Before the Dinosaurs

Before the Dinosaurs — page 1 — Equator 500 mya 400 miya 541 490 443 420 CAMBRIAN ORDOVICIAN SILURIAN T Major diversification of life in this Invertebrates diversify into First jawed fish and period with all animal forms living many new types First armored jawless fish in the sea COz is 35 times green plants and fungi populate the seas present day levels appear on land The Paleozoic Era The Paleozoic was a time of huge geological climactic and evolutionary change It is subdivided into six geologic periods the Cambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian Carboniferous and Permian Life began in the ocean but eventually moved onto land The Paleozoic Etra ended with the largest mass extinction in the history of Earth the Permian Triassic extinction event It took 30 million years for life to recover paving the way for the age of the

Before the Dinosaurs — page 2 — 300 mya 260 mya 360 300 252 Millions of years DEVONIAN CARBONIFEROUS PERMIAN ago mya First Amphibians common and Landmasses unite into supercontinent clubmosses diverse First reptiles and Pangaea Permian Triassic extinction event horsetails and coal forests Highest ever occurs 252 mya 95 of life on Earth ferns appear atmospheric oxygen levels becomes extinct THE PALEOZOIC EARTH The Paleozoic started shortly after the breakup of a supercontinent called Pannotia Throughout the early Paleozoic Earth's landmass was broken up into a number of continents Toward the end of the era the continents gathered together into a supercontinent called Pangaea which included most of Earth's land area Giant dragonflies the size of eagles inhabited the Carboniferous

Before the Dinosaurs — page 3 — Cambrian Period 515 mya Ocean Cambrian Ocean Half a billion years ago one of the strangest looking hunters was discovered in the oceans of the Cambrian period Named the Anomalocaris it was the top predator of its time Anomalocaris had a large body spiny grasping claws protruding from the front of its head and teeth like serrations around its mouth Its eyes were set on stalks Scientists have discovered that Anomalocaris had compound eyes like those of a fly The eyes had 16 700

Before the Dinosaurs — page 4 — Two Anomalocarises 1 hunt for trilobites 2 An Opabinia 3 searches for soft bodied animals with its fanged proboscis A Marrella 4 scavenges for food on the seabed while a strange worm like creature called Hallucigenia 5 walks the edge of a sponge which gave it a huge advantage for locating prey Anomalocaris preyed on trilobites that were 4 inches 10 cm long Scientists know this because broken remains appear in the coprolites of Anomalocaris It swam by undulating the 11 pairs of overlapping flaps along its sides catching the trilobites with its segmented limbs at the front Anomalocaris grew up to 3 3 feet 1 m

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