There are a huge number of sites that describe or relate to prehistoric animals and particularly dinosaurs. This links page is designed to be used in conjunction with REMedia's Prehistoric Animals CD-ROM disk. The CD-ROM contains many animations, movies and interviews that are either not available on the Internet or take a painfully long time to download with a 28.8K modem.

Several of the sites listed below have information on many different aspects of prehistoric animals and the evolution of life on Earth. Once in one of these sites, you'll probably want to spend some time browsing around. Be warned, however, that some sites have areas for both the layperson and the scientist. If you suddenly find yourself on a page that seems very complex, just hit the back button on your browser.

Exploring the Internet is a voyage of exploration, and you'll probably find a lot of extra links that are not mentioned here. Happy hunting!

When we look around us, we see a variety of different animal groups, from fish to birds, from tiny insects to huge mammals like the elephant and blue whale. These animals were not always on the Earth, however. When our planet was first born, it was too hot and inhospitable a place for any animal or plant to live. In the billions of years since the Earth cooled down, the climate and geology of our planet have stabilized, and the amazing variety of animals and plants that we see today have gradually evolved.

The following links are to web pages that give introductory information about prehistoric animals.

Dinosaurs! The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History's dinosaur exhibit.

Fossils of Rancho La Brea In the heart of Los Angeles lies one of the world's richest Ice Age fossil sites. Countless plants and animals were trapped in deposits of natural asphalt and preserved as fossils. These fossils now provide us with an incredibly complete picture of what life was like as the Ice Ages drew to a close between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago.

Dinosauria on-line Dinosaurs are the main subject of this extensive site, but it does claim to be 'the official website of the new millennium!'

Dinofest An ambitious and fascinating site that can best be understood by visiting it yourself! It consists of fossil exhibits and reconstructions as well as learning materials.

The Early Life chapter of the Prehistoric Animals CD-ROM disk provides information on the earliest animals to inhabit the earth up until the time at which animals first colonized the land. These links will give you a host of useful information on the animals that lived at this time.

The University of California Museum of Paleontology at Berkeley web site. Well worth looking at. This extensive site contains text information and pictures of all geological time periods.

Paleocontinental Maps Some very clear color maps that show you where today's continents were at different stages in the formation of the Earth.

Virtual Silurian Reef A fascinating site with extensive data on the organisms that lived in the Silurian seas.

Dawn of Animal Life Using exclusively Canadian rocks and fossils, this exhibit highlights almost three billion years of early evolution when only simple, soft-bodied creatures inhabited the Earth. From the Miller Museum of Geology.

NMNH Virtual Tour - Early Life Pictures and information from the Smithsonian's Gallery of Early Life.

Digital Burgess Conference Information and links relating to computer reconstructions of the weird and wonderful organisms of the Burgess Shale.

This chapter of the Prehistoric Animals CD-ROM disk looks at the evolution of vertebrate animals, from the first fish up to the Ice Age mammals that existed up until only a few thousand years ago.

Jurassic Gallery A gallery of original hand-drawn illustrations of dinosaurs

The Cretaceous Period Information about the final period of the Mesozoic Era from the University of California Museum of Paleontology at Berkeley web site.

Dinosaur Extinction where did the dinosaurs go? From a segment of the television program Newton's Apple.

The evidence that we have about prehistoric animals comes from the fossil record. This chapter of the CD-ROM looks at how fossils are formed, where they are found, and how fossil evidence is interpreted. The following links are related to these questions.

Prem's Fossil Gallery. A page dedicated to the author's collection of Paleozoic fossils; includes descriptions and pictures.

Acquiring Fossils Information Package. A page outlining the laws regarding fossil collection in Alberta, Canada. A good read for those interested in implementing fossil collecting laws in the U.S.

Extinctions. The world's largest online fossil collection. Well worth browsing!

Dann's Dinosaur Reconstructions Information on how whole body reconstructions are done from fossil skeletal remains

Where can you go to see fossil collections and displays of reconstructed prehistoric animals? Many museums have 'virtual galleries' for you to browse on the Internet. Here are some suggested sites to start on your voyage of discovery.

Dinosaur Art and Models Reviews of Dinosaur art, models and collectibles.

Dinosaur Valley Museum. Dinosaur Valley Museum, the Museum of Western Colorado's paleontology center, is a working paleontology laboratory which features fossils from important discoveries throughout western Colorado and eastern Utah.

Dinosaurs At the Smithsonian Photographs, facts, and important information.

Field Museum of Natural History Dinosaur Exhibit: Photographs, facts, and important information

Prehistoric Museum The Museum of the Collge of Eastern Utah's web site. Photographs, important facts and information.

Children's Museum of Indianopolis Dinosaur Fact Sheets Pictures, facts, and information

Dinosaurs, Movies, and Reality Some thought-provoking information on the truth behind movie dinosaurs.

Royal Tyrrell Museum Drumheller, Alberta, Canada's largest museum devoted exclusively to dinosaurs

Dinosaurs of Ancient Queensland Prehistoric dinosaur exhibition presented by the Queensland Museum, Australia

Prehistoric amphibians evolved in the Devonian period from fish. The first amphibian may have been an animal called Ichthyostega, and during the Carboniferous period, amphibians were the main land animals. Amphibians gave rise to reptiles that in turn evolved into dinosaurs, birds, modern reptiles, and mammals. The modern vertebrate class Amphibia includes frogs, toads, and salamanders. Many of these cold-blooded animals spend their adult lives on land but most must lay their eggs in water: amphibian eggs do not have shells, and would dry out if incubated on land.

Ichthyostega Detailed information about the first known amphibian species.

Introduction to the Amphibia. Part of the University of California Museum of Paleontology at Berkeley web site .

Protomammals, also called mammal-like reptiles, were the creatures that eventually evolved into the true mammals. The protomammals get their name from the shape of their skulls, which is more mammal-like than the true reptiles. The skull of these animals had a single opening in the skull behind the eye, unlike the dinosaurs, lizards and snakes that possess two openings behind the eye. There are two orders of protomammals, the pelycosaurs, which include the sail-back Dimetrodon, and the therapsids, like Moschops and Cynognathus. These animals lived in the Permian and Triassic periods.

Origin of the dinosaurs - The Permian period Part of Nova's web site, this page gives important information about the Permian period and the protomammals that lived at the time.

Mammal-like Reptiles Some rare photographs and information about the protomammals.

Other orders of land dwelling reptiles shared the earth with the dinosaurs, at least in the early part of the dinosaurs' reign. These included an array of creatures that have been placed by paleontologists into groups like the cotylosaurs, protorosaurs, eosuchians and and thecodonts. Like other reptiles, these orders are classified on the basis of the openings in their skulls. The cotylosaurs had turtle-like skulls, the eosuchians had lizard-like skulls and the openings in the skulls of the thecodonts resembled those of the crocodiles - these seem to have been the ancestors of the dinosaurs.

Royal Tyrrell Museum Tour: The Origin of Dinosaurs Some information on thecodonts and the earliest dinosaurs.

The earliest sea-dwelling reptiles were the nothosaurs and the ichthyosaurs. These creatures were adapted to life in the seas by having a streamlined shape and paddle-like limbs. Several other groups of marine reptiles are important. The first are the plesiosaurs, a group which may have evolved from the nothosaurs at the end of the Triassic period. Next come the placodonts, a group of four-legged Triassic reptiles that had teeth adapted to crush shellfish. The final group are the mosasaurs, which took the place of the ichthyosaurs in the Cretaceous period. Mosasaurs had diapsid skulls with two openings behind the eye, and so were related to the modern lizards. Like the dinosaurs, the large marine reptiles all died out at the end of the Cretaceous.

The Oceans of Kansas You have to see the wonderful illustrations on this site .. especially if you live in the midwest!

Ichthyosaurus, acrobat of the seas Information about this species of marine reptile.

The flying reptiles are called the pterosaurs. They lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, and probably evolved from the same ancestors as the dinosaurs. Although early studies concluded that pterosaurs were gliders, more recent evidence suggests that many of them could flap their wings and could probably fly quite well.

The Pterosaur Home Page. All things pterosauria. This site is devoted to the Mesozoic flying cousins of the dinosaurs. You'll find new skeletal restorations, a new phylogeny and new hypotheses on origins and behavior.

Quetzalcoatlus Details of this giant pterosaur, at the Royal Tyrrell Museum's web site.

Pterosaurs A detailed introduction from the University of California Museum of Paleontology at Berkeley web site.

Dinosaurs are classified into two orders according to the shape of their hip bones. The Saurischia are the 'lizard-hipped' dinosaurs. The other order of dinosaurs have hips shaped more like those of birds, and are called the Ornithischia. The distinction is clear if you look at the skeletons of the two types of dinosaurs, but is more difficult to visualize if you look at the whole animal: many bird-hipped dinosaurs look nothing like birds, while many lizard-hipped dinosaurs walked on their hind legs and looked rather bird-like.

Dinosaur Trace Fossils. Page outlining the different types of dinosaur trace fossils, such as trackways and gastroliths. Includes pictures.

Master Dinosaur List. Stanley Friesen's listing of all known dinosaur species, including describers, years of publication, and taxonomic synonyms.

DinoBuzz: Explore current and exciting research into the biology of dinosaurs. Were they warm-blooded? Why did they go extinct? Are dinosaurs related to birds, or are they reptiles? All this and more!

Dinosauria: Facts and information about dinosaurs of all types

Dinosaur Eggs @National Geographic.com Interactive and beautiful, this National Geographic study site includes an interactive dinosaur egg to be hatched with a click!

Zoom Dinosaurs A comprehensive dinosaur site aimed at younger readers of elementary school age.

Nifty Dino Stuff For younger readers, these pages have answers to some commonly asked questions about dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs in the Dunes Travel to the Gobi desert in search of dinosaurs with the American Museum of Natural History.

Ornithischians or ‘bird-hipped dinosaurs’ comprise the order Ornithischia, and these animals make up one of the two dinosaur orders (the other order is the Saurischia). These animals lived fron the Late Triassic through to the end of the Cretaceous periods, and their remains have been found in all continents of the world. They were herbivores with bird-like hip bones, a horny bill or beak, leaf-shaped teeth, bony tendons along the spine, and other features. Confusingly, it is not thought that birds evolved from this group of dinosaurs.

Ornithischian Dinosaurs The characteristics of this large group of plant-eating dinosaurs.

Hadrosaurus foulkii A fascinating account of the discovery of the USA's first dinosaur. (Although the web site claims that this was the WORLDS first dinosaur find, readers of our CD-ROM disk will know better!)

This chapter of the CD-ROM is about the reptile groups that have 'made it' to the present day. Some of them, like the turtles, are very old and may even predate the dinosaurs. Others, like the crocodiles, may have evolved at a similar time to the dinosaurs. Some groups, like lizards and snakes may not have evolved until well into the age of the dinosaurs. One interesting question to ask is why these animals survived while the dinosaurs and the other large Mesozoic reptiles died out. We do not know the definite answer to this question, although the 'Rise of the Vertebrates' chapter of this CD-ROM will give you some clues as to why these animals may have survived.

Outlasting the Dinosaurs An interesting interview with an expert that discusses why the crocodiles have outlasted the dinosaurs.

Birds are warm-blooded, backboned animals with feathers, and belong to the class Aves. The debate as to whether birds are closely related to dinosaurs has been going on for some time. The debate is very important because if birds are proved to be closely related to dinosaurs, it lends evidence to the argument that dinosaurs were warm blooded.

For many years of the twentieth century, however, the fact that dinosaurs did not appear to have the collar bones from which birds derive their wishbone was thought to be proof that birds are not close relatives of the dinosaurs. More recent, close analysis of the remains of one of the first birds, Archaeopteryx, has shown that there are many similarities between Archaeopteryx and small theropod dinosaurs like Deinonychus and Compsognathus, including the presence of a wishbone-like structure.

Dinobuzz: Dinosaur-Bird Relationships Are birds really dinosaurs. This article has a lot of relevent information to help you make up your mind!

China's Winged Lizard in March 1997, Dr. Don Wolberg from the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences & other renowned paleontologists visited China to investigate reports of a feathered dinosaur, Sinosauropteryx prima; they discovered one of the most important paleontological sites in the world

It was not until the decline of the dinosaurs that mammals really took over from the reptiles. Most modern mammal groups appeared at some point in the last 65 million years, the years of the Cenozoic Era. The Cenozoic Era is split into two periods, the Tertiary and Quaternary. In turn, the Tertiary period is split into a number of epochs, the Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene. The Quaternary period is made up of the Pleistocene and Holocene, or Recent epoch.

Fossil Horses in Cyberspace A wonderful site from the Florida Museum of Natural History. Everything you always wanted to know about the evolution of horses.

Dolphin Evolution A short discussion of dolphin evolution ... with a thought-provoking cartoon!

Perissodactyls Quicktime VR movie and text on the evolution of this important group of mammals.

Primate Evolution These rather terse notes from the Principles of Physical Anthropology at the University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences give much useful information about this important subject.

Mammals This page detailing the Pleistocene mammals of La Brea is part of the "Fossils of Rancho La Brea" web presentation produced by the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries.

Cenozoic Mammals Photographs and information about Cenozoic mammal fossils.