About Prehistoric World Map

Prehistoric World Map is an independent site that plots fossil finds on maps of the ancient Earth. Move the time slider and the continents drift into the positions they held at that time, with the fossils found in rocks of that age.

How the maps are made

• Fossils: 127,774 plotted points for 19,994 genera, from fossil occurrences identified to genus in the Paleobiology Database (PBDB), downloaded on 22 October 2026. Each occurrence is placed in the time slice nearest the middle of its age range. Nearby finds of the same genus are merged into one point, No genera are hidden: lesser-known ones are drawn as tiny dots.
• Moving the continents: 31 time slices (0, 5, 15, 30, 45, 56, 66, 75, 85, 100, 115, 130, 145, 160, 175, 190, 201, 215, 230, 252, 275, 300, 330, 360, 390, 420, 445, 470, 500, 525, 555 million years ago). For each slice we reconstructed the coastlines, and moved each fossil site from its present-day position, using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model with pyGPlates. The land shapes are the model’s outlines of today’s coastlines and continental blocks moved to their ancient positions, so they show where the continents were, not ancient sea levels or shallow seas. Coastlines are simplified to keep the site fast. Ancient positions are model estimates and become less certain further back in time; this model uses a palaeomagnetic reference frame, so ancient longitudes are not well constrained.
• Dot sizes reflect how well known a genus is: the number of Wikipedia language editions with an article about it (Wikidata sitelinks). Featured animals have a picture marker and their own page.
• Ages of featured animals are PBDB first and last appearance ages (the ages of the rock layers in which their fossils were found). Period names, dates and colours follow the ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart (v2024/12), as distributed by PBDB.
• Text on featured pages is quoted verbatim from English Wikipedia. We do not add facts of our own.

Categories

• Theropods (Dinosaurs): PBDB taxon Theropoda^Aves
• Sauropods & prosauropods (Dinosaurs): PBDB taxon Sauropodomorpha
• Stegosaurs & ankylosaurs (Dinosaurs): PBDB taxon Thyreophora
• Horned & dome-headed dinosaurs (Dinosaurs): PBDB taxon Marginocephalia
• Iguanodonts & duck-bills (Dinosaurs): PBDB taxon Ornithopoda
• Prehistoric birds (Dinosaurs): PBDB taxon Aves, records with mid-age 2.58–999 Ma
• Pterosaurs (Flying & marine reptiles): PBDB taxon Pterosauria
• Ichthyosaurs (Flying & marine reptiles): PBDB taxon Ichthyosauromorpha
• Plesiosaurs & kin (Flying & marine reptiles): PBDB taxon Sauropterygia
• Mosasaurs (Flying & marine reptiles): PBDB taxon Mosasauridae
• Crocodile relatives (Other reptiles & amphibians): PBDB taxon Pseudosuchia, records with mid-age 2.58–999 Ma
• Early tetrapods & amphibians (Other reptiles & amphibians): PBDB taxon Tetrapodomorpha^Amniota^Lissamphibia
• Pre-mammals (synapsids) (Mammals & relatives): PBDB taxon Synapsida^Mammaliaformes
• Early mammals (Mammals & relatives): PBDB taxon Mammaliaformes, records with mid-age 33.9–999 Ma
• Ice Age & later mammals (Mammals & relatives): PBDB taxon Mammalia, records with mid-age 0.0117–33.9 Ma
• Human relatives (Mammals & relatives): PBDB taxon Hominini
• Ancient fish & sharks (Sea life & early life): PBDB taxon Placodermi,Chondrichthyes,Acanthodii,Agnatha, records with mid-age 2.58–999 Ma
• Ammonites & nautiloids (Sea life & early life): PBDB taxon Ammonoidea,Orthocerida,Endocerida
• Trilobites & sea scorpions (Sea life & early life): PBDB taxon Trilobita,Eurypterida
• Ediacaran & Cambrian life (Sea life & early life): PBDB taxon Metazoa^Trilobita, records with mid-age 485.4–700 Ma
• Giant insects & arthropods (Sea life & early life): PBDB taxon Meganisoptera,Arthropleuridae

Licences and credits

• Paleobiology Database (paleobiodb.org): fossil occurrence, taxonomy and age data via the PBDB Data Service v1.2. PBDB policy releases public records under CC BY 4.0; the API response at download time reported the data licence as CC0. We credit PBDB and its contributors in either case. Data changed by us: binned to time slices, merged, thinned and moved to ancient positions.
• Plate model: Merdith, A.S., Williams, S.E., Collins, A.S., Tetley, M.G., et al. (2021), “Extending full-plate tectonic models into deep time: Linking the Neoproterozoic and the Phanerozoic”, Earth-Science Reviews 214, 103477. Model files Zenodo 12525525, licensed CC BY 4.0, obtained from the GPlates Web Service model repository. Coastlines reconstructed and simplified by us.
• GPlates / pyGPlates software (EarthByte Group, University of Sydney) used to compute reconstructions.
• Geologic time scale: ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart (Cohen et al. 2013, updated), stratigraphy.org.
• Wikipedia text: CC BY-SA 4.0, with the article and revision linked on each page. Quoted text on this site is available under the same licence.
• Images: Wikimedia Commons, freely licensed or public domain only; author and licence shown with each image.
• Wikidata (CC0): links between PBDB genera and Wikipedia articles, and sitelink counts.

Prehistoric World Map is not affiliated with PBDB, EarthByte, GPlates, ICS or Wikimedia. Information is compiled automatically and may contain errors.