Episode One:
Written by: @Dinoguy22
Editorial help by: @Eren Freeman
Art by: @Dinoguy22
Today millions of species of animals live on this planet, some still unknown to science, and some creatures now extinct we know more about then these animals. With evidence from fossils, rock formations and other sources a picture of prehistoric life can be made. Are journey will start with the first life and end with, you guessed it, us. But before we get ahead of ourselves, we must go to the begging, we must go back millions of years, past the mammoths, before the dinosaurs and even before the first land creatures. This is when life was only simple algae’s. Welcome to the Paleoarchean Era. Life is only microscopic one celled organisms floating in the primeval waters of ancient earth. No one knows how life first evolved, could it be geothermal ocean vents? Lightning strikes? Nobody can ever say for certain but it happened sometime around 3.7 billion years ago. Only a billion years after earths formation the first life appeared, and less than a billion years after the moon formed by the collision of earth and Theia. These are the forerunners of all life; these simple creatures are the very ancestors to every species of plant, animal, fungi, and bacteria living today. This was the most pivotal times for the evolution of life; this was when the first bits of natural selection played out. At around 2 billion years ago the first examples of sexual reproduction, at around 1.5 billion years ago the first fungi appeared. And go forward to 715 million years ago earth is encased in a global ice, this is called snowball earth, this was a dark period in earth’s history. Only about 150 million years later something new appeared, some of the first complex animals, the sponges. These creatures are still relatively simple and nowhere near as diverse as today’s animals, but the first multicellular life evolved much earlier at around 2.1 billion years ago. These sponges and other early life floated around the Precambrian oceans, it wasn’t long before the next big change, we must travel 40 million years forward this time and say hello to a new world, meet Anomalocaris the world’s first super predator, with some of the very first complex eyes. With these large eyes that are perfect for seeing in murky water, and with long spiky appendages at the front of its face, it is a species built for killing. Anomalocaris’ prey is soft bodied organisms, swimming through these dangers waters.
Anomalocaris is a threat in these early seas of life, and this one is no exception. At almost two meters long, this is as big as they get. This individual is hunting, he has the ability to go into low light conditions and still stalk his prey, and this time he has spotted a worm like creature that is an early jawless fish. The fish does not have as large eyes and is at a disadvantage, the Anomalocaris moves forward by using many fins along the edge of his body, and in a burst of speed the fish has been grabbed in the long pincers of Anomalocaris. The fish tries to break free but is soon impaled by the spines on the pincers. The Anomalocaris brings the prey up to its circular mouth, and sucks the insides of the fish out.
The Anomalocaris is one of the first predators, but is by no means the last, many more strange creatures evolved, one of the most spin tingling is Brontoscorpio a meter long scorpion, but to see this behemoth we must travel forward 100 million years, to the Early Devonian. And if you thought Anomalocaris was a monster you have only seen the beginning of the true monsters of the deep.
Enters Brontoscorpio an arthropod with 15 centimeter claws this monster is only the tip of the iceberg. A Brontoscorpis walks along the sea floor of a coral reef, searching for prey. The scorpion eyes a target, waiting for the perfect moment. When in a burst of speed Brontoscorpis is grabbed by Jaekelopterus a 3 meter monster sea scorpion, it crushes Brontoscorpis in its claws breaking it brittle exoskeleton, the Devonian sea is far from safe. But even Jaekelopterus is not safe. It has one thing to fear, Orthocerida an 11 meter orthoceratoid. Usually Orthocerida would not dear attack such well armored prey but this one is in need of food and is willing to take risks. The Orthocerida circles the Jaekelopterus, the scorpion snaps its claws as a warning sign, but the Orthocerida is depsperate, and lunges trying to grab the sea scorpion with its tentacles, but the hard shell of Jaekelopterus is not penetrated by the beak of this squid like creature. The scorpion grabs a tendril and tears it off, with its dangerous claws. The Orthocerida cannot afford more injury and retreats, this time the scorpion has won, but in the future the arthropods will be driven from dominance by the vertebrate lineage.
These vertebrate first evolved around 540 million years ago, but the first jawed ones came about the same time as Brontoscorpio and kin, and after these new creatures evolved the balance of power was never the same again.
What caused this rise of new life? To see the cause we must travel back 30 million years before Brontoscorpio to 443 million years ago. This is a world of unrest. The ocean levels are fluctuating rapidly causing many organisms to find themselves out of water, many of these creatures died, but some adapted and the beginning of life on land began. This was the second largest extinction event, driving 85 percent of all life to die out. Such a big changed caused new species to get a foothold in the evolutionary battle of life.
It was not until around 390 million years ago that are own ancestors, the vertebrates, moved to the land, pushing the arthropods from another position of power, it would not be another 50 million years before the arthropods made their last stand for dominance.
Next time: We travel to Ohio 365 million years ago, to meet one of the most deadly animals that ever swam the seas, meet Dunkleosteus.
