deer of the central floodplains, carrying antlers that branched into a basket shape

Large coastal mink of the north-eastern American seaboard, trapped for a pelt bigger than any other mink's

Small pale wild ass of the Syrian and Mesopotamian deserts, too fast to be run down on horseback

Only native land mammal of the Falklands, a tame fox-like canid found on both main islands

Smallest tiger that ever lived, found only on the Indonesian island of Bali

Antelope of South Africa whose coat had a bluish sheen in certain lights

North African antelope of the plains from Morocco to Egypt, hunted out by the twentieth century

Large tiger that lived along the river valleys and reed beds of Central Asia and Iran

Small tiger subspecies restricted to the island of Java, gone as its forests were cleared

Once the most abundant bird in North America, migrating in flocks that darkened the sky for days

Wild goat of the Pyrenees mountains whose last individual died in 2000

Small bright orange toad of one Costa Rican cloud forest, seen in numbers once and then never again