• More than 99 percent of all life to exist on Earth is extinct, that’s about five billion
different species that now exist only as bones and fossils.
But how many do we have evidence of?
And how much can we really learn about them?
Here are fifteen prehistoric creatures we recently discovered.
15 - , Atopodentatus • Reconstructing the real-life appearance
of ancient creatures can be tricky when all you have to go on is some old pieces of rock.
A 2014 fossil discovery of the Atopodentatus showed it to be one of the earliest marine
herbivores, with a bizarre vertical zipper-like jaw.
Another discovery in 2016 proved that the original skull had been misshapen, and that
the swimming reptile actually had a sideways, vacuum-cleaner mouth for scooping up vegetation.
14 - , Microleo Attenboroughi • While some fossils can be misleading,
palaeontologists are often able to reconstruct animals from very little evidence.
A palate fossil found in Australia has led to a new species of marsupial being named.
The micro-lion is related to two larger marsupial lion species that lived down under, the largest
of which could almost match an African lion for power.
The small carnivore was named after inspirational naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough.
13 - , The Tulley Monster • In 1958, a fossil was discovered in Illinois
that baffled those who tried to define it.
It appeared to show a squishy, worm-like mollusc but with claws and a backbone.
It wasn't until 2016, that researchers labelled it as a vertebrate related to the modern blood-sucking
lamprey.
The mystery fish, called Tullimonstrum has a long proboscis with teeth at the end, and
eyes on stalks like a shellfish. 12 - , Triopticus Primus
• First described in 2016, the triopticus primus was a dome-headed dinosaur, not dissimilar
to the skull-bashing pachycephalosaurus.
Except that the triopticus appeared over 100 million years before any of its helmeted lookalikes.
This is an example of convergent evolution, where the same features in two species evolve
independently, as the triopticus was not an ancestor of any other domed dinosaurs.
It is named after the pit in its skull that gives the appearance of a third eye.
11 - , Four-Billion-Year-Old Microfossils • At half the width of a human hair, the
tiny tubular fossils found in Canada could be the oldest preserved life ever found.
There is some debate over the age of the formations, and whether they are indeed fossils, but the
structures are composed of organic carbon isotopes and iron deposits that form around
microbes when they die, leaving an impression in the rock.
10 - , Vivaron Haydeni • Imagine a crocodile with the powerful
hind legs of a tiger, pretty terrifying, right?
An excavation in a New Mexico quarry revealed a five-metre long carnivore from the Triassic
period, one of the largest predators from that era.
Skull fragments and hip bone fossils point to a powerful reptile that pre-dated most
dinosaurs.
The Vivaron likely lived in open forest environments and on watery floodplains.
9 - , Linhenykus • First described in 1993, the Linhenykus
was a small bird-sized dinosaur that lived around China 80 million years ago.
Related to other two-legged carnivores such as the T-Rex, the Linhenykus' strangest feature
was its single clawed finger that stuck out of either side of its chest.
The little digit was either a useless vestigial limb, or may have been used for digging up
insects in its desert habitat.
8 - , Miocene Period Ape • Before the discovery of the Pliobates
cataloniae skeleton in Spain in 2011, paleontologists had assumed that both small ape species and
humans evolved from a much larger common ancestor.
This five kilo fruit-eater lived over eleven million years ago, before the split of human-like
hominid apes and smaller gibbons, suggesting that gibbons and prehuman apes existed side-by-side
for a period.
The pliobates fills another hole in the record of ape evolution.
7 - , Pegomastax Africanus • With its name meaning 'thick jawed', the
pegomastax was a dinosaur with a powerful combination of a bird-like beak and two long
pairs of teeth.
At 60cm long, the little critter was mostly tail and neck.
Preserved samples of similar species reveal that the dinosaur may also have been covered
in long porcupine quills.
The pegomastax was found in South Africa in the 60s, but not identified formally until
2012.
6 - , Websteroprion Armstrongi • Held in a museum in Toronto since the
90s, the fossil record of this giant worm was recently re-examined.
It demonstrated the largest jaw of this worm type ever found, with other species having
microscopic mouths.
The ferocious predator measured up to a metre in length and attacked prey with its powerful
jaws.
The worm takes part of its name from a giant of death metal, Alex Webster from the band
Cannibal Corpse. 5 - , Murosraptor
• This carniverous megaraptor was named and described in 2016, after a decade of research.
The holotype, or example individual, comes from a juvenile and is estimated to have been
6.5 metres long, suggesting that adults were even bigger.
The murosraptor would not have been much smaller than a T-rex and no doubt just as dangerous.
Their hollow bones would have made them much lighter than other predators of a similar
size.
4 - , Hallucigenia • This worm is appropriately named, as it's
something you might see after taking a few too many magic mushrooms.
It comes from the pre-cambrian explosion, when life started to take on strange and bizarre
forms under the sea.
Hallucigenia fossils showed long, stilt-like spines on one side and stubby muscles on the
other.
Reconstructions in the 70s had the worm walking on the spines, while contemporary research
has flipped it upside down, with the spines on top.
It was also discovered that the supposed tail was, in fact, its head.
3 - , Epidexipteryx • Research from 2008 reveals that the pigeon-sized
Epidexipteryx Hui possessed elaborate tail feathers that helped the little dinosaur to
balance on tree branches.
Fossil records show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucigenia#/media/File:H._sparsa.jpgintact, veined feathers on the back of a creature
that way before flight was possible, suggesting that early feathers were used for stability
or maybe even decoration.
The remains were found in the fossil-rich region of Daohugou in China.
2 - , Longisquama • 80 million years before the first feathered
dinosaurs appeared, the Longisquama Ignis was sporting strange feather-like structures
on its back in the mid-Triassic period.
Previously believed to be plant leaves trapped in the fossil, recent studies show that the
Longiquama has seven appendages coming from its spine that, while they cannot be called
feathers, bear a structural resemblance that suggests an alternative origin for their avian
descendants. 1 -, Jaekelopterus
• For many decades, palaeontologists have known about sea scorpions, large ancestors
of spiders and scorpions that lived on the bottom of lakes and seas.
But it wasn't until the discovery of an 18-inch claw piece in Germany that we knew just how
large these monsters were.
The Jaekelopterus is estimated to have been around 2.5 metres long, the size of a large
crocodile, and eaten anything it could catch, including its own species.