Life on earth before the dinosaurs

Dinosaurs life fect

for more than 180 million years they

dominated our planet from small

creatures that were only a few feet long

to some of the biggest animals to have

ever roamed the land let's admit it the

age of dinosaurs gave us some pretty

scary Predators like T-Rex

Spinosaurus the loss of raptor

gigantosaurus and so many others that

made the rest of the animals shiver in

fear

but everyone talks about dinosaurs all

the time so it seems like no other scary

Beast ruled the animal kingdom besides

them

but check out these reptiles they

dominated the prehistoric world for more

than 120 million years way before

dinosaurs

but even before them nature had to

create the first true reptile there was

a swampy wet era when many new groups of

plants grew into great forests in

tropical deltas and swamps

trees were not like those we see today

they were mostly horsetails Club mosses

and the first seed bearing plants called

gynosperms it was during this time that

the first peat bogs formed too the most

common creatures on land were

prehistoric amphibians which evolved

from fish that were basically sick of

being in the water all the time

so they decided to take a walk to see

what was happening on dry land

those early amphibians had a problem

though they depended on water to stay

well hydrated and lay their eggs so they

couldn't go too far from lakes rivers

and oceans at least not until a special

creature called hylanimous evolved with

its four legs and scaly skin we're

looking at our best candidate for the

first true reptile these features help

the animal move away from the water and

explore dry land

plants were intensely growing back then

they produced more and more oxygen which

probably helped these complex animals

such as our buddy hylanimous here

develop let's rewind the story a little

bit 300 million years ago Earth was

hotter and drier which was not that good

for amphibians but was great news for

small reptiles like hylanimous

these reptiles were able to regulate

their body temperature and lay eggs on

land so they didn't need to stay close

to water that's when they started

evolving into different groups one was

called pelicosaurs and they lived in

different ways some ate plants While

others preferred meat

you might recognize the most famous one

from their group with a big sale on its

back

keep them often mistake this creature

for a dinosaur over time some

pelicosaurs evolved into the so-called

mammal-like reptiles we called therapses

therapsids had stronger jaws and sharper

teeth and some could stand upright on

their legs unlike their ancestors that

moved more like lizards

take gorgonopsians one of the top

predators of their time that even

dinosaurs wouldn't have liked to face in

a way they were similar to mammals

because they were probably endothermic

which means their body had a constant

internal temperature they had long legs

good for running and hunting they mostly

lived in southern Africa but their

fossils were spread across Europe and

China and America too

oh the joys of times when continents

were joined together top predators had

no limits back then

gorgonopsians went after different

animals especially those armored ones

related to Turtles that's the type of

Chase I wish I had the chance to see

some gorgonopsians had really big skulls

almost 1.6 feet long

scientists think some of them may have

hunted in groups but we're not sure

about that

one specific organopsian was about 3.2

feet long and had a skull that looked

like a wolf's face

it had long sharp teeth in both the

lower and upper jaw similar to the

saber-toothed cats you may have heard

about these from the Ice Age such teeth

were good protection in such messy

insecure times

and we need to mention the Permian

Extinction about 250 million years ago

90 percent of all species including

animals in the seas and on land as well

as most of the trees disappeared from

the face of the Earth

why did this happen scientists are still

not sure one Theory says it may have

been a massive asteroid impact while

another theory claims the spread of

toxic levels of carbon dioxide in the

ocean erased marine life

there's also some evidence of massive

volcanic eruptions around the same time

as the extinction these eruptions could

have released gases into the atmosphere

causing acid rain and making our home

planet cooler

and all these things might have affected

life in the ocean and reduced diversity

in animal and plant Kingdoms in general

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whatever the reason for the worst mass

extinction in the history of our planet

was their opposits managed to go through

all these troubles and survive

not only that they spread out and

evolved into many different groups some

of them even got cool features that made

them more similar to mammals

fossils show some reptiles had fur and

maybe even warm-blooded metabolisms they

may have had wet black noses like dogs

but it would be tricky to take this one

for a walk one of them might have given

birth to live young which as a

characteristic of mammals rather than

reptiles

unfortunately the rhapsids eventually

went extinct and ended up being replaced

by arcosaurs which were finally the

ancestors of dinosaurs but not all of

them disappeared some survived alongside

dinosaurs for millions of years

that probably wasn't an easy task they

continued to evolve and eventually

became the first prehistoric mammals

but moving back to the pre-dinosaur era

wait what's that buzzing sound oh wow

the biggest insect ever yup it's Mega

Nora a giant dragonfly that lived about

300 million years ago its wingspan could

be more than 28 inches

they were predators and would mostly go

after other insects but I'm not sure I'd

feel safe if they were flying around

these days imagine getting back from a

camping trip and instead of scary

stories about terrifying beasts

wandering in the woods you only have one

where an insect pushed you down and

stole your stuff

and it's really weird these insects

could grow so big During the period when

they lived one idea says it's due to

higher oxygen levels in the air at that

time a lot of carbon ended up trapped in

plants so the oxygen levels were higher

insects breathe in a different way than

most animals they have these special

tubes called trachea that deliver oxygen

directly to their body tissues but this

system is not very efficient for bigger

insects oxygen moves slowly through the

trachea so the tissues in the middle of

big insects wouldn't get enough oxygen

to survive in today's world where there

is less oxygen and for that I'm very

very happy

and what about arthroplura a giant

millipede that lived more than 300

million years ago it was one of the

biggest invertebrates ever discovered

that could grow up to 8.5 feet similar

to a small car

now that's a ride I wouldn't like to

take and once again lots of oxygen

probably gave a chance to these

creatures to grow up to be the biggest

of their kind

arthro pleura weighed around 110 pounds

which would be similar to a big dog and

it used to roam the beaches of ancient

England well okay I'm fine I'll find a

pool somewhere and their fossils showed

us where they lived many used to think

they preferred coal swamps but newer

research tells us they mostly lived in

open Woodlands they could get a lot of

food there like seeds nuts and of course

some other small innocent animals

these creatures existed for about 45

million years and went extinct more than

250 million years ago

no one knows for sure why they

disappeared but some scientists believe

they may have been competing with

reptiles that eventually replaced them

and this slowly led to the rise of our

beloved dinosaurs

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