Extinct marine predators. Prehistoric giant animals. Early birds resembled bats

Signs of pregnancy after embryo implantation

For many of us, the world of ancient animals seems to be herds of dinosaurs or, in extreme cases, mammoths. In fact, it is much more diverse and fantastic. Our planet was inhabited by millions of creatures, most of which disappeared forever from the face of the Earth, leaving us with only their fossil remains, fossilized footprints, drawings, or leaving nothing at all. But each of them served as a brick of a great kingdom called flora and fauna.

What did the ancestors of modern lions eat?

In the area of \u200b\u200btoday's Germany, a varied time began 250 years ago. It was located on the vast continent of Pangea, where all modern continents, including Australia and Antarctica, were united. This pristine sea towered with a bay almost to today's Alsace.

Close contact with the sea determined the fate of ancient Germany, because the sea flooded the region over and over again, thrusting the land into or turning it into reef landscapes with saltwater crocodiles and ichthyosaurs. Underground Switzerland and Austria did not exist in the Middle Ages. There was a mountain range south of Ur-Germany - the Vindelisiana Mountains, but this had nothing to do with today's Alps. The Alps arose much later - about 35 million years ago - when the African continent struck southern Germany and, as a result of the collision of parts of North Africa, turned uphill and became attached to Europe as Africa drifted south again.

Fantastic beasts

Ancient animals began their existence in the form of spineless microorganisms long before the appearance of Homo sapiens. This is what official science says. Unofficial, based on hundreds of artifacts found in different parts of the Earth, believes that before the emergence of our civilization there were others, no less developed than us. Of course, then not only people lived, but also animals. What they were is almost impossible to determine. The only thing left of them is the mention in the most ancient manuscripts and myths about all kinds of dragons, elves, incredible monsters, unicorns. However, there is the only museum in the world where the exhibits are real, according to its workers, the remains of unicorns, mermaids and other outlandish creatures. Among them are fragments of dragons, mermaids, mythical two-headed snakes and other monsters recovered by enthusiastic archaeologists from the bowels of the Earth.

Between 250 and 150 million years ago, it was much warmer than it is today. The poles had a temperate climate similar to that of Central Europe today. The temperature around the Tethys Sea was tropical. Altogether, this remained for the next 110 million years and shaped the evolution of living things and biotopes.

He was hunting with his camera at the exhibition "Dinosaurs - Successful Models of Evolution" at the Stuttgart Museum of Natural History. Before the disaster, huge forests were overgrown in Central Europe. The coal deposits in the Ruhr area are their fossil remains and show how powerful the plant was. But the great extinction of species 251 million years ago left only a lifeless desert. In the centuries that followed, thousands of temperatures sank again, and rivers reappeared from the north to Ur-Germany. The first pioneer factories appeared with them.

How it all began

The official science of paleontology adheres to the theory that life began in the Precambrian period. This is the most impressive period of time, which accounts for 90% of the duration of the existence of all living things. It lasted almost 5 billion years, from the beginning of the formation of the Earth to the Cambrian. At first, our planet had no atmosphere, no water, nothing, not even volcanoes.


Gloomy and lifeless, she drifted silently through her orbit. This period is called Katarchea. 4 billion years ago, it was replaced by Archaeus, which was marked by the appearance of an atmosphere, though practically without oxygen. At the same time, the first seas appeared, which were acid-salt solutions. It was in these terrible conditions that life was born. The oldest animal on Earth is cyanobacteria. They lived in colonies, forming films or layered mats on the substrate. Their memory is calcareous stromatolites.

Nevertheless: Buntsanstein, as geologists call this period after the then rocks, was a barren and rough time. Only those who settled in narrow green strips along several rivers and lakes could survive well. Outside in the semi-desert, only animals and plants had a chance, which were very well adapted to the dry climate. Climate: Similar to the Sahel today.

Sea levels have risen all over the world. This was a dangerous situation for Central Europe, because at the same time earth's crust went down in southeastern Europe. Finally, the Tethys Sea broke through at the height of Bohemia and flooded Germany far into the basin of today's North Sea. However, the formation of the Gulf of Central Europe took several million years, because at the beginning of the water supply was repeatedly torn and the sea dried up. Each time there were large salt pans on the left. His remains can still be found today, for example, in salt flats in the north of Baden-Württemberg.

Continued development of life

Archaea lasted 1.5 billion years. Cyanobacteria filled the atmosphere with oxygen and provided the emergence of hundreds of new types of microorganisms, thanks to the vital activity of which we have deposits of minerals.
About 540 million years ago, the Cambrian began, which lasted 55-56 million years. His first era is the Paleozoic. This Greek word means "ancient life" ("paleo zoe"). In the Paleozoic, the first and only
continent of Gondwana. The climate was warm, close to subtropical, which was ideal for the development of life. Then it existed mainly in water. Its representatives were not only unicellular, but also entire systems of algae, polyps, corals, hydras, ancient sponges and others. These ancient animals gradually ate all those who formed stromatolites. In the same period, they began the development of land.

Continued development of life

For many animals and plants, this constant change was fatal. But from 239 million years to our time, the situation stabilized: now the Tethys Sea also flooded the land barrier in today's Burgundy, and Germany was covered by a shallow sea like today's Persian Gulf. Housing animals such as sea lilies, barnacles, and armpits formed huge reefs. They provided food for sharks and bony fish, which specialize in hard-to-find shellfish. The most impressive animals of the time were the marine dinosaurs.

Ancient plants

It is believed that the plants were the first to "emerge" on land. At first, these were algae of shallow waters that dried up from time to time. considered the first plants on the planet. They were replaced by psilophytes. They did not yet have roots, but tissues already existed that carried water and nutrients through the cells. Then horsetails, moss and ferns appeared. In size, these plants were real giants, as high as a 10-storey building. Their forests were gloomy and very humid. The first gymnosperms arose not from ferns, but from ferns, which already had roots, bark, pith and crown. During the glaciation, the ancestors of gymnosperms died out. The angiosperms appeared in They significantly pressed their ancestors - gymnosperms, changing the face of the planet and becoming the ruling class.

Climate: Similar to the Persian Gulf today. The ecosystem of the Central European Gulf collapsed again: the sea retreated. In Thuringia and southern Germany, there are huge brackish swamps. Overall life situation today in Iraq reminded me. In the north there were deserts, through which several rivers wandered south, where they formed a richly overgrown delta - like the Euphrates and Tigris today. A few meters tall, thick tails flourished here. This was the flowering of amphibians. The large predators, relatives of our frogs today, were at the top of the food chain.

First sunrise and first sunset

The appearance of plants on land contributed to the emergence and development of insects. The oldest sushi animal is arachnids, bright representative which is an armored spider. Later, winged insects appeared, and then amphibians. By the end of the Paleozoic, the land was dominated by reptiles of very impressive size. Among them are three-meter pareiasaurs, pelicosaurs that grew up to 6.5 meters, therapsids. The latter were the most numerous class, which had in its ranks both small representatives and giants. About 252 million years ago, a worldwide natural disaster occurred, which resulted in the complete disappearance of 70% of all land animals, 96% marine life and 83% insects. It happened in the Permian period. They ended with the Paleozoic and began with the Mesozoic. It lasted as long as 185-186 million years. The Mesozoic includes the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Ancient animals and plants that survived the disaster continued to evolve. From the second half of the Triassic to the end of the Mesozoic, dinosaurs took dominant positions.

The mouth of Atopodentatus unicus resembled a zipper

The underwater one was hiding five meters from Raulurche with the misleading name Mastodonosaurus. Its mouth was riddled with over 500 teeth, including half a dozen fangs that could pierce even the hard skulls of large prey, proving fossils. Climate: Similar to Today in Iraq.

The sea receded further and further and eventually could no longer overcome the land barriers in the south. Large rivers lacked access to the ocean. The result: the swamps and delta have dried up or become large drainage lakes without water, like the Aral Sea today. Steppe landscapes formed around them. However, there were no “steppes” in the modern sense, because typical for this habitat did not exist. Sometimes they stood coniferous trees, relatives of Ginkgo and Araucaria in the open and In the animal kingdom, a change of power took place: a new group of animals migrated from South America - dinosaurs - they became the most successful group of animals for the next 150 million years.

Dinosaur Lord

These reptiles numbered more than a thousand species, the remains of ancient animals help to establish and study which. The very first dinosaur is considered to be Stavricosaurus, whose body length was less than a meter and a weight of about 30 kg. Later, Errorasaurus, Eoraptor, Plesiosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and others appeared. They completely mastered the land, the world's oceans, and took to the air. The most famous of the flying lizards is the pterodactyl. There were many types of them, from babies the size of a sparrow to giants with a wingspan of 12-13 meters. They ate fish, insects and their fellows. In 1964, during excavations, the remains of a creature named Deinonychus were found. It was the first warm-blooded dinosaur. Presumably he was the ancestor of birds, as he had plumage.

Significant dinosaurs in Germany were so different over 200 million years ago. Animals such as a buffalo-sized plateosaurus, a four-legged, long-haired herbivore, and a two-meter liliensternus, a two-legged feathered carnivorous dinosaur. Climate: Similar to Central Asia today.

The giant continent Pangea fell apart - Eurasia and Africa separated from America. This created a sea between Greenland and Scandinavia - the Atlantic Ocean - and flooded Germany from the north. In the south, the Tethys Sea broke ground barriers again. Central Europe again became a shallow ocean, from which only a few islands stood out. On them, the tropical climate provided lush growth of plants. It was much wetter now than in the past millions of years. However, the newly created sea was a treacherous habitat: animals were not allowed to dive too deep in it.



Dinosaurs are amazing ancient animals. Many consider them stupid and primitive, but they knew how not only to lay eggs, but also to incubate them, tenderly take care of the offspring, protecting and teaching their children. And pelicosaurs were the progenitors of the first mammals.

Since today, in the Black Sea, the water did not mix completely to the bottom. Result: there was no oxygen at the bottom. Dead animals and plants do not decompose completely in the sulfur death zone. For paleontologists, this is good luck: what then fell into toxic mud has remained in fuel to this day. On the other hand, life flourished in open water and on reefs: ammonites, belemnites associated with cuttlefish, barnacles, jellyfish heads, fish, lizards, saltwater crocodiles and ichthyosaurs - up to ten meters long.

The sperm was larger than an adult

On the shores of this sea - in today's Greenland and Russia - dinosaurs began to flourish. Climate: Similar to the Caribbean today. The State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart takes guests on a thrilling expedition into the primitive times of Germany.

Kingdom of mammals

About 65 million years ago, at the end of the Mesozoic, another terrible catastrophe occurred, as a result of which all dinosaurs became extinct. Most species of molluscs, aquatic reptiles, and plants also disappeared. And again the death of some gave rise to the emergence and development of others. Warm-blooded mammals have undergone a long evolution and have gradually populated all natural niches. It happened in the Cenozoic, which replaced the Mesozoic. In his Quaternary period, which continues today, man appeared. Ancient Earth animals that survived natural disasters, were exterminated primitive people at the dawn of mankind and a reasonable man in the recent past. So, by 1500, all the moa birds were killed. At the end of the 17th century, dodos, dodos, and tours ceased to exist. In the 18th century, the last one was killed. In the 19th century, the last quagga, resembling a zebra, died, and in the 20th, the Tasmanian wolf. And this is only a small part of an impressive list.

The museum not only presents its impressive fossil finds, but has also reconstructed and effectively arranged the habitats of pristine Germany and several dinosaurs in accordance with the latest scientific findings. Remarkable: The Stuttgart Museum is not only an exhibition hall, but also a research center. Especially during the reconstruction of the era of Keuper - and Bunzstein, it was possible to abandon their own new research. Museum researchers also show how they work with fossils.

Children can even become diggers themselves. State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart. Sat, Sun and holidays - 00 hours. Excursions for families: Sun: 45 and 15 hours. Group tours can be registered at. For the opening of the exhibition, the image of Science and Natural History Museum Stuttgart 12 copies of the book of the dinosaur by Rainer Schoch. To do this, you must answer the following two questions correctly.

Unusual finds

All these animals were destroyed by human greed. However, there are many wonderful people in the world who care about the preservation of species existing on Earth and undertake expeditions to discover new ones. Enthusiasts believe that not all the ancients There is even a science - cryptozoology, dealing with unusual relict species. The most famous of these are the Plesiosaurus and the Puerto Rican Chupacabra. Skeptics do not believe in their existence, but relatively recently, no one believed in the existence of okapis, pygmy hippos, cross-finned fish, dwarf deer and other animals discovered in the 18-20 centuries. As if to confirm that new discoveries are still ahead, people find extraordinary skeletons or fragments of bodies of creatures unknown to science, which are awaiting their description and classification.

Which group of animals is closest to birds? What was the main function of dinosaur feathers? Send a postcard with reliable correct answers to. National Exhibition on the World Wide Web. In the changing seas of the Jurassic, a new chapter has emerged in the history of the prehistoric shark. It was a period of great volcanic and tectonic activity that shook the foundations of Pangea, the great continent. The forces were not only destructive, but also created new opportunities. While the great land was divided, the same divisions were filled with water, creating new seas.

Once upon a time, ancient animals lived on our land. The cave lion is one of them. He became the ancestor modern lions... What was the cave lion in those distant times - we will tell you in our article.

In ancient times, our planet was inhabited by amazing animals. Some of them are not at all like modern inhabitants of the Earth. But scientists believe that all current animals descended from those very fossil ancestors. Today, thanks to computer technology, we can easily see what the ancestors of modern animals looked like, although only ancient people saw them with their own eyes, who left their memory about these animals only in rock paintings.

What was the prehistoric reason for the disappearance of the shark?

Shallow seas with big amount sunshine and a lot of life. The sea became an ocean that gradually became similar to the current ones. As the world modernized, there were also ichthyosaurs. The ancestors of today's shark species appeared in the Jurassic. One of the strangest inhabitants of the sea, covering Germany 150 million years ago, the almost 1-meter long Ished is a close relative of modern chimeoids. This last name comes from the spectral impression they create when they swim with their metallic coloration.

The cave lion is one such ancient animal. He is an ancient representative of the feline family, the predatory order and belonged to the panther genus. Scientists all over the world have the opportunity to study this representative of the ancient fauna only on the remains of bones that are found during excavations.

How did scientists "get to know" the cave lion?

On the territory of the current Russian region, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), in 1891, a scientist named Chersky found the thigh bone of some large predatory animal. At that time, the scientist concluded that the fossil remains belonged to a representative of the ancient tigers. After this find, the ancient "tigers" were forgotten for many years ...

Instead of teeth separated from chimeoids, it had upper plates that it used to crush its prey. Both have large eyes, a long whip-like tail, small lips, a dorsal fin and large pectoral fins, and a barb located in front of the dorsal fin, which is likely to provide protection from predators and can inoculate venom like the current species. Two million years ago, in Africa, numerous species of human beings roamed the planet. Some of them were similar, others especially.

Likewise, there may be more extinct hominid species awaiting discovery. Our species emerged about 000 years ago, when many other species still existed. However, today we remain. Why did we survive and all our closest relatives disappeared?

Until, almost a hundred years later, Nikolai Vereshchagin made a statement that these bones belonged to the descendants of lions, not tigers. A little later he wrote the book "The Cave Lion and Its History in the Holarctic and Within the USSR", in which he described all his findings and research results.

The appearance of an ancient animal - a cave lion

Having modeled the skeleton of an animal from the remains, scientists determined that the growth of the cave lion was about 120 centimeters at the withers, the body length was 240 centimeters (without the length of the tail). The rock carvings show that these ancient felines did not have a very impressive mane. Hair, like modern african lions, cave lions could not boast. The wool was solid. The tail was decorated with a small tassel.

Extinction is part of evolution. Not surprisingly, some humanoid species - hominids - have disappeared. But it's not entirely clear that the world has space for only one human species. The closest living relatives are chimpanzees, bonobos, two species of gorillas, and two species of orangutans.

There are some clues as to why some of our ancestors were more successful than others. Millions of years ago, when many hominid species coexisted, they ate mainly plants. But as they moved from the forests to the savannahs, they became increasingly carnivorous.



Where and when did the cave lions live?

The appearance of this species of mammals is attributed to a period of about 300 thousand years ago. At that time, on the territory of modern Europe, the cave lion first emerged as an independent subspecies. This ancient animal inhabited the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe northern part of the Eurasian continent. Its habitat was modern Chukotka and Alaska, as well as the Balkan Peninsula.

Archaeological excavations have allowed scientists to prove the habitation of lions on the territory of today's countries, such as England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria. The territory of the former Soviet republics (USSR) was also inhabited by these ancient animals. Rock paintings were found near Odessa and Kiev.

Cave lion lifestyle

Cave lions lived in prides, like theirs. Although this lion is called a cave lion, in fact, it was rarely found in caves. This hideout was primarily intended for wounded or dying individuals who needed privacy. Therefore, so many remains are now found in caves.

What did the ancestors of modern lions eat?



The main food for these predators was large ungulates of that period: antelopes, deer, wild bulls and horses. Sometimes they prey on little bears or giants.



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