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The atlas · Back through time

Prehistoric life

The animals and plants of lost worlds.

5 written · 5 in outline · 5 sections

Dinosaurs

  • The dinosaur encyclopaediaEncyclopaedia

    Every dinosaur on the Natural History Museum’s list, with when and where each lived.

  • The dinosaursLesson

    They ruled the land for more than 160 million years, came in every size, and never really went away. Look up at the birds.

  • Dinosaurs of BritainExplorer · outline

    Every dinosaur found in Britain, on a map and in time.

Reptiles of sea and sky

  • Sea reptilesLesson · outline

    Ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs: reptiles that went back to the sea.

  • PterosaursLesson · outline

    The flying reptiles, from crow-sized to giraffe-tall, and how they flew.

Mammals

  • The age of mammalsLesson

    After the asteroid: whales that walked, the largest animal ever, and mammoths that outlived the Ice Age.

  • Ice Age animalsLesson · outline

    Mammoths, woolly rhinos, cave lions and the rest, and why so many died out.

Plants

  • Coal forestsLesson

    Swamps near the equator buried before they could rot, and a millipede longer than you are tall.

  • The story of plantsLesson · outline

    From the first plants on land to forests, seeds and flowers.

Everything else