(Image: Louie Psihoyos/Corbis)
Dinosaurs in mortal combat, an ichthyosaur birth, a fish catching a fish-catching pterosaur: these seven fossils show prehistoric beasts living and dying
Fossils can be amazing in many ways. There are unbelievable creatures like Atopodentatus, a marine reptile with a second row of teeth splitting its skull where its nose ought to be. Or Helicoprion, the shark with a circular saw for slicing up prey. There are the fossils that transformed our view of ancient life, like Archaeopteryx, with its strange mix of reptilian and bird-like features.
Then there are fossils with features we never expected to be preserved. Dinosaur skin imprints. Beetles whose iridescent shells still shimmer with rainbow colours. Ancient fish in whose petrified eyes the light-detecting rod and cone cells can be seen under a microscope. Yet other fossils capture our imaginations because they are so mysterious, like the enigmatic embryo-like things from 600 million years ago that don’t match anything we know.
But for us, the most amazing give us a very rare glimpse not just of what animals existed, but what they were doing – fossils that transport us back in time to long-lost worlds.
Read more: “Stunning fossils: The seven most amazing ever found“
This article appeared in print under the headline “Amazing fossils: Turned to stone”
