Living fossils

Amazing survivors from the dawn of time

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1. Coelacanth

This prehistoric-looking fish was thought to be long extinct, until a freshly killed fish showed up at a market in Eastern Cape, South Africa, in 1938. As a group, coelacanths first appeared in the Early Devonian period, around 409m years ago, and prospered until the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, 66m years ago. Two surviving species live in deep-water caves and hunt at night.

2. Bristle worm

With more than 10,000 species known to science, this family of marine worms is incredibly diverse. The oldest confirmed species lived about 520m years ago. They are still found in all levels of Earth’s oceans, from the surface to the abyssal plain.

3. Tuatara

It might look like a lizard but the tuatara belongs to an entirely different family of reptiles known as Rhynchocephalia. From 240 to 150m years ago, this group dominated many of the habitats occupied by lizards today, but now they're represented by just a single species - the tuatara. Today, they are confined to the uninhabited islands that surround New Zealand's North Island.