Chinese fossils have allowed for recreating the missing branches in the tree of life; researchers can trace prehistoric mammal evolution back another 35 million years and have learned they were more numerous and varied than previously thought.

From herds of feather-covered dinosaurs to dragonflies larger than seagulls, fossils discovered in China have created new questions about prehistoric feathered beasts.

The insects we know today are tiny, and the only giant ones are in our nightmares; 320 million years ago, though, dragonflies measuring a metre and centipedes the size of a human thrived on Earth; we take a look at what caused their extinction.