10 Animals That Are Real-Life Living Fossils

By Sheetal Kumari | May 15, 2025

10 Animals That Are Real-Life Living Fossils

Lived more than 450 million years, this sea creature lived before dinosaurs and remains alive with its hard shell and blue blood.

Horseshoe Crab

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Declared extinct in 1938, this deep-sea fish has lived for 400 million years, with distinctive lobed fins and ancient roots.

Coelacanth

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This spiral-shelled mollusc is 500 million years old and continues to employ jet propulsion to travel through ocean waters.

Nautilus

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This reptile, native to New Zealand, looks like lizards but belongs to a distinct lineage that is 200 million years old.

Tuatara

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A “living fossil” because of its grotesque appearance, this deep-sea shark has not evolved much in 125 million years.

Goblin Shark

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These big, slow-growing fish have been around for more than 200 million years and are renowned for yielding rich caviar.

Sturgeon

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It has a jawless mouth and eel body and has not changed in 360 million years, parasitically feeding on other fish.

Lamprey

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Air-breathing ancient fish with a 400-million-year history that rode out mass extinctions on their peculiar lungs.

Lungfish

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This bizarre mammal with a bill like a duck and webbed feet has characteristics connecting it to 100-million-year-old ancient monotremes.

Platypus

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Today’s alligators are very similar to 200-million-year-old ancestors, making them one of the most successful predators on Earth.

Alligator

(Image: Canva)

Next: Meet Pika: The Tiny Mischief Maker of the Mountains
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