Welcome everyone, to a very educational thread about life before people! In are wonderous journey through history we will encounter many strange beasts, with amazing adaptations.

 

First we shall visit a super preadtor from Devonian Period (417-354 million years ago)

 

The Devonian period was a time of great change throughout are world. At the beggining of this period, the land was barren with very low oxygen levels, plants for the most part were no exsistant until later on , and even then they were small weed like things.

 

But the ocean was a different story, it was exploding with new life, from primitive sponges and corals to the jellyfish we know today. As creatures entered the race to evolve, primitive predators began to appear.

 

The first of these was a super predator named Anomalocaris, meaning "odd shrimp"

 

 

Anomalocaris is thought to have been a predator. It propelled itself through the water by undulating the flexible lobes on the sides of its body. Each lobe sloped below the one more posterior to it, and this overlapping allowed the lobes on each side of the body to act as a single "fin", maximising the swimming efficiency.The construction of a remote-controlled model showed this mode of swimming to be intrinsically stable, meaning that Anomalocaris need not have had a complex brain to cope with balancing while swimming. The lateral lobes overlapped. The widest part of the body was on the third to fifth lobe; it narrowed towards its tail, and had at least 11 lobes in total. The more posterior lobes are difficult to discriminate, making an accurate count difficult.Anomalocaris had a large head, a single pair of large, possibly compound eyes, and an unusual, disk-like mouth. The mouth was composed of 32 overlapping plates, four large and 28 small, resembling a pineapple ring with the center replaced by a series of serrated prongs. The mouth could constrict to crush prey, but never completely close, and the tooth-like prongs continued down the walls of the gullet. Two large 'arms' (up to seven inches in length when extended) with barb-like spikes were positioned in front of the mouth. The tail was large and fan-shaped, and along with undulations of the lobes, was probably used to propel the creature through Cambrian waters.Stacked lamella of what were probably gills attached to the top of each lobe.

 

For the time in which it lived Anomalocaris was a truly gigantic creature, reaching lengths of up to one meter.

 

This is the first creature we shall meet, I'll probly do another one tommorow.

I see. So the MLR's (Mammal like Reptiles) disappeared for a period of time, and the reptiles went free and evolved during the Triassic period, and the other periods where dinosaurs roamed free. After dinosaurs became extinct, the MMRs had evolved into mammals, and became dominant. Am I right about this?

 

Close, the last of the Mammal like reptiles became extinct at the middle of the triassic period, many of them though became small marsupial like creatures.

 

They had Fur, warm blood, and cared for their young in a way reptiles never would, nursing.

 

They laid eggs in pouches, like the platypuss does today. They were very small however, in the Time of the dinosaurs they never grew larger than a small housecat.

 

Basiclly mammals lived in the shadows of dinosaurs for millions of years.

So eventually, the mammals evolved out of their reptilian traits, and became the mammals we know today. Right?

 

Except for the Platypus, who kept its reptilian trait of laying eggs.

So eventually, the mammals evolved out of their reptilian traits, and became the mammals we know today. Right?

 

Except for the Platypus, who kept its reptilian trait of laying eggs.

 

Exactly

This is all very interesting, I can't wait for the Triassic lesson.

Before I get started with the triassic, heres some awesome videos I found of Anomolacaris, Gorgonops, And arthropleura.

Anomalocaris Fighting:

 

 

In this Video Gorgonops Can be seen hunting a Scutosaurus, which was a distant relative of the turtle.

 

 

This one is probly the best, It shows Arthropluera at the end, but also covers many amazing creatures of the Carboniferous period. Its a good watch

 

 

enjoy <3

The second video is my favorite.

lol this thread is epic

I feel so smart now. 8D

Ok Triassic coming soon, just need motivation! and moar Milkshakes

A New Age Dawns: The Triassic

 

 

At the end of the Permian period the Earth was a mess, 80% of all life on earth died out. This included most of the Mammal like reptiles such as Gorgonops, But yet other's thrived. They became smaller, grew fur and nursed their young. These new small creatures were the first mammals to inhabit are earth.

 

But as fate would decide, the new mammals never had a chance to evolve and take over the Earth, At the Dawn of the Triassic life began to grow once again, and one group of species, the reptiles, had remained unharmed by the mass extinction of the Permian.

 

They now lived in A world mostly devoid of other organisms and thus they started to evolve in the mighty Dinosaurs, while the Mammals would only exist in their shadows.

 

The Herald of the Dinosaurs lived in the Middle of the Triassic Period, Its name was Euparkeria , meaning "parkers animal" (245-234 million yrs ago)

Euparkeria had a light, lean body, long tail, and a small skull with tiny, needle-like teeth. It probably fed on insects and any other small animals that it could find on the forest floor, and would have periodically shed its teeth in order to keep them sharp. The first fossils were found in South Africa in 1913, but better specimens were found in 1924.

Euparkeria was one of the smaller reptiles of its time, with the adults reaching 60 centimetres (24 in); the size of a large lizard. Euparkeria had relatively long hind legs, and may have been semi-bipedal, able to move using only its hind legs when running quickly . This tendency towards bipedal locomotion makes Euparkeria one of the earliest reptiles to walk on two legs, a feature that would be retained in some dinosaurs. Like many early archosaurs, it had a row of relatively light bony plates along its back and tail. Another means of defence that Euparkeria possessed was a sharp claw on its thumb, which could have been used as a weapon in close combat.

 

Part 2 of the Triassic coming soon!

whenever I'm not lazy......

Hmmm. Very interesting indeed. It seems that this lizard is related to the Komodo Dragon, in my opinion.

Hmmm. Very interesting indeed. It seems that this lizard is related to the Komodo Dragon, in my opinion.

 

 

I could see that, to me though it looks more like a mini Raptor of sorts, minus the feathers.

Knowledge O_O

A lot of these are still speculation, aren't they? Nice explanations, though.

Sharp claw on its thumb, you mean like iguanodon?

But with arms that short it looks very ineffective to fight, right? It's much easier to use its mouth like hippos.

The picture looks photoshopped x3

 

How do you pronounce the name?

The picture looks photoshopped x3

 

How do you pronounce the name?

 

You-park-ear-ee-ah

 

It probly is shopped, I just copy pasted from google images.

This thread reminds me of in second grade when we were studying dinosaurs and we were supposed tow rite down our theories of what wiped them out, I said they all exploded or something like that.

 

One of many things from previous school years I need to find (along with the 50 or so referrals I got in 8th Grade)