Dragon Sharks, Fish Flippers And Other Real Life Monsters Of The Primordial Soup
From the human perspective oceans appear endless and unchanging, but in reality they are in a constant state of flux, continuously evolving over vast periods of time. Many modern humans seem oblivious to the fact that their way-back ancestors crawled from the oceans and that for three billion years the majority of the planet's life was water locked. In the beginning, microscopic life forms fought for resources and latterly the world’s seas became populated with a bizarre range of creatures, but when the ocean changed too rapidly for species to respond, mass extinctions occurred. Considering this has occurred at least five times it is not really a question of could this happen again, but when will it happen next?
Clidastes velox fósil, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Francia, París, France. (FunkMonk/ CC BY-SA 3.0)
All adults remember being exposed to their first books and pictures of dinosaurs and giant sea creatures, and the deep-rooted awe they inspired in children’s imaginations, but what was not so popular were the smaller forerunners, the ancient life forms that cut their way between and around the giant predators of the seas. Donning virtual diving helmets and following the evolutionary chains of ancient sea creatures, both great and small, through the published research of scientists, still captures the imagination.
