What If the End-Cretaceous Event Had Been More Severe?
Jul 8, 2022 22:50:35 GMT
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Post by dividavi on Jul 8, 2022 22:50:35 GMT
65 million years ago the world was filled with dinosaurs, pterosaurs, various mammals (including placentals and marsupials plus multituberculates), turtles crocodiles and snakes. The seas were ruled by serpentine Mosasaurs (close cousins of today's Monitor lizards) while molluscan Ammonites did their thing. Then the meteor struck and everything changed. All non-avian dinosaurs perished and so did most of the avian ones, the ancestors of today's birds. Some two-thirds of mammals went extinct with the KT event and present day mammals are the descendants of those who survived. The Ammonites, Mosasaurs and pterosaurs left no descendants. For the crocodiles, turtles, snakes and amphibians the meteor strike was a startling event, one that they forgot about within minutes.
But what if it had gone differently? What if the meteor had struck with greater force and the Nuclear Winter had been more severe? What if all the birds and mammals had perished in the way that most did? What would living things look like today in a reality dominated by turtles, snakes and crocodilians? Here are some possibilities:
This guy is called the Great White Carnotortoise and would be the major predator for the temperate zone wet areas of North America extending maybe as far as Brazil. It looks to be about 2.5 m tall at the top of the shell and seems to spend most of its time in the lakes and rivers:
What if you gave a saltwater crocodile 65 million years to evolve into the King of the Sea without interference from whales? It could look like a shark and could get pretty big. It couldn't get so big that it would be unable to lay its eggs on land. It 's called a Sand Shark:
Of course this guy might dispute the characterization of the Sand Shark as King of the Sea:
There are no birds or bats to eat fruit so what, if anything, would take their place? Tiny lizards, some of whom could fly might do the trick.
Given 65 million years this centipede descendant could become King of the Arthropods, until a Carnotortoise bites its head off.
But what if it had gone differently? What if the meteor had struck with greater force and the Nuclear Winter had been more severe? What if all the birds and mammals had perished in the way that most did? What would living things look like today in a reality dominated by turtles, snakes and crocodilians? Here are some possibilities:
This guy is called the Great White Carnotortoise and would be the major predator for the temperate zone wet areas of North America extending maybe as far as Brazil. It looks to be about 2.5 m tall at the top of the shell and seems to spend most of its time in the lakes and rivers:
What if you gave a saltwater crocodile 65 million years to evolve into the King of the Sea without interference from whales? It could look like a shark and could get pretty big. It couldn't get so big that it would be unable to lay its eggs on land. It 's called a Sand Shark:
Of course this guy might dispute the characterization of the Sand Shark as King of the Sea:
There are no birds or bats to eat fruit so what, if anything, would take their place? Tiny lizards, some of whom could fly might do the trick.
Given 65 million years this centipede descendant could become King of the Arthropods, until a Carnotortoise bites its head off.
