Today we will introduce 10 species of ancient creatures that appeared before the dinosaurs, each with an eye-catching and iconic appearance. It should be noted that although some of these circadian clocks have "dragons" in their names, they are not dinosaurs.
1. Edaphosauridae
Keelungaceae was first discovered in North America by paleontologists in the late 19th century. It was identified as surviving between 265 million and 303 million years ago. Of course, it was not limited to this time period, because later fossils were later found in Slovakia.
Most of them can reach up to 3 meters in length. Weight 300Kg. They have small heads, but their spines and bodies are long. In particular, it has a tail that accounts for half the length of the body.
Despite its very sharp teeth, archaeologists do not consider it a carnivore. Because it has a deep jaw and large barb teeth. Scientists believe it is predominantly herbivores. At the same time, it also eats some relatively small mollusks, such as snails.
The main reason for this judgment is that it has a larger body, shorter legs, and is closer to the ground. This suggests that it should be a clumsy creature, not as strong and flexible as a carnivore.
2. Scutosaurus
Shieldosaurus appeared in the Permian Period, which is now 248 to 290 million years old. It got its name because of the large bone plates on their bodies. They have a huge body, weighing 1000Kg and about 3.5 meters long. Unlike other reptiles, its legs are on either side of the body, and its legs are grown under the body to support its own weight.
They are very large and can accommodate a large digestive system. They have stubby toes to support their weight. Their legs are short, so they can't run for long. Shielded ankylosaurs had a thick body, especially a neck. There are multiple bone spurs at the back of the head, and the body has multiple rows of hard bone scales to protect against predator attacks.
So, clever archaeologists have made another judgment: Shield dragons were also herbivores. Another reason to support this view is that their teeth are flat and they grind leaves and branches.
3. Gorgonops
The plesiosaur also lived in the Permian, which is now between 250 and 255 million years old. Its name is also translated as snake-haired female demon beast, and the root of the word Gorgon comes from the snake-haired banshee in Greek mythology.
The lidonts were the dominant predators of the era, with the largest breeds growing up to 4 meters long and 450 Kg. Canine teeth evolved, as well as other characteristics similar to those of mammalian offspring. There is debate about whether the monobow creatures of this era were warm-blooded, but there is not enough evidence. If so, it should have hair on it. Then it might look like this:
Since not many fossils have been unearthed, there is little information about the plesiosaurs. But given the environment it was in at the time and its body structure, it is likely that it evolved from a herbivore to a carnivore.
4. Tanystropheus
The name of the long-necked dragon literally translates to: long spine. It lived in the Triassic period, 215 million years ago. It has 12 bones in its neck, and each section is quite long. The neck alone reaches 3 meters, the body is up to 6 meters high, and the length of the neck is longer than the body and tail. Many complete specimens of juvenile long-necked dragons have been found in Italy.
Because of their extremely long and stiff necks, they are often hypothesized to be aquatic or semi-aquatic reptiles, and reconstructed from this hypothesis. This theory is supported by the fact that fossils of dipterosaurs are found very often in semi-aquatic sites, where fossils of land animals are rarely found. Based on their long, narrow snout, and sharp, interlaced teeth, the plesiosaurs were considered fish-eaters.
Three-pointed buccal teeth have been found in the jaws of several juvenile specimens, suggesting that they may also be insectivores, but the same tooth patterns have also been found in euphrodontosaurus and Langobardisaurus, both of which are considered fish-eating. In addition, in some specimens, bone hooks of cephalopods have been found near the abdomen, and there may be fish scales.
5. Desmatosuchus
The chain crocodile is one of the largest strong lizards, with a length of 5 meters and a height of about 1.5 meters. They lived in Texas, North America in the Late Triassic.
Chain crocodiles resemble their close relatives in appearance, with scales on their bodies and pigs on their heads. Chain crocodiles use their shovel-shaped snout to pluck plants. Unlike other lizards, the chain crocodile has two rows of spikes on the side of its back and a 45 cm long pointed horn on each side of its shoulder. This provides chain crocodiles with additional protection against predators.
6. Placerias
It lived in North America of the Triassic Nori order, about 221 million to 210 million years ago.
Relatively much is known about Brasseurus, as more than 40 of its fossils have been unearthed. Its fossils were first discovered in 1930 by Charles Camp and Samuel Welles of the University of California, Berkeley. The location is near St. John's City, southeast of Arizona's Petrified Forest. It is now known as the Brasellon Quarry. Sediment features at the site show low-energy sedimentary environments, possibly floodplain sediments.
Brasseron was the largest herbivorous animal in the environment at the time, about 3.5 meters long and weighing 2 tons. Brasseron had a strong neck, limbs, and a cylindrical body.
Brasserulin used a beaked mouth with two tusks to pull out plants; tusks may also be used as defenses, or as visual displays within the species. Braserus may have the same niches and evolutionary similarities as modern hippos. They may have survived the water's edge to escape invasion by land predators.
7. Postosuchus
They lived in North America in the late Triassic period, about 221 million to 220 million years ago. The post-crocodile was the region's top predator during the Triassic period and was at the top of the food chain. Post-alligatorosaurs may have preyed on other smaller reptiles.
Posterior alligatorosaurs were four-legged reptiles with broad skulls and long tails, as well as large curved claws. They can reach a length of about 4 meters and are supported by cylindrical limbs, which are quite unique among reptiles. The snout resembles a crocodile and is filled with large dagger-shaped teeth that are used to kill its prey. The back of the crocodile is covered with multiple rib plates, forming protection.
The length of the forelimbs of posterior crocodiles is about 2/3 of the length of the hind limbs. This feature of the short forelimb is common in bipedal walking reptiles.
The Indian paleontologist Sankar Chatterjee once hypothesized that the posterior crocodile could take an upright gait and move in a four-legged manner when moving slowly, at which point the forelimbs were used for walking.
In 1995, Robert Long and Phillip A. Murry proposed a different view, the post-crocodile crocodile had a thick body and should be a four-legged moving animal.
There is controversy as to whether the posterior crocodile was bipedal or quadruped, and its gait. Some paleontologists believe that the post-crocodile moved in a four-legged manner most of the time, and in physiological function, it could occasionally move in a bipedal manner.
It gave the impression that its status at that time was very close to that of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
8. Anomalocaris
This animal appeared in the Cambrian Period about 500 million years ago. It was a magical time when life flourished like never before, and it was a big bang in the history of animal evolution. For the first time on Earth, a group of animals with hard shells or bones appeared.
The odd shrimp is a flat, free-swimming animal with a specific joint structure, up to 1 meter in length, and can use the soft appendages on both sides of the body to make wavy movements in the water, and the appendages overlap on both sides of the body to form a single "fan" to help the body move in the water.
Odd shrimp have a pair of very large eyes (compound eyes) and are estimated to have as many as 16,000 crystals. The mouth is preceded by two shrimp-like appendages that can be open up to seven feet. The structure of the mouth of the odd shrimp is very unique, consisting of 32 overlapping tooth plates, including 4 large tooth plates and 32 small tooth plates, shaped like pineapple slices, with a ring of hard and sharp teeth in the center.
Its mouth is more rectangular than round, and the ring of teeth cannot touch each other. Nevertheless, it still has the ability to bite open the shells of small arthropods such as trilobites, as well as other animals.
9. Dunkleosteus
The Dunn's fish is a very well-evolved marine fish. It lived between 416 and 443 million years. It was one or two hundred million years earlier than the earliest dinosaurs. Its fossils are widely found in North America, Poland, Belgium and other regions.
It is very scary to face this fish, it can reach 6 meters in length and weighs up to 1 ton. Even bigger than today's sharks.
Like other shieldfish, the head of the Dunn's fish is covered by a thick carapace, which reduces their speed and sensitivity. It does not have teeth in the mouth, but its carapace has sharp edges, forming a structure similar to the beak of the mouth. Dunn's fish and other shieldfish may have been the first vertebrates to undergo in vivo fertilization, a feature that can also be seen in extant sharks.
The jaws of the Dunn's fish are connected by a flat four-bar mechanism, and the bite force can reach 6,000 N (612 kgf; 1,349 lbf) at the tip and 7,400 N (755 kgf; 1,664 lbf) in the rear blade, and the suction of the Dunn's fish is also huge. Being able to open its mouth within 0.02 seconds and suck prey into its mouth in 0.06 seconds can prey on creatures much larger than its mouth, and spit out indigestible hard shells after eating.
The Dunn's fish is at the top of the food chain, and sharks living in the Devonian may have been its prey. However, the huge and heavy body greatly affected the speed and sensitivity of the movement of the Dunn's fish, causing it to lose to cartilaginous fish such as sharks in evolution and eventually became extinct. After the extinction of Dunn's fish and similar organisms, sharks began to grow larger and more diverse.
10. Helicoprion
The spiny tooth shark is an extinct shark-like full-headed suborder fish that first appeared in the early Permian 290 million years ago, survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event, and finally became extinct in the early Triassic 250 million years ago. Fossils are found in North America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia. The closest living species of the spiny tooth shark is the silver mackerel.
In 2011, a 45 cm (18-inch) long fossil spiral tooth of the spinosaur shark was found in the Phosphate Formation in Idaho, USA. Compared with other samples of spiny sharks, the spiny tooth shark body can reach a length of up to 10 meters (33 feet). In 1980 (but not made public until 2013), larger fossils of spiral teeth (NUMBER IMNH 49382) were found at the same site. Although incomplete, it can exceed 60 cm (24 inches) in length, which estimates that the total length of this spiny shark individual may exceed 12 m (39 ft), the largest known Eugene tooth species.
Helico is derived from the Greek word "spiral", and Prion is derived from "saw", which together means "spiral saw". It is named after the spiraling teeth on its lower jaw.