Scary creatures & Earth before The Dinosaurs Age?

When it comes to prehistoric times, the first thing that comes to mind is dinosaurs. In the long years of the earth, the dinosaur dynasty has indeed left a strong mark. But instead of talking about dinosaurs today, let’s talk about the strange creatures that inhabited the earth before the age of dinosaurs.

In the Carboniferous period of the Earth, although the crust movement was more active, the continents had not yet split at that time, collectively known as a giant Pangaea. It is surrounded by a huge ocean, and due to the massive mountain building movement of the time, many lakes, rivers and swamps formed inland. At that time, forests dominated by ferns and seed ferns spread across the continent. Then, the trees were not about 10 meters tall and could be up to 1.5 meters in diameter. In the swamp, fungi, fir and so on are all over it. In the oceans, huge fish are everywhere.

On land, biological diversity was not well developed, on the contrary, invertebrates were large and looked like giant monsters. In such a strange prehistoric environment, what kind of strange prehistoric life on Earth was born?

Helicoprion

They are named for their spiral teeth. According to research, the body length of helicodon can reach 10 to 12 meters, and the diameter of spiral teeth can reach 90 centimeters. Despite their powerful jaws and ferocious teeth, they actually feed on a variety of small creatures such as squid and krill.

Meganeura

Their wingspan can reach more than 70 centimeters. It’s a horrible looking, predatory insect-like creature.

Arthropleura

This is the most primitive ancestor of the modern centipede. It is a segmented creature up to 3 meters long, which travels through dense vegetation, has strong jaws and sharp teeth, and feeds on a variety of small amphibians.

The reason for the size

So why were they so huge compared to today? At that time, the oxygen content of the atmosphere was a staggering 35 percent, 14 percent higher than we have today. According to biologists, the size of insects at that time reached a high ratio to the size of their windpipes. Insects don’t have calcium bones, and the higher the concentration of oxygen, the faster their metabolism. The high levels of oxygen transported to all parts of the body by the organs allowed these insects to evolve into incredibly large bodies.

According to biologists’ estimates, if the oxygen concentration of the earth reaches 40%, the size of insects may shift toward giant again, by then, the size of dragonflies may reach the size of small planes, and the beetle will be no different from a heavy tank.

As the plates moved during the Permian period, the world’s climate began to diverge more sharply. The climate in the northern hemisphere is relatively cold, while the environment in the southern hemisphere is extremely hot and dry. Under the influence of climate, the swamp began to disappear gradually, and the fungi dominated by the original fir began to die out. In the forests, the diversity of sporophytes began to shrink dramatically, and naked plants, such as various ginkgo, coniferous, and palm trees, began to dominate the earth.

Influenced by the environment, various organisms have also begun to evolve in the direction of adapting to the environment. In contrast, amphibians were at an absolute disadvantage because of the arid environment, while reptiles began to develop rapidly and gradually spread throughout the continent. During the Triassic period, reptiles accounted for 53% of the population, while tetrapods accounted for about 13%.

In the last age, reptiles were small in size, similar to our modern lizards. As the environment changed, they began to evolve powerful jaws, sharp teeth.

Dimetrodon

This was one of the scariest predators of the time. They have serrated, sharp teeth and thick, indestructible skin; They also have a tall sail on their back. Do not underestimate this bump, it can not only attract other members of the opposite sex to mate, but also regulate their own body temperature, which is very important for their hunting. According to the study, without the sail, it takes 205 minutes for them to adjust to normal body temperature, while with the sail, it takes only 80 minutes for them to adjust to the optimal state of feeding. This means that while many creatures are still recuperating, they can already attack the whole army.

Hynerpeton

It’s a carnivorous four-legged creature. With their sharp teeth and complex lungs, they had a big advantage on land. They can sneak up on some bigger, more agile prey.

Gorgonops

It’s a warm-blooded animal. They had flat heads and machete-sharp teeth. Gorgonops hunt at dawn and have good brain and cerebellar coordination. In the hunt, they will first jump on the back of the prey, and then use their sharp tusks to pierce the neck of the prey, is a very scary predator.

Ornithosuchus

This is the oldest ancestor of crocodiles, which were fast limbers and lived near water sources at the time. Of course, some people, based on its physical characteristics, think that ornithophorus is the ancestor of the carnivorous dinosaurs led by Tyrannosaurus Rex.

In general, there was nothing to stop reptiles from taking over the Earth again.

252 million years ago, a great disaster struck the Earth here. According to scientists studying the geological layers, it is believed that the disaster was triggered by the active plate tectonics in the Earth’s interior. After the plates merged, the Larasia and Wagona lithosphere moved, and under the violent collision of the plates, hot gas and magma from the ground, the temperature of the magma can reach 1000 to 1200 degrees. In addition to volcanic eruptions, the collision of tectonic plates caused powerful earthquakes and violent tsunami waves. What’s more, the magma releases huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere, which keeps the Earth’s temperature rising.

At the same time, large amounts of magma began to flow into lakes and rivers, and the rapidly cooling magma quickly dried up after exacerbating the release of methane. The knock-on effect is to increase the formation of acid clouds in the atmosphere. As toxic acid rain falls from the sky, countless creatures are swallowed by death in a howl. It was the largest extinction event in Earth’s history. In this disaster, 90% to 95% of Marine species were wiped out, and at least 70% of land species were also wiped out, and the remaining creatures began to struggle to survive and multiply, and they did not know that 30 million years later, their descendants evolved to be even larger, and dominated the Earth in the form of “dinosaurs”.

As a manufacturer that can customize prehistoric animal models, of course, it can also produce biological models before the age of dinosaurs! Here we can show 1:1 models such as animatronic Gorgonops and animatronic Dimetrodon! They are definitely needed exhibits in a natural history museum!