Best Fossil

Lyuba, a female woolly mammoth calf discovered in Siberia in 2007 and dated to approximately 42,000 years ago, is one of the most complete and best-preserved mammoths ever found, with intact organs and stomach contents.

Borealopelta markmitchelli, a nodosaurid ankylosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Alberta discovered by miner Shawn Funk in 2011, preserves original skin, scales, and reddish-brown pigmentation in extraordinary three-dimensional detail.

Sinosauropteryx prima was a small compsognathid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous deposits of Liaoning, China. Described in 1996, specimens preserve a covering of simple filamentous structures, providing early direct evidence that non-avian dinosaurs could possess feather-like integument....

The London Archaeopteryx, described by Richard Owen in 1863 and held at the Natural History Museum London, was the second specimen recognized and helped establish the genus as a transitional bird-dinosaur.

The Berlin specimen of Archaeopteryx is a Late Jurassic fossil from the Solnhofen limestone of Bavaria and one of the most complete examples of the genus. It preserves a toothed skull, clawed fingers, a long bony tail, and detailed impressions of asymmetrical flight feathers, combining traits associ...

Neanderthal 1 is a partial hominin skeleton discovered in 1856 in the Feldhofer Cave in Germany's Neander Valley. The remains include a distinctive skullcap and portions of the postcranial skeleton, and they became the name-bearing specimen for Homo neanderthalensis. Their recognition helped establi...

LB1 is the principal fossil specimen of Homo floresiensis, a small-bodied hominin discovered in 2003 at Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores. The partial skeleton includes a skull and indicates an adult individual about one meter tall, leading to the informal nickname Hobbit. Associated...

Little Foot, catalogued as StW 573, is an unusually complete australopithecine skeleton recovered from the Sterkfontein cave system in South Africa. Its bones were identified gradually beginning in the 1990s and required many years of careful excavation from surrounding rock; dating studies place it...

The Taung Child is the fossilized skull and natural brain endocast of a juvenile Australopithecus africanus discovered at Taung, South Africa, in 1924. Raymond Dart described it in 1925, identifying a combination of ape-like cranial traits and evidence for habitual upright posture. As the first reco...

Turkana Boy, catalogued as KNM-WT 15000, is a remarkably complete early Homo skeleton discovered in 1984 near Lake Turkana in Kenya by Kamoya Kimeu. Usually assigned to Homo ergaster or African Homo erectus, the juvenile individual lived about 1.6 million years ago and had long legs and human-like b...

Ardi, catalogued as ARA-VP-6/500, is a partial skeleton of Ardipithecus ramidus from the Afar region of Ethiopia. The remains are about 4.4 million years old, were discovered in the 1990s, and were presented in a major scientific description in 2009. Ardi combines adaptations for climbing with anato...

Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, a partial skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis discovered by Donald Johanson's team at Hadar, Ethiopia, in 1974 and dated to about 3.2 million years ago. The specimen preserves roughly 40 percent of the skeleton, including parts of the pelvis, legs, spine, ribs...

CM 84 is the holotype skeleton of Diplodocus carnegii, a long-necked diplodocid sauropod excavated in Wyoming in 1899 and housed at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. The species was named in honor of industrialist Andrew Carnegie, whose support enabled full-size plaster casts of...

Scotty, catalogued as RSM P2523.8, is a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton discovered near Eastend, Saskatchewan, in 1991 and held by the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. Excavation and preparation of the specimen took many years because its bones were enclosed in hard sandstone; a 2019 study estimated its living...

Stan, catalogued as BHI 3033, is a substantially complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton found by Stan Sacrison in South Dakota in 1987 and excavated by the Black Hills Institute. The specimen preserves much of the skull and skeleton and shows several healed injuries, making it useful for anatomical and...

Sue, catalogued as FMNH PR 2081, is a large and unusually complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota in 1990. The Field Museum in Chicago acquired the specimen at auction in 1997 for $8.36 million and placed it on public display after preparation. Sue preserves...

Velociraptor mongoliensis was a small dromaeosaurid theropod that lived in what is now Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous. Specimen IGM 100/25 forms part of the Fighting Dinosaurs fossil, which preserves a Velociraptor grappling with a Protoceratops, including the predator's enlarged sickle-shaped...

Anomalocaris canadensis was a large marine animal of the Cambrian Period known from fossils in Canada's Burgess Shale and related deposits. It had stalked compound eyes, a circular mouth structure, paired frontal appendages for handling prey, and lateral swimming flaps along its body. Classified amo...

Microraptor gui, a crow-sized dromaeosaurid from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of China, is notable for bearing pennaceous flight feathers on all four limbs, suggesting biplane-like aerodynamics.

Acanthostega gunnari was a Late Devonian stem tetrapod known from fossils found in East Greenland. It possessed limbs with eight digits, but its limb proportions, tail fin, and internal gills indicate that it remained primarily aquatic rather than moving effectively on land. The animal provides impo...

Deinonychus antirrhopus was a dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of western North America. Yale specimen YPM 5205 formed part of the fossil material studied by paleontologist John Ostrom, whose 1969 description emphasized the animal's large sickle-shaped second toe claw, grasp...

Quetzalcoatlus northropi was a giant azhdarchid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous of what is now Texas. It is known from limited remains of a very large individual discovered in Big Bend National Park, so estimates of its exact proportions remain uncertain, but commonly cited wingspan estimates are...

Smilodon fatalis, a saber-toothed cat of the Pleistocene, is known from thousands of specimens recovered at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles and possessed upper canines reaching roughly 18 cm in length.

Selam is the nickname of DIK-1-1, a juvenile Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered at Dikika in Ethiopia and dated to about 3.3 million years ago. The specimen preserves an unusually complete skull together with parts of the shoulders, vertebral column, ribs, pelvis, arms, and legs, making...

Patagotitan mayorum is a giant titanosaurian sauropod known from fossils discovered in Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina. The species was formally described in 2017 from remains representing several individuals, with MPEF-PV 3400 designated as the holotype. It lived during the Late Cretaceous an...

Opabinia regalis was a small marine animal from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada. It had five stalked eyes, lateral swimming flaps, and a flexible frontal proboscis ending in a grasping structure that likely moved food toward its ventral mouth. Its unusual anatomy has ma...

Triceratops horridus was a large herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur from the latest Cretaceous of western North America. It is distinguished by a solid neck frill, a short nasal horn, and two long brow horns projecting above the eyes. USNM 1201 is a specimen held by the Smithsonian's National Museum of...

Otodus megalodon was a giant extinct lamniform shark that lived from the Miocene into the Pliocene, roughly 23 to 3.6 million years ago. It is known mainly from very large teeth and fossilized vertebral centra, so estimates of its maximum body length remain uncertain. Its robust, serrated teeth indi...

Ichthyostega stensioei was a Late Devonian vertebrate from East Greenland and one of the earliest well-known tetrapods. It combined limbs with digits and a strong ribcage with aquatic features, including a finned tail and sensory adaptations inherited from fishlike ancestors. Its anatomy indicates t...