Millions of years ago the world was different. It was inhabited by prehistoric animals, beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Dinosaurs, sea predators of monstrous size, giant birds, mammoths and saber-toothed tigers have long disappeared, but interest in them does not fade away.
The first inhabitants of the planet
When did the first living beings appear on Earth? More than three and a half billion years ago, single-celled organisms arose.
It took two billion years before multicellular living organisms appeared. Approximately 635 million years ago, the Earth was inhabited by invertebrates, and at the beginning of the Cambrian period, vertebrates.
The oldest remains of living organisms found to date date back to the Late Neoproterozoic.
In the Cambrian period, life existed only in the seas. Trilobites were prominent representatives of prehistoric animals of that time.
Due to frequent underwater landslides, many living organisms were buried in the silt and survived untilour time. Thanks to this, scientists have a fairly complete picture of the structure and lifestyle of trilobites and other ancient marine life.
In the Devonian period, prehistoric animals actively developed on land and in the sea. The first inhabitants of wet places on the Earth's surface are arthropods and centipedes. In the middle of the Devonian, amphibians joined them.
Ancient insects
Appearing in the early Devonian period, insects successfully developed. Many species have disappeared over time. Some of them were gigantic.
Meganevra - belonged to the genus of dragonfly-like insects. Its wingspan was up to 75 centimeters. She was a cougar.
Ancient insects are well studied. And ordinary tree resin helped scientists in this. Hundreds of millions of years ago, it flowed down tree trunks and became a deadly trap for careless insects.
They are perfectly preserved in their original transparent sarcophagi to this day. Thanks to amber, which turned into fossilized resin, today anyone can admire the ancient inhabitants of our planet.
Prehistoric Sea Animals - Dangerous Giants
In the Triassic period, the first marine reptiles appeared. They could not, like fish, live completely underwater. They needed oxygen, and they periodically rose to the surface. Outwardly, they looked like land dinosaurs, but differed in limbs - in marinethe inhabitants had fins or webbed feet.
The first to appear were notosaurs, reaching a size of 3 to 6 meters, and placoduses, which had three types of teeth. Plakodus were small in size (about 2 meters) and lived close to the coast. Their main food was shellfish. Nothosaurs ate fish.
The Jurassic period is the era of giants. Plesiosaurs lived during this time. Their largest species reached a length of 15 meters. These include Elasmosaurus, which had a surprisingly long neck (8 meters). The head, in comparison with the massive body, was small. Elasmosaurus had a wide mouth armed with sharp teeth.
Ichthyosaurs - large reptiles, reaching an average of 2-4 meters in length - were similar to modern dolphins. Their feature is huge eyes, which indicates a nocturnal lifestyle. They, unlike dinosaurs, had skin without scales. It is assumed that ichthyosaurs were excellent deep-sea divers.
More than forty million years ago lived Basilosaurus - an ancient whale of enormous size. The length of a male individual could reach 21 meters. He was the largest predator of his time and could attack other whales. Basilosaurus had a very long skeleton and moved with the help of curvature of the spine, like a snake. It had vestigial hind limbs 60 centimeters long.
Marine prehistoric animals were very diverse. Among them are the ancestors of modern sharks and crocodiles. by the mostthe famous marine predator of the ancient world is the giant shark megalodon, reaching 16-20 meters in length. This giant weighed about 50 tons. Since the skeleton of this shark consisted of cartilage, nothing survived except for the animal's enameled teeth. It is assumed that the distance between the open jaws of megalodon reached two meters. It would easily fit two people.
Prehistoric crocodiles were no less dangerous predators.
Purussaurus is an extinct relative of modern caimans that lived about eight million years ago. Length - up to 15 meters.
Deinosuchus is an alligator crocodile that lived at the end of the Cretaceous period. Outwardly, it was not much different from modern representatives of the species. Body length reached 15 meters.
Most Terrifying: Ancient Lizards
Dinosaurs and other gigantic prehistoric animals continue to amaze modern man. It is hard to imagine that such giants once reigned on the planet.
Mesozoic era - the time of the dinosaurs. Appearing at the end of the Triassic, they became the main form of life in the Jurassic and suddenly disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous.
The species diversity of these ancient lizards is amazing. Among them were land and aquatic individuals, flying species, herbivores and predators. They also differed in size. Most dinosaurs were huge, but there were also very small dinosaurs. Among predators, Spinosaurus stood out for its size. The length of his body ranged from 14 to 18 meters, height - eightmeters. With outstretched jaws, it looked like modern crocodiles. Therefore, it is assumed that he led an amphibious lifestyle. Spinosaurus was characterized by the presence of a spine that resembled a sail. It made him look taller. Paleontologists believe that the sail was used by the animal for thermoregulation.
Ancient birds
Prehistoric animals (photo can be seen in the article) were also represented by flying lizards and birds.
Pterosaurs appeared in the Mesozoic. Presumably, the largest of them was ornithocheirus, which had wings spanning up to 15 meters. He lived in the Cretaceous period, was a predator and preferred to hunt large fish. Pteranodon is another large flying predatory pangolin from the Cretaceous period.
Among prehistoric birds Gastornis struck with its size. Two meters tall, individuals had a beak that easily broke bones. Whether this extinct bird was a carnivore or a plant eater has not been determined for certain.
Fororacos is a bird of prey that lived in the Miocene. Growth reached 2.5 meters. Its curved, sharp beak and powerful claws made it dangerous.
Extinct animals of the Cenozoic era
It started 66 million years ago. During this time, thousands of species of living beings appeared and disappeared on Earth. Which extinct prehistoric animals of that time were the most interesting?
Megaterium is the largest mammal of that era, the giant sloth. It is assumed that he was a herbivore, but it is possible that Megatherium could kill other animals or eatcarrion.
Woolly rhinoceros - was covered with thick reddish-brown hair.
Mammoth is the most famous extinct genus of elephants. Animals lived two million years ago and were twice as large as modern representatives of their species. Many remains of mammoths have been found, very well preserved due to permafrost. By historical standards, these majestic giants died out quite recently - about 10 thousand years ago.
Of the predatory prehistoric animals, the most interesting is the smilodon, or saber-toothed tiger. It did not exceed the size of the Amur tiger, but it had incredibly long fangs, reaching 28 centimeters. Another feature of Smilodon was a short tail.
Titanoboa is an extinct giant snake. A close relative of the modern boa constrictor. The length of the animal could reach 13 meters.
Documentaries about prehistoric animals
Among them are such as "Sea Dinosaurs: Journey to the Prehistoric World", "Land of the Mammoths", "The Last Days of Dinosaurs", "Prehistoric Chronicles", "Walking with Dinosaurs". There are a lot of good documentaries created about the life of ancient animals.
The Ballad of Big Al is an amazing story of an allosaurus
This film is part of the famous Walking with Dinosaurs series. He talks about how a perfectly preserved skeleton of an allosaurus was found in the USA, which received the name Big Al from scientists. The bones showed how many fractures and injuries the dinosaur suffered, and this allowedrecreate his life story.
Conclusion
Prehistoric animals (dinosaurs, mammoths, cave bears, sea giants) that lived in the distant past still amaze the human imagination. They are clear proof of how amazing Earth's past was.
