Artist reconstruction of Late Jurassic sauropods in a misty river valley

Where timecomes alive

Every prehistoric era and the animals that lived in it, from the first life on Earth to the last Ice Age. Filmed like a documentary, checked like a textbook.

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Late Jurassic floodplain, 150 million years ago · Artist reconstruction

Dig down through time

Rock is laid down in layers, the oldest at the bottom. Each layer below is one period of Earth’s history. Start at the surface, today, and go as deep as you like.

The surface · today
QuaternaryIce Ages, mammoths, sabre-tooth cats — and us.2.58 – 0 MaRead the guide
NeogeneMegalodon hunts and grasslands spread.23.03 – 2.58 MaIn preparation
PaleogeneMammals inherit the Earth after the dinosaurs.66 – 23.03 MaIn preparation
CretaceousT. rex, Spinosaurus, mosasaurs — and the asteroid.145 – 66 MaRead the guide
JurassicGiant sauropods, Allosaurus and the first birds.201.4 – 145 MaRead the guide
TriassicLife recovers — and the first dinosaurs appear.251.9 – 201.4 MaRead the guide
PermianSail-backed reptiles, and the greatest extinction of all.298.9 – 251.9 MaIn preparation
CarboniferousOxygen-rich swamps and insects the size of hawks.358.9 – 298.9 MaIn preparation
DevonianThe Age of Fishes — and armoured giants like Dunkleosteus.419.2 – 358.9 MaIn preparation
SilurianLife takes its first steps onto land.443.8 – 419.2 MaIn preparation
OrdovicianSeas ruled by giant sea scorpions and nautiloids.485.4 – 443.8 MaIn preparation
CambrianThe explosion of animal life: eyes, shells and the first predators.538.8 – 485.4 MaIn preparation
PrecambrianA molten planet, the first oceans and the first life — microbes that changed the air forever.4567 – 538.8 MaIn preparation
Earth forms · 4.57 billion years ago

Layer thickness is compressed so the whole column fits on a screen; drawn to true scale, the Precambrian would fill almost 90% of it. Ma means millions of years ago. Dates follow the International Chronostratigraphic Chart.

A day in theJurassic

Twenty minutes inside a Late Jurassic world, 150 million years ago, from the river shallows to the open sea. Giant sauropods, Allosaurus on the hunt and the first feathered fliers.

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A Day in the Jurassic, EONVYRA documentary thumbnail

Prehistoric creatures

From the Jurassic to the Ice Age: how big they were, when they lived, where their fossils were dug up, and what the evidence really says.

Land Predator

Allosaurus

Allosaurus fragilis

The most common large predator of the Late Jurassic, and one of the best-understood dinosaurs ever found.

Length: ≈ 8.5 m
Lived: 155–145 Ma
Fossils: Western USA · Portugal

Land Herbivore

Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus stenops

Plates on its back, spikes on its tail and a famously small brain.

Length: up to ≈ 9 m
Lived: 155–145 Ma
Fossils: Western USA · Portugal

Land Herbivore

Brachiosaurus

Brachiosaurus altithorax

Front legs longer than its back legs, a neck raised high like a giraffe’s, and a body the weight of several elephants.

Length: ≈ 18–22 m
Lived: ≈ 154–150 Ma
Fossils: Western USA

Marine Predator

Liopleurodon

Liopleurodon ferox

Television made it a 25-metre monster.

Length: up to ≈ 8 m
Lived: ≈ 165 Ma
Fossils: England · northern France

Sky

Archaeopteryx

Feathers and wings like a bird, teeth, claws and a bony tail like a dinosaur.

Length: ≈ 0.5 m
Lived: ≈ 150 Ma
Fossils: Bavaria, Germany

Land Herbivore

Diplodocus

Diplodocus carnegii

Longer than a tennis court is wide, yet lighter than many other giants.

Length: ≈ 24–26 m
Lived: ≈ 154–152 Ma
Fossils: Western USA

Land Predator

Ceratosaurus

Ceratosaurus nasicornis

A horn on its nose, a row of bony studs down its back and some of the longest teeth of any meat-eater its size.

Length: ≈ 5–6 m
Lived: ≈ 153–148 Ma
Fossils: Western USA · Portugal

Land Predator

Torvosaurus

Torvosaurus gurneyi

The largest land predator ever found in Europe, and one of the biggest of the whole Jurassic.

Length: up to ≈ 10 m
Lived: ≈ 150 Ma
Fossils: Portugal · Western USA

Land Herbivore

Kentrosaurus

Kentrosaurus aethiopicus

Stegosaurus’s smaller, spikier African cousin.

Length: ≈ 4–4.5 m
Lived: ≈ 152 Ma
Fossils: Tanzania

Land Herbivore

Gargoyleosaurus

Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum

One of the earliest armoured dinosaurs known from a good skull.

Length: ≈ 3–4 m
Lived: ≈ 154 Ma
Fossils: Wyoming, USA

Land Herbivore

Dryosaurus

Dryosaurus altus

A fast, long-legged plant-eater that lived among giants.

Length: ≈ 2.5–3.5 m
Lived: ≈ 155–148 Ma
Fossils: Western USA

Land Predator

Compsognathus

Compsognathus longipes

Turkey-sized, quick and sharp-eyed.

Length: ≈ 1 m
Lived: ≈ 150 Ma
Fossils: Germany · France

Sky

Rhamphorhynchus

Rhamphorhynchus muensteri

A long-tailed pterosaur that skimmed the lagoons of Jurassic Germany for fish, and sometimes ended up as a meal itself.

Length: wingspan up to ≈ 1.8 m
Lived: ≈ 150 Ma
Fossils: Germany

Sky

Yi qi

A pigeon-sized dinosaur with bat-like wings of skin.

Length: wingspan ≈ 60 cm
Lived: ≈ 160 Ma
Fossils: Hebei, China

Marine Predator

Ophthalmosaurus

Ophthalmosaurus icenicus

A dolphin-shaped sea reptile with some of the largest eyes, for its body size, of any animal ever.

Length: ≈ 4 m
Lived: ≈ 165–145 Ma
Fossils: England · Europe · elsewhere

Marine Grazer

Leedsichthys

Leedsichthys problematicus

Possibly the largest bony fish that ever lived.

Length: ≈ 8–16.5 m
Lived: ≈ 165 Ma (for at least 10 million years)
Fossils: England · France · Germany · Chile · Mexico

Marine Predator

Dakosaurus

Dakosaurus maximus

A crocodile that went fully to sea: flippers instead of legs, a tail fin like a shark’s, and teeth built to cut big prey.

Length: ≈ 4.5 m
Lived: ≈ 150 Ma
Fossils: Germany · England · France · Switzerland

Marine Predator

Pliosaurus

The true giant of the Late Jurassic seas.

Length: largest ≈ 10–12 m
Lived: ≈ 157–145 Ma
Fossils: England · Norway · elsewhere

Marine Predator

Pseudorhina

A flat shark that lay hidden in the sand of Jurassic lagoons, waiting for prey to swim too close.

Length: about 1 m or less
Lived: ≈ 150 Ma
Fossils: Germany

Sea Life

Titanites

Titanites anguiformis

A coiled shell wider than a car wheel.

Length: shell often over 1 m across
Lived: ≈ 147 Ma
Fossils: Southern England

Land Predator

Tyrannosaurus rex

The most famous dinosaur of all, and one of the last.

Length: ≈ 12 m
Lived: 68–66 Ma
Fossils: Western North America

Semi-Aquatic

Spinosaurus

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus

A sail-backed, fish-eating giant whose original skeleton was destroyed in a war, and whose way of life is still one of the biggest arguments in palaeontology.

Length: ≈ 14 m
Lived: ≈ 100–94 Ma
Fossils: North Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Niger