Dinosaur

Lizards belong in a large class of animals called Reptilia, which contains over 8225 species. Reptiles are animals that are ectothermic (cold-blooded) vertebrates that breathe air. Most reptiles are oviparous (egg-laying) animals with the exception of some ovoviviparous (live-bearing) constrictor snakes and vipers, as well as a few lizard species. They are also theropods, vertebrate animals that have four limbs or are descended from animals with four limbs. Deciphering the lizard classification…

Some examples of macroevolution include the impact that mass extinctions have on the diversity of life, the appearance of terrestrial vertebrates through speciation, and the basis of key adaptations. An example of this is flight in birds. Another example of macroevolution is a species named Primula kewensis, which came into existence because of the crossbreeding of two hybrid primrose species, Primula verticillata and Primula floribunda. Sedimentary rocks We do not know the actual, or…

As the Earth goes through time, we began to see that the species that were developing were slowly evolving into the modern day turtles that we see now. They began to lose their rough scaly shell with the N. argentina and the N.oweni and began to develop a more smooth texture, needed for swimming. This is where we discover the genus Meiolania (“small roamer”). The species within Meiolania have been known to be on earth until about 2000-3000 years ago living between the Oligocene-Holocene eras and…

There were several kinds of giant sloths in South America in the Pleistocene era around 500,000 years ago, and living alongside them were giant armadillos like the glyptodonts. They were as big as rhinoceroses, with armour-plating fitted so tightly together that they looked like huge tortoises. All of these giants were edentata, an order of animals which has evolved into today’s sloths, armadillos and anteaters of South America. Edentata literally means without teeth. The anteaters, which catch…

In 1912, German meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed the theory that all the continents were once all one continent and then later drifted apart and separated leading to the seven continents we have today. He thought that 200 million years ago there was one large continent that he called Pangea, which means “All-Earth.” During the Jurassic period the continents were believed to break up into two smaller continents which were called Gondwanaland and Laurasia. The continents were breaking into…

Have you ever wondered what are the similarities and differences between an alligator snapping turtle and an american alligator? They have similar diets,traits,and a habitat crave for freshwater. Although, there also many differences between the two. For example, both reptiles have a way of protecting themselves, but each animal has a different trait that does just that.…

About 542 million years ago, an event known as 'The Cambrian Explosion' also known as 'Cambrian Radiation' occurred. It began in the Cambrian period which took place during the Paleozoic Era 542-251 million years ago. It is one of the most significant episodes in the history of life (Conway Morris, 2006). The Cambrian Explosion changed everything. Prior to the Cambrian Explosion, large animals were soft-bodied. Palaeontologists discovered fossils which accounted for approximately half of all…

I'm going to talk about the geologic evidence of the permian triassic extinction. This is a volcanic scenario. There are different geologic reasons for the permian triassic i'm going to tell you about them . During this period there has been documented changes in the air. The atmosphere went evey high which means high levels oxygen was about 30%. When it was low it was about 15%. In this time the salinity in the sea was filled with sharply during the period about 250 million years ago…

In her book The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert writes that there have been five mass extinctions in the history of planet earth. She asserts that currently the earth is on the precipice of a sixth mass extinction. In contrast with the previous five, according to Kolbert this sixth extinction is almost entirely caused by humans and our exploitation of the earth. In each of the book’s thirteen chapters, Kolbert highlights a particular species that is now extinct and analyzes the causes and…

Five times in the history of Earth, mass extinctions of unimaginable death scale almost wiped out most of the life on the planet. The last event occurred 65 million years ago when Earth was impacted by an asteroid killing the dinosaurs and other organisms (70 per cent of the species). The deadliest of these extinction events happened more than 252 million years ago. The event is known as the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event or the “Great Dying” that killed around 90 per cent of all species on…