Paleontology - Vivid Maps

A look at how Europe appeared 150 million years ago during the Jurassic—complete with dinosaurs, shallow seas, and scattered islands.

March 15, 2021 Alex

The Scottish Highlands, the Appalachians, and the Atlas are the same mountain range, once connected as the Central Pangean Mountains

The Central Pangean Mountains were a great mountain chain in the middle part of the supercontinent Pangaea that stretches across the continent from northeast to southwest during the Carboniferous, Permian Triassic periods.

Paleontology

May 21, 2019 Alex

The Saharan Mega-Lakes during the Holocene Wet Phase

Between c. 7000 – 3000 BCE the Sahara was far from the desert it is today. It was covered in grassland and dotted with shallow lakes. Ancient humans used its waterways to travel up through Africa. Its legacy remains today in rock art and dried riverbeds. This map is a speculative reconstruction of this lost world.

Climate Paleontology

September 3, 2018 Alex

The Last Ice Age in Europe

During the Ice Age, the sea level in Europe was significantly lower than it is today. The extensive ice sheets and glaciers that covered large parts of the continent locked up substantial amounts of water, causing the global sea level to drop.

Paleontology Science

June 30, 2016 Alex

Sundaland disappearing over 20,000 years

Sundaland is a biogeographical region of Southeastern Asia that encompasses the Sunda shelf, the part of the Asian continental shelf that was exposed during the last glacial period of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 12,000 years ago. It was a large region that encompassed what is now the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and other surrounding islands in Southeast Asia.

Environment maps Paleontology

May 26, 2016 Alex

North America coastline at the last Ice Age

During the last Ice Age the coast of North America looked significantly different from what it does today. The advance of massive ice sheets, primarily the Laurentide Ice Sheet, had a profound impact on the geography and appearance of the coastline. The Bering Land Bridge connected the eastern tip of Siberia to western Alaska.

Environment maps Food Paleontology Travel World

October 10, 2015 Alex

Canada’s anthropogenic footprint (everything from roads to reservoirs)

Environment maps Forecasts Interactive maps News Paleontology Soft

September 9, 2015 Alex

EarthViewer

What did Earth look like 250 million years ago? Or 1 billion years ago? Or 4.5 billion years ago? What

Paleontology

September 8, 2015 Alex

The British Isles were once neither British nor isles

During the last Ice Age, when global sea levels were significantly lower due to the presence of large ice sheets, Doggerland was a vast plain that stretched across the area that connected present-day Great Britain to mainland Europe. It was inhabited by various human populations and supported diverse ecosystems, including forests, rivers, and wetlands. The landscape would have been similar to other low-lying coastal regions of Europe.