Precambrian Time to Mesozoic Era

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Cyonosaurus is a genus of the extinct suborder Gorgonopsia. There are five species in this genera: C. longiceps (Olson 1937), C. kitchingi, C. rubidgei, C. broomianus, and C. tenuirostris. They lived in the late Permian period, with fossils discovered in South Africa. Cyonosaurus was 0.6 to 1.1 meters in length, with a skull 9 to 18 centimeters in length.

Dinosaurs|Extinct Life|Extinction|Prehistoric Animals|The Dinosaur Fan

 

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Dino

 

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Eremotherium is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Megatheriidae, endemic to northern South America, Central America, and parts of southern North America during the Pleistocene epoch. It lived from 4.9 mya —11,000 years ago existing (as a genus) for approximately 4.889 million years. Several species of Eremotherium were among the largest known ground sloths, rivalling Megatherium americanum in size, with E. rusconi reaching a length up to 6 m (20 ft) and a weight of more than 3 tonnes.

 

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Fire

Later on, fire was discovered.

Discovery of Fire | The Origin of Fire, History and Curiosities

Be it in the form of a bonfire, pyrotechnics , from burning a Valencian failure or the simple flame of...

www.lifepersona.com

 

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Gagadon

Gagadon ("Gaga tooth") is an extinct genus of even-toed ungulate that lived in the early Eocene of North America. The type and only known species, Gagadon minimonstrum, was described in 2014 based on lower teeth and jaw fragments found in the Wasatch Formation of Bitter Creek, Wyoming. The genus is named in honor of the singer Lady Gaga, while the species name minimonstrum ("mini monster") refers to the small size and presence of unusual cusps on the teeth.

 

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Hatch

This perfectly preserved dinosaur egg shows long-held theory

Embryonic dinosaur fossils are extremely rare. It is the first time any have shown signs of a distinctive birdlike posture known as “tucking” — with the head under the right arm.

www.nbcnews.com

 

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Isoxys

Royal Ontario Museum
In a Cambrian world where four, five, or even seven eyes was the evolutionary norm, the oddest thing about Isoxys, paradoxically, was its two bulbous eyes, which made it look like a mutated shrimp. From the point of view of naturalists, the most striking feature of Isoxys was its thin, flexible carapace, divided into two "valves" and sporting short spines in the front and back. Most likely, this shell evolved as a primitive means of defense against predators, and it may also (or instead) have served a hydrodynamic function as Isoxys swam in the deep sea. It's possible to distinguish among the various species of Isoxys by the size and shape of their eyes, which correspond to the intensity of light penetrating to various ocean depths.

Meet Hallucigenia, Anomalocaris, and Their 500-Million-Year-Old Friends

 

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Let's skip J

Kenorland

Kenorland

Information about the ancient supercontinent of Kenorland

www.thearmchairexplorer.com

 

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Leviathan

A 50-foot-long, 50-ton killer whale equipped with 12-inch teeth and a robust mammalian brain,

These 10 Extinct Mammals Could Eat You in One Bite

 

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Millipede

It's amazing just how big these creeping creepies were.

This Ancient, Nine-Foot-Long, 100-Pound Millipede Could Be the Largest Invertebrate to Ever Live

This critter roamed Earth around 326 million years ago, and it's genus survived for 45 million years

www.smithsonianmag.com

 

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Nuralagus

The Pliocene rabbit Nuralagus weighed over five times as much as any species of rabbit or hare living today; the single fossil specimen points to an individual of at least 25 pounds.

The Giant Mammals of the Cenozoic Era

 

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Organic Carbon

Meet the man who can explain the first 3 billion years of life on our planet | CNN

How Earth went from an rock covered in magma oceans by comets and meteors to a green-and-blue orb teeming with life over 3 billion years is the work of paleontologist Andrew Knoll, who will be awarded the Crafoord Prize on Monday.

www.cnn.com

For Shuhai Xiao, a professor of geobiology at Virginia Tech who was a doctoral student under Knoll in the 1990s, it's his former adviser's work on Earth's carbon cycle -- and how it has played an essential role in the shifting cycles of the planet's history -- that has been most influential.
Knoll, he said, was one of the first people to use carbon isotopes to understand how much organic carbon was preserved in rock and, as a consequence, understand how much carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen was in the atmosphere at any given time period.
"That opened the floodgates. Today we take it for granted and a lot of people use carbon isotopes to talk about the paleo environment. But that was 1986, and not many people even did this kind of analysis let alone applying it to understand Earth's history," said Xiao, who spent many hours with Knoll on long train journeys in China, traveling to fossil sites.

 

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Platybelodons, aka Elephants With Giant Trunk-Mouths​

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Tomasz Jedrzejowski

Who knew that the quickest way to strip an elephant of all its majesty was to replace that dick it carries around on its face with a duck bill? About 10 million years ago, back when evolution was still throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck, there were actually several different trial-and-error elephants wandering around. But Platybelodon was the only one with a long rat tail and a dustpan for a mouth.

7 Bizarre Prehistoric Versions of Modern-Day Animals

 

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Quetzalcoatlus

Quetzalcoatlus, the largest flying animal of all time

Quetzalcoatlus dominated the skies of North America at the end of the Dinosaur Age and flew high over such famous creatures as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. As tall as a giraffe, the biggest Quetzalcoatlus species were also the largest of all flying creatures. They were the ultimate in...

eartharchives.org

 

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Repenomamus

https://www.dkfindout.com/us/dinosaurs-and-prehistoric-life/prehistoric-mammals/repenomamus/

 

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Quetzalcoatlus

Quetzalcoatlus, the largest flying animal of all time

Quetzalcoatlus dominated the skies of North America at the end of the Dinosaur Age and flew high over such famous creatures as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. As tall as a giraffe, the biggest Quetzalcoatlus species were also the largest of all flying creatures. They were the ultimate in...

eartharchives.org

Takes the term chicken wing to a whole new level.

 

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Sarkastodon​

Sarkastodon

 

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Trilobite

When Trilobites Ruled the World (Published 2014)

The remains of trilobites, a diverse group of marine animals much older than dinosaurs, are remarkably well preserved, providing fresh insights of their anatomies and social behavior.

www.nytimes.com

 

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Ulemosaurus

Ulemosaurus

 

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Vaalbara

Vaalbara - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

simple.wikipedia.org

Vaalbara is the name of Earth's first supercontinent, in the Archaean era.

Vaalbara started to form about 3,600 million years ago (mya). It formed by about 3,100 mya and broke up by 2,500 mya. The name Vaalbara comes from the South African Kaapvaal craton and the West Australian Pilbara craton. These cratons were combined in the Vaalbara supercontinent.

South Africa's Kaapvaal craton and Western Australia's Pilbara craton are two of the best-preserved Archaean cratons on Earth. They have remarkably similar early Precambrian rocks.