20.11 | 22:06
One of the correspondents BBC Earth set out to introduce modern people, with amazing inhabitants of the earth, who have lived on it for the period of dinosaurs, long before and long after them.
He said publicly that the dinosaurs rest on their laurels oldest and most amazing creatures, completely undeserved. Among the animals that inhabited the planet at one time, there were creatures that now it is possible to prirovnyat fantastic, and their existence at all hard to believe. Many of them have disappeared without a trace, without having to leave offspring, and some have evolved and their continuation, we can observe around us.
He began the story of, unimaginable dimensions, there is – the blue whale, weighing up to 150 tons heavier than he was no longer on this earth. Dinosaurs are perhaps undeserved scrutiny of the public, because apart from them in the world lived and many other animals of enormous size, which we never have to see in the flesh.
Some of them are gigantic ancestors of living creatures, others do not leave offspring, and so are particularly amazing.
But it was only the very start of the story. Then the reporter has provided information on the ten most unusual creatures that once lived on the planet. It was possible to gather this information through the remains that in recent decades, often found in various parts of the world. And using the latest technology, you can restore even the appearance of being.
It was possible to find out what amazing creatures were everywhere. At the bottom of the ocean inhabited egirokassida – huge shrimp, 2 meters long, and with a unique device on the head, by which she filter out the water that actually squeezed out of her plankton. This prehistoric shrimp two meters long lived on Earth about 480 million years ago. She belonged to the now extinct genus Anomalocaris. Life egirokassid came in a period of growth in species diversity of plankton. As a result, these animals do not compete for food most other Anomalocaris – carnivorous predators with sharp teeth. Studying her remains, scientists believe, to learn more about modern arthropods, spiders and other insects.
Until recently, based on the findings is not fully preserved fossils, scientists believed that Anomalocaris was only one pair of flexible blades on each side of the body segment. However, the analysis of the remains egirokassidy indicates that each segment of these creatures there were two pairs of blades used for swimming.
Authors of scientific work, published in March 2015 in the journal Nature, argue that the paired blades egirokassidy the upper and lower elements of the limbs of modern arthropods.
the worst predators, and also an inhabitant of the deep sea was a terrifying merostomes. A large arthropod, which grows up to 2.5 meters, drives horrified many victims. And this creature lived about 380 million years ago. More surprising inhabited earth worms, which can now be seen only in horror movies. Centipede long, a little less than three meters, wore the name arthropleura. It is difficult to establish what is being fed, because is possible to detect only fragments of the body and jaw, for a more detailed analysis has not yet come across.
For the first time this species was described in 2008 in a quarry .: close by German town of Prüm found the fossilized claw length of 46 cm – all that remains of the animal. However, the ratio between the size of the claws and body have merostomes very consistently, so the researchers came to the conclusion that J. rhenaniae reach a length from 233 to 259 cm.
The find – another proof that prehistoric merostomes were very large.
No one really knows why merostomes grown to such gigantic proportions.
Some scientists suggest that the solution lies in the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere: in some periods of the previous level of oxygen in it was much higher than it is now.
Another contender for the title of largest arthropod ever – arthropleura tysyachenozhek of the genus, which reached 2.6 m in length.
arthropleura lived in a period of 340 to 280 million years ago, and it is possible that they were required for its giant size of the high content of oxygen in the atmosphere.
No one is unable to find petrified arthropleura entirely. Fragments of skeletons up to 90 cm in length were found in the south-west of Germany, and trails that are reputed scientists were left by these millipedes are found in Scotland, the United States and Canada.
The researchers believe that the body arthropleura consisted of about 30 segments covered top and sides with protective plates.
Since the fossil jaws arthropleura is not found, it is difficult to say for sure what it ate.
As the planet more than 100 million years ago was inhabited by bloodthirsty crocodiles, the size of the jaws of which was equal to the growth of an adult. Paleontologists have searched for the remains of dinosaurs, and stumbled upon a fossilized skeleton of a crocodile himself, who was given the name Imperial sarcosuchus. Its length was 12 meters, and weighed more than he expected to 8 tons. His fall was littered with hundreds of sharp canine teeth of different sizes, which gives reason to believe that this predator ate not only fish, but also with other creatures that live near it.
Prehistoric fish had to fear not only crocodiles. On Earth in ancient times were carried out as a giant carnivorous reptiles that look like huge salamanders.
The petrified remains of metopozavra were found in Germany, Poland, North America, Africa and India.
Most of the prehistoric species disappeared from the Earth about 201 million years ago. Then many extinct vertebrates, including large amphibians, the dinosaurs that gave an opportunity to establish its dominance on the planet.
Metopozavr was described in March 2005. Stephen Brashettom the University of Edinburgh and colleagues. He was named in honor of Metoposaurus algarvensis Algarve in southern Portugal, where the remains were found.
There was a two-meter metopozavra wide flat head with mouth dotted with hundreds of teeth. A small, poorly developed limbs indicate that he spent not so much time on the ground.
Metopozavr is the ancestor of modern amphibians, such as frogs and newts. Despite its appearance, metopozavr had little to do with the current salamanders.
More about the many animals that make a real wonder was told. They lived in those days, and scientists believe that many more decades of modern humans will gradually open their secrets.
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