The origin of life

Prehistory & Palaeontology

109 organisms from 11 geological periods, including 47 dinosaurs, across 16 groups. Famous icons sit alongside lesser-known but scientifically crucial species.

Geological timeline
Group
Group
Dinosaur clade
Dinosaur clade
109 of 109 organisms

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Sites on today's globe · 124 markers

Iconic fossils13

Famous individual finds – from Sue and Lucy to the 'Great Animal of Maastricht'. Gold markers on the map show where they were found.

  • SueIconic fossil

    Sue

    Tyrannosaurus rex · FMNH PR 2081

    Found in 1990 by Sue Hendrickson

    Hell Creek Formation near Faith, South Dakota

    Museum: Field Museum, Chicago

    One of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons, with more than 90 per cent recovered. After a legal battle over ownership, Sue was auctioned in 1997 for 8.3 million dollars – at the time the highest price ever paid for a fossil.

    Image: Evolutionnumber9 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

  • The Berlin ArchaeopteryxIconic fossil

    The Berlin Archaeopteryx

    Archaeopteryx · MB.Av.101

    Found in 1875 by farmer Jakob Niemeyer

    Blumenberg near Eichstätt, Bavaria

    Museum: Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin

    The finest specimen of the 'first bird', with a complete skull and outspread wings full of feather impressions, found in 1874 or 1875. The farmer who found it reportedly sold it to buy a cow; its purchase for Berlin was later financed by Werner von Siemens.

    Image: H. Raab ( User: Vesta ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

  • Lucy (Dinkʼinesh)Iconic fossil

    Lucy (Dinkʼinesh)

    Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy) · AL 288-1

    Found in 1974 by Donald Johanson and his team

    Hadar, Afar

    Museum: National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa

    About 40 per cent of the skeleton of a female who lived some 3.2 million years ago: a small brain, but already walking upright. She was named after the Beatles song 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', which was played over and over in the camp that evening.

    Image: 120 · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

  • The Fighting DinosaursIconic fossil

    The Fighting Dinosaurs

    Velociraptor

    Found in 1971 by a Polish–Mongolian expedition

    Tugrikin Shireh, Gobi

    Museum: Institute of Paleontology, Ulaanbaatar

    A Velociraptor and a Protoceratops buried together while locked in combat: the predator's claw in the plant-eater's neck, its arm in its opponent's jaws. It is direct evidence of a fight between dinosaurs; how they came to be preserved like this, by a sandstorm or a collapsing dune, is debated.

    Image: Yuya Tamai from Gifu, Japan · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

  • The Bernissart IguanodonsIconic fossil

    The Bernissart Iguanodons

    Iguanodon

    Found in 1878 by miners at the Bernissart coal mine

    Bernissart, Hainaut

    Museum: Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels

    In 1878 miners came upon dozens of Iguanodon skeletons at a depth of 322 metres – the first complete skeletons of this dinosaur. The mounted specimens in Brussels shaped the world's picture of Iguanodon for decades.

    Image: Aimé Rutot (museum curator in 1882, geologist) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

  • The 'Great Animal of Maastricht'Iconic fossil

    The 'Great Animal of Maastricht'

    Mosasaurus · MNHN AC 9648

    Found in 1778 by quarry workers in the Sint-Pietersberg

    Sint-Pietersberg, Maastricht

    Museum: Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris

    This enormous skull from a chalk quarry near Maastricht was first thought to belong to a crocodile or a whale. After the siege of Maastricht in 1794, French revolutionaries took the fossil to Paris, where Georges Cuvier showed that it was an extinct giant lizard. In 1822 the animal was named Mosasaurus, after the river Meuse.

    Image: Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond and diverse draughtsmen and engravers · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

  • Mary Anning's PlesiosaurusIconic fossil

    Mary Anning's Plesiosaurus

    Plesiosaurus

    Found in 1823 by Mary Anning

    Lyme Regis, Dorset

    Museum: Natural History Museum, London

    On 10 December 1823 Mary Anning found the first complete skeleton of Plesiosaurus, a marine reptile with an unprecedentedly long neck of 35 vertebrae. Georges Cuvier at first suspected a fake, but in 1824 the Geological Society concluded that the skeleton was genuine; Cuvier later admitted he had been mistaken.

    Image: Credited to 'Mr. Grey' in Crispin Tickell's book 'Mary Anning of Lyme Regis' (1996) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

  • The Suncor nodosaurIconic fossil

    The Suncor nodosaur

    Borealopelta · TMP 2011.033.0001

    Found in 2011 by equipment operator Shawn Funk

    Millennium Mine near Fort McMurray, Alberta

    Museum: Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller

    This armoured dinosaur was discovered in an oil sands mine in 2011 and looks more like a statue than a skeleton: its armour, skin and even its stomach contents are preserved. Technician Mark Mitchell spent six years preparing it; the species is named after him.

    Image: ケラトプスユウタ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

  • DippyIconic fossil

    Dippy

    Diplodocus · CM 84

    Found in 1899 by William Reed's team

    Sheep Creek near Medicine Bow, Wyoming

    Museum: Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh

    The original of what became the most famous dinosaur skeleton in the world. Andrew Carnegie had plaster casts made and donated them to major museums, including in Europe; the London cast stood in the hall of the Natural History Museum from 1905 to 2017.

    Image: ScottRobertAnselmo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

  • Sophie the StegosaurusIconic fossil

    Sophie the Stegosaurus

    Stegosaurus · NHMUK PV R36730

    Found in 2003 by Bob Simon

    Red Canyon Ranch near Shell, Wyoming

    Museum: Natural History Museum, London

    The best-preserved Stegosaurus skeleton ever found: 85 per cent complete, with 360 bones. It was discovered in Wyoming in 2003, excavated by the Swiss Sauriermuseum and now stands in London.

    Image: Susannah Maidment et al. & Natural History Museum, London · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

  • IdaIconic fossil

    Ida

    Darwinius ('Ida') · PMO 214.214

    Found in 1983 by an amateur collector

    Messel Pit, Hesse

    Museum: Natural History Museum, Oslo

    The fossil was dug up by an amateur in 1983 and sold in two halves separately, which were only reunited in 2007. With impressions of fur and stomach contents, it is one of the most complete fossil primates ever found.

    Image: Jens L. Franzen, Philip D. Gingerich, Jörg Habersetzer1, Jørn H. Hurum, Wighart von Koenigswald, B. Holly Smith · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

  • Turkana BoyIconic fossil

    Turkana Boy

    Homo erectus · KNM-WT 15000

    Found in 1984 by Kamoya Kimeu

    Nariokotome, Lake Turkana

    Museum: National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi

    The most complete Homo erectus skeleton ever found: a boy aged between 7 and 11 who lived 1.5 to 1.6 million years ago. His long legs and build show how far adaptation to walking on two legs had already progressed.

    Image: Eduard Pop et al. · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

  • Stromer's SpinosaurusIconic fossil

    Stromer's Spinosaurus

    Spinosaurus

    Found in 1912 by Richard Markgraf

    Bahariya Oasis

    Museum: Bavarian State Collection, Munich (destroyed in 1944)

    The first remains of Spinosaurus were found in Egypt's Bahariya Oasis in 1912 and described by Ernst Stromer in 1915. They were lost in 1944 in an Allied bombing raid on Munich: because of tensions with the museum director, a fervent Nazi, they had not been moved to safety. For a long time only Stromer's drawings and photographs remained.

    Image: w:Ernst Stromer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons