Before you play

What Last Stand Means

This figure asks when a prehistoric animal last appears in the fossil record, in millions of years ago.

  • Lower numbers are more recent and closer to the present.
  • The value is the younger edge of the source page's time-period span.
  • A late last appearance does not mean the group was thriving everywhere at the end.

This is the trailing edge of the fossil record, not a neat extinction timestamp.