Extinct Animals Word Search Printable

Ice Age giants, lost birds and ancient sea life on one sheet, with an answer key and a fact each.

Name Date

Extinct Animals Word Search

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 16 words found

RNDGGREATAUKFSD

XOZTRILOBITESAT

EQUAGGAWNSIGHBU

TWPOMLYOOTAZLEM

TITANOBOAHFEYRE

DPEMOWRLUDODOTG

PWRMAUOLNOFYIOA

JWOOIAEYINRKMOL

RESNWFPRNJFWATO

OWAIRISHELKOMHD

MGUTSORIHIRNMEO

OTRENBSNEQAXODN

AMASTODONIOATCD

EDGROUNDSLOTHAP

TWIYGLYPTODONTS

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

MammothMAMMOTH
MastodonMASTODON
Saber-toothed CatSABER-TOOTHED CAT
Ground SlothGROUND SLOTH
GlyptodonGLYPTODON
Irish ElkIRISH ELK
Woolly RhinoWOOLLY RHINO
DodoDODO
MoaMOA
Great AukGREAT AUK
QuaggaQUAGGA
MegalodonMEGALODON
TrilobiteTRILOBITE
AmmoniteAMMONITE
PterosaurPTEROSAUR
TitanoboaTITANOBOA

16 of 20 words from the Extinct Animal Favorites list.

Start from a list

Easy: words go across and down.

More options

Show clues, not words

Word list

Large print Lower-case letters Name and date line on paper

The puzzle changes as you go. See the puzzle

Answer key: Extinct Animals Word Search

RNDGGREATAUKFSD

XOZTRILOBITESAT

EQUAGGAWNSIGHBU

TWPOMLYOOTAZLEM

TITANOBOAHFEYRE

DPEMOWRLUDODOTG

PWRMAUOLNOFYIOA

JWOOIAEYINRKMOL

RESNWFPRNJFWATO

OWAIRISHELKOMHD

MGUTSORIHIRNMEO

OTRENBSNEQAXODN

AMASTODONIOATCD

EDGROUNDSLOTHAP

TWIYGLYPTODONTS

MAMMOTH, MASTODON, SABER-TOOTHED CAT, GROUND SLOTH, GLYPTODON, IRISH ELK, WOOLLY RHINO, DODO, MOA, GREAT AUK, QUAGGA, MEGALODON, TRILOBITE, AMMONITE, PTEROSAUR, TITANOBOA

Next step Meet the dinosaurs in their own word search Make a puzzle from the animals in your own unit

All 104 words

Ice Age Giants 18

American Lion A big cat whose fossils turn up from Canada to Mexico; it was about a quarter larger than its closest living relative.
Aurochs The wild ancestor of farm cattle; the last one known died in a forest in Poland in 1627.
Cave Bear It died out about 24,000 years ago; unlike its brown relative, it is thought to have eaten almost only plants.
Cave Lion An Ice Age big cat of Europe, Asia and northwest North America; prehistoric drawings suggest the males had little mane.
Diprotodon The largest marsupial known to have lived, an Australian relative of wombats and koalas.
Dire Wolf An Ice Age canine of the Americas with larger teeth than its gray relative; its biggest fossil collection is from tar pits in Los Angeles.
Giant Beaver A bear-sized rodent of Ice Age North America, known to science as Castoroides.
Glyptodon A giant extinct armadillo of South America, covered by a top shell made of hundreds of bony plates.
Ground Sloth Its living relatives hang in trees, but the biggest of these extinct animals were roughly as large as elephants.
Irish Elk A giant deer with the largest antlers known, over 13 feet across.

Show all 104 words (94 more)

Ice Age Giants, continued

Mammoth An elephant relative with long, twisted tusks; the last ones lived on Wrangel Island until about 4,000 years ago.
Marsupial Lion A pouched meat-eater that was the top hunter in Australia until around 40,000 years ago.
Mastodon A North American relative of elephants that browsed on leaves, fruits and woody plants; the last ones lived about 11,000 years ago.
Megatherium An elephant-sized ground sloth of South America; its name is Greek for great beast.
Saber-toothed Cat One of a group of extinct felines, many with very long upper canine teeth; Smilodon is the most famous.
Smilodon The best-known saber-toothed hunter; hundreds of its fossils have come out of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.
Steppe Bison It ranged from western Europe to North America in the Ice Age; the great grazer of the American plains descends from it.
Woolly Rhino A large Ice Age grazer of northern Europe and Asia, covered in long, thick hair; prehistoric paintings show it.

Lost Birds 13

Dodo A flightless relative of pigeons from the island of Mauritius; the last widely accepted sighting was in 1662.
Elephant Bird A giant flightless plant-eater of Madagascar; its eggs are the largest known.
Gastornis A very large flightless bird found mostly in Europe; it probably ate tough plants and seeds rather than meat.
Great Auk A black-and-white flightless seabird of the North Atlantic, about 30 inches tall; the last two confirmed birds died in 1844.
Haast's Eagle A giant bird of prey of New Zealand's South Island that hunted moa and died out when its prey did.
Heath Hen A grouse of the American east coast, plentiful in colonial times, that became extinct in 1932.
Huia A New Zealand forest bird whose female had a long curved beak and whose male had a short stout one.
Labrador Duck A North American sea bird that was never common; the last sighting was reported in 1878 in the state of New York.
Laughing Owl A New Zealand night bird named for its strange calls; it is thought to have died out by about 1914.
Moa One of nine kinds of wingless bird from New Zealand; the tallest reached about 12 feet with the neck stretched up.
Passenger Pigeon Once the most numerous bird in North America, around 3 billion strong; the last known one, Martha, died in a zoo in 1914.
Solitaire A flightless bird of Rodrigues island and the dodo's closest relative; it had died out by the late 1700s.
Terror Bird One of a family of large, mostly flightless meat-eaters with big skulls and sharp beaks, chiefly from South America.

Gone in Modern Times 13

Bali Tiger The big striped cat of one Indonesian island; the last were recorded in the late 1930s.
Bluebuck A bluish-gray antelope of South Africa, gone by about 1800: the first large African mammal lost in recorded history.
Caspian Tiger A big striped cat that lived from Turkey across Central Asia to western China until the 1970s.
Golden Toad An orange amphibian found only in one high cloud forest in Costa Rica and last seen in 1989.
Pyrenean Ibex A wild goat of the mountains between Spain and France; the last one died in January 2000.
Quagga A zebra of South Africa with stripes mainly on the front of its body; the last one died in Amsterdam in 1883.
Sea Mink The largest of its kind, with reddish fur; it lived on the New England coast and was prized by fur traders.
Steller's Sea Cow A kelp-eating relative of the dugong, up to 30 feet long, hunted out within 27 years of being found by Europeans.
Tarpan A free-roaming horse of the western Eurasian steppe; the last one believed to be of its kind died in Russia in 1918.
Thylacine A striped, pouched meat-eater also called the Tasmanian tiger; the last one known died in Hobart in 1936.
Toolache Wallaby A kangaroo relative of southeastern South Australia and southwestern Victoria, now extinct.
Warrah The only native land mammal of the Falkland Islands, a fox-like canine that became extinct in 1876.
Xerces Blue A butterfly of San Francisco's sand dunes, last seen in the early 1940s after the city grew over its home.

Ancient Sea Life 14

Ammonite A relative of squid and octopuses that lived in a coiled shell; the last vanished about 66 million years ago.
Anomalocaris One of the largest animals of the Cambrian seas; it grasped prey with two jointed limbs at the front of its head.
Archelon The largest turtle on record, about 15 feet from head to tail, with a leathery covering in place of a hard shell.
Basilosaurus An early whale whose name means king lizard, because its bones were first taken for a giant reptile's.
Belemnite A squid-like animal with ten hooked arms; its pointed inner guard is the part most often found as a fossil.
Dunkleosteus A large plate-skinned fish of the Late Devonian seas, one of the first top hunters with a backbone.
Helicoprion A shark-like fish known mainly from its teeth, which grew in a spiral like a saw blade.
Ichthyosaur An air-breathing sea reptile shaped like a dolphin that gave birth to live young.
Livyatan A hunting sperm whale with teeth over a foot long, the largest biting teeth of any known animal.
Megalodon A giant shark whose name means big tooth; it probably hunted whales and died out about 3.6 million years ago.
Mosasaur A large sea reptile of the Late Cretaceous, related to today's lizards and snakes.
Plesiosaur A sea reptile with four long flippers; many kinds had a very long neck and a small head.
Sea Scorpion An ancient water arthropod; the largest kind, about 8 feet long, is among the biggest arthropods ever.
Trilobite A sea animal with a hard, three-part outer skeleton; its kind lasted almost 270 million years.

More Prehistoric Giants 11

Andrewsarchus A mammal of ancient China known mostly from one skull nearly 33 inches long.
Arthropleura A millipede that could grow more than 6 feet long, the largest land arthropod known.
Dimetrodon A sail-backed animal often taken for a dinosaur; it died out some 40 million years before the first of them.
Gigantopithecus A great ape of ancient China, related to orangutans; its back teeth are the largest of any known ape.
Megalania A giant monitor lizard of Ice Age Australia, the largest land lizard known to have lived.
Paraceratherium A hornless relative of rhinos, about 16 feet tall at the shoulder: one of the largest land mammals ever.
Pterosaur A flying reptile with wings of skin stretched from a very long fourth finger; not a dinosaur.
Quetzalcoatlus A pterosaur named for an Aztec sky god; recent estimates put its wingspan at around 33 to 36 feet.
Sarcosuchus A distant relative of crocodiles from the Early Cretaceous, with a skull more than 5 feet long.
Tiktaalik A fish of about 375 million years ago with a flat head and many features of four-legged animals.
Titanoboa A giant snake found in a coal mine in Colombia; it is estimated to have grown to about 42 feet.

Tusks, Bones and Fossil Clues 23

Antler A branched growth that deer shed and regrow each year; the Irish elk's are the largest known.
Beak A bird's hard mouth. The great auk's was black, heavy and hooked, with grooves.
Bog Wet, spongy ground of rotted plants; many Irish elk remains have been found in such places.
Bone The hard material of a skeleton. Early people used those of mammoths to make tools, art and shelters.
Cave Art Pictures painted by prehistoric people on rock walls and ceilings; mammoths and aurochs appear in them.
Claw A sharp, curved nail. The giant sloth Megatherium may have used its own for defense.
Egg What a bird hatches from. Those of Madagascar's elephant bird are the largest known.
Fossil The preserved remains, print or trace of a living thing from a past age of the Earth.
Fur A woolly mammoth's had two layers: long outer hairs over a shorter undercoat.
Horn A hard growth on an animal's head. Those of the aurochs reached about 31 inches long.
Ivory The hard white material that tusks are made of.
Mane Long hair on the neck. Prehistoric drawings suggest that the males of the Ice Age lion had little of it.
Museum A place that keeps and shows preserved animals; 55 Labrador ducks are held in such collections around the world.
Permafrost Ground that stays frozen for two years or more; it has kept the bodies of mammoths and woolly rhinos.
Pouch The skin pocket of a marsupial. In the thylacine both the males and the females had one.
Sail The tall structure along Dimetrodon's back, held up by long spines of its backbone.
Shell A hard outer covering. An ammonite's was coiled; a Glyptodon's was made of bony plates.
Skeleton The frame that supports an animal's body; in animals with backbones it is made of bones.
Skull The bones of the head. The longest confirmed one of Sarcosuchus measures more than 5 feet.
Tar Pit A pool of natural asphalt that seeps up from the ground; in Los Angeles such pools trapped Ice Age animals.
Trunk The long nose of an elephant or a mammoth, used with the tusks for handling things and finding food.
Tusk A long front tooth that keeps growing and sticks out of the mouth; a mammoth's were long and twisted.
Zoo Where the last known passenger pigeon and the last known thylacine both spent their final days.

Why Animals Vanish 12

Climate The usual weather of a place over many years; changes in it may have helped end the giants of the last cold period.
Endangered At very high risk of dying out in the near future.
Endling The last known individual of a species.
Extinct Said of a kind of living thing once its last member has died.
Flightless Unable to fly, like the dodo, the moa and the great auk.
Habitat The place where a kind of animal naturally lives; losing it is the leading cause of extinction worldwide.
Hunting Going after wild animals for food, fur or hides; too much of it ended the moa and the quagga.
Ice Age A long cold time when glaciers spread; the most recent one ended about 11,700 years ago.
Island Land with water all around. The dodo lived on only one, Mauritius.
Megafauna The large animals of a place or time, such as the mammoths and giant sloths of the Ice Age.
Rare Few in number. The Labrador duck already was before settlers reached North America.
Species One kind of living thing; the basic unit scientists use to classify life.

How this list was compiled: 104 words in seven lists, from Ice Age giants and lost birds to ancient sea life and the reasons animals vanish. The fact in each clue was checked on October 9, 2026 against the animal's English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/, CC BY-SA 4.0), and each word against English Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/). Woolly Rhino is a short form. Licence: own work

How it works

This extinct animals word search printable opens on 16 names, among them Dodo, Mammoth, Saber-toothed Cat, Quagga, Moa and Great Auk, hidden across and down only. Behind that grid wait 104 words in seven lists.

Read the full guide

From Ice Age giants to lost birds

Ice Age Giants, under Start from a list, has 18 names, from Mastodon and Dire Wolf to Glyptodon and Giant Beaver. Lost Birds has 13, such as Passenger Pigeon, Huia and Elephant Bird. Gone in Modern Times has 13 that people saw and wrote about, among them Thylacine, Golden Toad and Xerces Blue, a butterfly.

Ancient seas, older giants and the clues they left

Ancient Sea Life has 14 names, from Megalodon to Trilobite, and More Prehistoric Giants has 11, with Titanoboa and Dimetrodon. Tusks, Bones and Fossil Clues has 23 words, such as Antler, Permafrost and Tar Pit. Why Animals Vanish has 12, from Habitat to Endling.

In More options, tick Show clues, not words and Irish Elk prints as "A giant deer with the largest antlers known, over 13 feet across."
Easy Extinct Animals keeps to 20 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Dodo, Moa, Tusk and Bone.
Saber-toothed Cat is the longest name in the opening grid: look for SABERTOOTHEDCAT in one run.

Questions and answers

When did the dodo go extinct?

The last widely accepted sighting of a dodo was in 1662, on Mauritius, the island east of Madagascar where it lived. Dutch sailors had first recorded the bird in 1598.

Is a mammoth a dinosaur?

No. A mammoth was a mammal, an extinct relative of elephants, and the last ones lived until about 4,000 years ago. This page holds no dinosaur: those are in the dinosaur word search.

What is the difference between extinct and endangered?

An extinct species has no living member left. An endangered species is still alive but at very high risk of dying out in the near future.

Was the saber-toothed tiger a real tiger?

No. Smilodon, the best-known saber-toothed cat, was not closely related to the tiger or to any other cat alive today. Its line split from the ancestors of living cats around 20 million years ago.

All 104 words

Ice Age Giants 18

Ice Age Giants, continued

Lost Birds 13

Gone in Modern Times 13

Ancient Sea Life 14

More Prehistoric Giants 11

Tusks, Bones and Fossil Clues 23

Why Animals Vanish 12

How it works

From Ice Age giants to lost birds

Ancient seas, older giants and the clues they left

Questions and answers

More tools