Artist resurrects obscure fossils in gorgeous living colour

Normally depicted as lunch for other animals, illustrator Franz Anthony brings a diverse range of fossil cephalopods to life

Although the coiled shells of ammonites are a familiar fossil when it comes to reconstructing past environments through art, invertebrates like cephalopods (the group that includes octopuses, nautiluses, "squids" and their relatives, as well as fossil forms ammonites, belemnites and lesser known ancestral groups) normally only feature in the jaws of plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Artist Franz Anthony has sought to address this disservice (#justiceforcephalopods) with a series of illustrations focusing on a diverse line up of extinct cephalopods to show these animals off in their own right and not just as background characters - or lunch - in palaeoart.

Related: Zombie ammonite discovery is 'snapshot of an unusual moment in deep time' | Elsa Panciroli