The era of dinosaurs has long passed, and huge dinosaurs can be found only in the museum and cinema. Some representatives of flora and fauna from distant historical times survived to the present day. They are called relics.
Relics
Millions of years ago, our world looked completely different. Plants and animals have changed significantly since then. Relics are called representatives of wildlife who have not lost their connection with distant ancestors. They possess a number of features that existed in long- extinct plants and animals, and are not similar to modern species.
A relict animal or plant can often be called a living fossil. Out of ignorance, they are often associated with the period of the existence of dinosaurs. However, the era of dinosaurs lasted from the Triassic period (225 million years ago) to the Cretaceous (65 million years ago), relics can be attributed to later periods.
The term itself appeared in 1885, thanks to Oscar Peschel, an anthropologist and geologist from Germany. Relics are sometimes called not only living creatures, but also landscapes, minerals. For example, the tundra-steppe landscape typical of Siberia is considered relict. It existed back in the days of mammoths, woolly rhinos, and tours, therefore it is often referred to as mammoth prairies.
Classification
Relics are divided into groups, depending on the era in which their species began to exist. They can be tertiary and quaternary. Neogene, or tertiary - these are species that have retained their characteristics at least from the Pliocene period. This includes Colchis chestnut, Holly acutifolia, blueberries, peanuts, boxwood.
Separation also occurs according to climatic conditions. There are glacial relics. They lived on the earth since the Ice Age and are found in caves, rocks, sphagnum bogs. The common viper is a typical glacial relic animal, like a deer gadfly, some dragonflies. Among the plants can be distinguished dwarf birch, blueberries, cranberries.
There are other classifications that separate relics relative to plant formations (formational), as well as relative to the geomorphological conditions in which they were (edaphic). Research helps to determine how the climate has changed in their habitats, what changes have occurred in soil, water, etc.
Relic animals
Examples of living fossils living in our time can be brought without difficulty. Most of them are paleoendemic. Their habitat is not too wide and quite isolated, which allowed them to keep many features unchanged.
The lack of knowledge of many parts of our planet suggests that not all prehistoric species are known. For example, a relic animal coelacanth represents a detachment of coelacanth, which has long been considered extinct. In 1938, the curator of the museum in South Africa accidentally discovered a fish among the catch of fishermen. It turned out that this is the only species of bristles that survived to this day.
Living fossils are well-known crocodiles. This relict animal lived on the planet 85 million years ago, although their ancestors crocodilomorphs appeared about 250 million years ago. Their sizes reached 15 meters in length. Most ancient species became extinct before the Cenozoic.
The habitual habitats of crocodiles have not changed much since antiquity. Therefore, the semi-aquatic reptiles did not have to adapt to the new conditions and managed to maintain their appearance as it was millions of years ago.
Relic animals: list
Below is an approximate list of modern relics living in different parts of our Earth.
Name of species or order | Habitat | Years of appearance |
Dipnoi | Africa, Australia, South America | 419.2 million liters n |
Hatteria | New Zealand | 95 million liters n |
Mudfish | North America | 250 million liters n |
Purple frog | India (Western Ghats) | 134 million liters n |
Horseshoe crabs | Southeast Asia, Atlantic Coast of North America | - |
Crocodiles | South America, Central America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia | 85 million liters n |
Lao Rock Rat | Southeast Asia, Laos | 44 million liters n |
Coelacanth | Indian Ocean | More than 65 million liters. n |
Single pass | New Guinea, Australia, Tasmania | 217-160 million liters n |
Lingula | Europe, Southeast Asia, North America | 500 million liters n |
Conclusion
Relics are animals, plants, mushrooms, landscapes, and even minerals that have not changed or have changed to a small extent since the appearance of their species. In the modern world there is a fairly large number of living minerals that appeared several million years ago.
Stable climatic conditions, as well as isolation, contributed to the conservation of these species. Who knows, maybe their list is much larger than the one that is known to mankind now.