Prehistoric Ancestors of Modern Animals

Prehistoric Ancestors of Modern Animals book cover — Contents Prehistoric Ancestors Monster Snake Titanoboa Mighty Rodent Josephoartigasia The Lizard of Aus Megalania Humongous Hedgehog Deinogalerix Giant Beavers Castoroides Small Wonders Dwarf Elephants Deadly Dragonfly Meganeura Shake a Leg Arthropleura Dog Versus Frog Beelzebufo Ruffling Feathers Elephant Bird Timeline Uncovering the Past Index 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32

Prehistoric Ancestors of Modern Animals — page 1 — Prehistoric Ancestors Can you imagine what the world would be like if prehistoric animals came back to life Well you are about to ﬁ nd out What’s so bizarre is that some of these animals will look familiar to you they are the ancestors of modern mammals reptiles and insects And they have crash-landed in a location near you So watch out it’s as if they had not gone extinct after all All life started in the sea and there were some pretty weird creatures 505 million years ago Hallucigenia right had long thin legs and spines on its back In time some creatures moved out of the water to live on land The oldest known land animal is a millipede from 428 million years ago In time these crawlers grew to 7 feet 6 inches 2 3 meters long Good thing they didn’t ﬂ y they might have collided with dragonﬂ ies the size of modern birds of prey Eoraptor H allucigenia When they evolved 240 230 million years ago dinosaurs were about the size of turkeys One of the ﬁ rst was Eoraptor left It was only 3 feet 3 inches 1 m long much of which was tail and weighed about the same as a dachshund With abundant food and oxygen though dinosaurs grew and grew and came to dominate the planet for about 160 million years 6

Prehistoric Ancestors of Modern Animals — page 2 — While dinosaurs ruled most mammals were the size of shrews simply to avoid being eaten by those hungry carnivores But after the dinosaurs died out many mammals became massive and so did reptiles Did you know that a rodent the size of a buffalo and a snake longer than a bus once roamed the Earth What if you saw them rampaging around your world They re not likely to be as nicely behaved as a pet guinea pig or lizard Sometimes it worked the other way Imagine an African elephant towering over its tiny ancestor the island-dwelling dwarf elephant left This little guy would even have looked small next to the well-named elephant bird standing 10 feet 3 m tall below What would it be like to bring these and other animal ancestors back to life in all their weird and wonderful glory and scariness If you’ve got the courage read on Dwarf elephant and be prepared for some truly bizarre and spine-tingling encounters between modern creatures and prehistoric beasts Elephant bird 7

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