• Dinosaur picture: full adult Protoceratops fossil

    Photos: "Gorgeous" Dinosaur Nest

    Protoceratops Parents May Have Nurtured Their Young

    More »

Humans have walked the Earth for 190,000 years, a mere blip in Earth's 4.5-billion-year history. Learn more about the planet's tumultuous past.

More About the Prehistoric World

  • Photo: Gully bones

    Digging Up Sea Monsters

    Follow the blog from the Spitsbergen Expedition as they unearth "sea monsters″ from the Upper Jurassic Period 150 million years ago.

  • Image: Artwork of flying pterosaurs.

    Prehistoric Time Line

    National Geographic's interactive time line takes you on a 4.5-billion-year-old trip through Earth's history⎯from its Precambrian birth to the birth of Homo sapiens some 190,000 years ago.

  • Photo: Fossil of reptile wing

    Pterosaurs—Lords of the Ancient Skies

    The largest animals that ever flew, pterosaurs ruled the Mesozoic skies for 150 million years, flapping and soaring long before the first bird ruffled a single feather.

  • Photo: Woman digging up dinosaur bones

    Fossil Wars

    In the international fossil trade, even priceless specimens have a price tag. Ancient bones can end up in a movie star's mansion as easily as in a museum.

Newsletters

Angry Birds Space

  • angry-birds-promo.jpg

    Blast Off!

    Take off with the National Geographic Angry Birds Space book as the birds fly through space on an intergalactic rescue mission.

Buy the Book »

National Geographic Magazine

  • Photo: Eyjafjallajökull volcano, Iceland

    Iceland's Resilient Beauty

    Over the centuries, humans (and sheep) have taken a toll on the volcano- and glacier-shaped landscape. But what remains is still spectacular.

  • Photo: Sketch of the Louisiana Tigers in Gettysburg

    Civil War Sketches

    Browse through a gallery of historical illustrations depicting both the horrors of battle and the moments of grace, as captured by skilled battlefield artists of the American Civil War.

  • Photo: Possible skull of Mary Magdalene

    Apostles Photo Gallery

    They were unlikely leaders. As the Bible tells it, most knew more about mending nets than winning converts when Jesus said he would make them "fishers of men." Yet 2,000 years later, all over the world, the Apostles are still drawing people in.

Get More From the Magazine »

Genographic