Millions of years ago, the world was different. It was inhabited by prehistoric animals, beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Dinosaurs, monstrous marine predators, giant birds, mammoths and saber-toothed tigers - they have long disappeared, but interest in them does not fade.
The first inhabitants of the planet
When did the first living creatures appear on Earth? More than three and a half billion years ago, unicellular organisms arose.
Two billion years passed before multicellular living organisms appeared. About 635 million years ago, invertebrates inhabited the Earth , and vertebrates at the beginning of the Cambrian period.
The most ancient remains of living organisms found to date are related to late neoproterozoic.
In the Cambrian period, life existed only in the seas. Bright representatives of prehistoric animals of that time were trilobites.
Due to the often occurring underwater landslides, many living organisms were buried in the silt and survived to our time. Thanks to this, scientists have a fairly complete picture of the structure and lifestyle of trilobites and other ancient marine inhabitants.
In the Devonian period, prehistoric animals actively develop on land and at sea. The first inhabitants of humid places on the Earth's surface are arthropods and millipedes. In the middle of the Devonian, amphibians joined them.
Ancient insects
Having appeared 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 predator.
Ancient insects are well studied. And ordinary wood tar helped in this scientists. Hundreds of millions of years ago, it flowed down tree trunks and became a deadly trap for carefree insects.
They are ideally preserved in their own kind of transparent sarcophagi to the present day. Thanks to amber, which turned into a petrified resin, today anyone can enjoy the ancient inhabitants of our planet.
Prehistoric Sea Animals - Dangerous Giants
The first marine reptiles appeared in the Triassic period. They could not, like fish, live completely under water. They needed oxygen, and they periodically rose to the surface. Outwardly, they looked like land dinosaurs, but differed in limbs - the marine inhabitants had fins or webbed feet.
The first appeared notosaurs, reaching in size from 3 to 6 meters, and placoduses, which had three types of teeth. Plakodusy were small (about 2 meters) and lived off the coast. Their main food was mollusks. Notosaurs ate fish.
Jurassic - the era of giants. At this time, plesiosaurs lived. Their largest species reached a length of 15 meters. These include the elasmosaurus, which had a surprisingly long neck (8 meters). The head, compared with a massive body, was small. The 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. Ichthyosaurs are thought to have been excellent deep-sea divers.
More than forty million years ago there lived a basilosaurus - an ancient whale of enormous size. The length of the male could reach 21 meters. He was the largest predator of his time and could attack other whales. The basilosaurus had a very long skeleton and moved with the help of bending the spine, like a snake. He had rudimentary hind limbs 60 centimeters long.
Marine prehistoric animals were very diverse. Among them are the ancestors of modern sharks and crocodiles. The most famous marine predator of the ancient world is the
giant shark megalodon, which reached 16-20 meters in length. This giant weighed about 50 tons. Since the skeleton of this shark consisted of cartilage, nothing but the enamelled teeth of the animal survived. It is assumed that the distance between the open jaws of the megalodon reached two meters. It could easily fit two people.
No less dangerous predators were prehistoric crocodiles.
Puruszavr is an extinct relative of modern caimans, who lived about eight million years ago. Length - up to 15 meters.
Deinosukh - a crocodile from the alligator genus, lived at the end of the Cretaceous. Outwardly, it was not much different from modern representatives of the species. The body length reached 15 meters.
The most terrible: ancient dinosaurs
Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals of gigantic proportions continue to amaze modern man. It is hard to imagine that such giants once reigned on the planet.
Mesozoic era - the time of dinosaurs. Appearing at the end of the Triassic, they became the main form of life in the Jurassic period and suddenly disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous.
The species diversity of these ancient dinosaurs is amazing. Among them were land and aquatic animals, flying species, herbivores and predators. They differed in size. Most dinosaurs were huge, but there were very small dinosaurs. Among the predators, the spinosaurus stood out for its size. The length of his body ranged from 14 to 18 meters, height - eight meters. With elongated jaws, he looked like modern crocodiles. Therefore, it is assumed that he led an amphibian lifestyle. A feature of the spinosaur was the presence of the spine, resembling a sail. Thanks to him, he seemed taller. Paleontologists believe that the sail was used by animals for thermoregulation.
Ancient birds
Prehistoric animals (photos can be seen in the article) were also represented by flying dinosaurs and birds.
In the Mesozoic, pterosaurs appeared. Presumably, the largest of them was ornithoheyrus, which had wings, the span of which was 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 raptor of the Cretaceous period.
Among the prehistoric birds, gastornis was striking in its size. Two-meter-tall individuals had a beak that easily broke bones. It is not precisely established whether this extinct bird was a predator or consumed plant food.
Fororakos is a bird of prey that lived in the Miocene. Growth reached 2.5 meters. A curved sharp beak and powerful claws made it dangerous.
Extinct animals of the Cenozoic era
It began 66 million years ago. During this time, thousands of species of living things appeared and disappeared on Earth. What extinct prehistoric animals of that time were the most interesting?
Megaterium is the largest mammal of that era, a giant sloth. It is assumed that he was a herbivore, but it is possible that megaterium could kill other animals or feed on carrion.
Woolly Rhinoceros - was covered with thick red-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. Found many remains of mammoths, very well preserved due to permafrost. By historical standards, these majestic giants died out recently - about 10 thousand years ago.
Of the carnivorous prehistoric animals, smilodon, or saber-toothed tiger, is the most interesting. In size, it did not exceed the Amur tiger, but on the other hand, it possessed 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.
Documentary films about prehistoric animals
Among them can be noted such as “Sea dinosaurs: Journey into the prehistoric world”, “Land of the Mammoths”, “The Last Days of the Dinosaurs”, “Prehistoric Chronicles”, “Walking with the Dinosaurs”. There are a lot of good documentaries created about the life of ancient animals.
“Ballad of Big Al” - an amazing story of one allosaurus
This film is part of the famous series "Walking with the Dinosaurs." He talks about how the 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 allowed him to recreate the story of his life.
Conclusion
Prehistoric animals (dinosaurs, mammoths, cave bears, sea giants), who lived in the distant past, today strike the human imagination. They are a vivid proof of how amazing the past of the Earth was.