B E Y O N D H A P P Y !
love
dad
Sunday, August 9, 2026
Saturday, August 8, 2026
Permian
D I M E T R O D E N
The creature with the vertebrate sail is a
reptilian ancestor to modern day mammals and
preceded the dinosaurs by about 40 million years.
Ancient mammals came to dominate the Permian,
a fifty million year stretch that would lead into
the Triassic era and the Age of Dinosaurs.
E R Y O P S
Every bit a reptile except it doesn't lay shelled eggs.
Its legs extended from the side of the body, its belly
nearly dragging the ground, much like the modern
day crocodile does when walking across the land.
This large, ungainly amphibian was also a poor swimmer.
Unable to run down its prey on both land or water
the animal relied upon ambush to capture its meal,
as does the crocodile. They each sport a snout
long enough to contain a very large mouth,
lined with teeth - the better to grab you with
from out of nowhere.
G O R G O N O P S I A N
Here was the apex predator of the middle to
late Permian. This was the Sabertoothed Tiger
of its time, able to run down its prey using
powerful legs that dropped nearly straight
down from its body. Finally, an animal built
to run.
The Gorgonopsian, (Gorgon - a dreaded monster
from Greek mythology) had a mammalian mouth
with various teeth for specific tasks - incisors for
cutting, canines for piercing and molar-like teeth
for crushing. Despite this sophisticated dental work,
the animal was forced to swallow its food whole
because it lacked a secondary palette, a boney
structure that separated the breathing passages
from the mouth. The animal could not breath
while chewing or even just holding its food
in its mouth.
P A N G E A
The various landmasses of the Earth collected into
one supercontinent that stretched from the pole
in the north to the one in the south. The planet was
now divided into one land, surrounded by one ocean.
The interior of this enormous landmass baked
under constant sun, as it was outside the reach
of rains coming off the ocean.
The supercontinent Pangea began breaking
apart during the latter part of the Permian.
The resulting volcanic eruptions had cataclysmic
global impact.
Lava covered the land for thousands of miles.
Volcanic ash and toxic gases filled the Earth's
atmosphere, spawning a global warming.
Acid rain poisoned the water. Marine life
suffocated as oceans lost oxygen.
Of the planet's five mass extinctions, this one,
the Great Dying, was the worst.
Ninety percent of the ocean's species gone.
Seventy percent of terrestrial life disappeared.
Ancient mammals no longer dominated the land.
The way was clear for the Age of Dinosaurs.
G Y M N O S P E R M
The facts of life... birds, bees and the telling
of plant sex. The male plant generates
pollen grains that are distributed by wind
to the flowers of female plants.
Egg and pollen merge, forming an embryo
containing the genetic instructions supplied
by its two parent plants. A new edition of life
is developing within its protective shell.
We have a seed.
S U M I N I A
That looks like fur growing from this animal.
Now it's beginning to look like a mammal.
What about hearing? Terrestrial animals
retain their fish style of hearing. No ears.
Not yet a priority.
The animal above looks like a beginner at tree climbing.
Its claws lack the length needed to dig into bark.
The feet have digits long like fingers but they show
little evidence of having the power to grip.
Balance may be the one climbing characteristic
it has already reasonably accomplished.
It has the teeth of a predator but how capable
is it for hunting prey out on a limb?
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, August 2, 2026
Saturday, August 1, 2026
Carboniferous
M A S S I V E I N S E C T S
The Carboniferous Period transformed the Earth
into a planet somewhat resembling the world
we live in today. Except, of course, for the insects
which sometimes grew as big as the household cat.
Everything about this age had a bigger than life
quality as new organisms flooded the scene with
spectacular innovations that would change the
course of nature.
R A C E F O R S U N L I G H T
The land of the globe's two supercontinents
would soon be covered in vegetation
wherever a plant could sink its roots.
Trees towering more than a hundred feet
made forests of the vast tropical wetlands.
Plants created wood before microorganisms had
developed the ability to break the wood down.
No termite microbes existed to aid digestion.
Trees died but they wouldn't rot.
The wood accumulated over the eons,
slowly transforming themselves into
a dense peat.
Millions of years of pressure and intense heat
cooked this layered peat into coal beds
that became thousands of feet thick.
Coal was a readily available source of energy,
compressed and easily transported.
It provided the inexpensive fuel necessary
to power the Industrial Revolution.
E I G H T F O O T M I L L I P E D E
Dragonflies that can barely fit through your
bedroom door. A millipede the length of a
hallway throw rug. Turn on the kitchen light
and, suddenly, you are confronted by a
two foot long scorpion.
Today's atmosphere contains about half
the oxygen ancient insects inhaled when
they breathed the Carboniferous air.
Insect respiration relies on surface pores
to provide oxygen where needed.
This method of diffusion does not supply
an animal's deep tissue, such as organs
centered in the body. The animal's size
was severely limited by this absence
of an internal circulatory system.
Oxygen-enriched air overcame this size
limitation to some degree. However
insects, spiders and scorpions will
never reach anything approaching
horror movie size.
E V E R Y H A B I T A T C O V E R E D W I T H L I F E
Life above the water's surface. Organisms
breathing air and naked to the sun. Brave new
world. The promise of opportunity everywhere
one looks.
Life takes on all challenges, even the most
foolhardy. Every organism alive is based
upon the dispassionate probe of possibilities.
We look under the rock because it is there
for the finding.
It is in our DNA.
F O U R L E G G E D V E R T E B R A T E
Land animals begin taking on recognizable forms.
There is a skull at the front end of the animal
with eyes, mouth and a brain. A trailing flat tail
provides both propulsion and steering in water.
Jointed legs provide mobility on land.
Five digits for grasping at legs' end.
What makes five the optimal number?
A more robust method of creation came about
during the Carboniferous period and it changed
the course of both plant and animal development.
The amniotic egg suspended the embryo in a
nourishing fluid that was contained in a protective shell.
The animal's eggs no longer needed a watery nursery
to survive. From this the reptile was born.
For plants the seed replaced the spore.
The advantages enjoyed by egg laying reptiles
were shared with plants encasing their embryos
within a seed. This innovation improved the
odds of reproductive success, with it soon
becoming the dominant method for reproduction
in both plant and animal.
C O N T I N E N T S C O L L I D E
Nearing the end of the Carboniferous Period,
the Earth's two supercontinents collided, creating
the new continent of Pangea.
The crushing force of this collision pushed
ancient coal beds upward into a range of mountains
known today as the Appalachians.
The above map shows the state of West Virginia
to be near the Atlas Mountains of North Africa
when this earth-crumpling event occurred.
Pangea disrupted the flow of equatorial ocean currents.
The repercussions were severe. The globe became
cooler, dryer. The Earth's southern pole experienced
endless cycles of glaciation. Drought dried up
tropical swamps. There was a collapse of rainforests.
Many amphibians and numerous other water dependent
organisms disappeared from the gene pool.
Drought resistant reptiles took center stage
and were crowned undisputed masters of the land.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Happy Birthday Marcela!
M I D N I G H T S U N
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y !
M A R C E L A
😎 🎈
love
Karen & Tom
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Saturday, July 25, 2026
Devonian
E X P L O S I O N O F D I V E R S E L I F E
The Age of Fish. And more.
Every animal we see about us today
can trace its ancestry back to an era that began
420 million years ago. For the next 60 million years
the Devonian would churn out one new family of
animals after another.
It was an astonishing time of creation
for both plant and animal. Every land
plant in existence has its roots beginning
with the Devonian. The land became a
living and breathing green.
A G E O F F I S H
Life was entering a time of revolutionary change.
Vertebrates formed skeletons in place of shells.
Bones allowed continuous growth while shells
constrained an animal's size. The animal's
speed weighed down by its armor.
Survival of the fittest generally referred to
competition for food, shelter and breeding.
There isn't enough of anything to go around.
What animal's skillset is best suited for its
surroundings? Those that lose out become
a genetic dead-end. Its personal DNA lost.
The gene pool of each generation is created
from this process of determining the species
characteristics most likely to succeed given
the environment's current challenges.
F O R E S T S
The marine environment often provides for
habitats that stack one atop another.
Fish make their living at different depths
while the crab looks after the ground floor.
The development of trees enabled for
layered habitats on land. The fox patrols
the ground while trees provide squirrels
with nuts and limbs for nesting birds.
The idea of a tree first required a number of
revolutionary innovations to turn plant life
into something more than the smelly green
muck that lined the shore. Wood would be
needed for strength if we're talking trees.
They would also need a deep root system
for mining the ground's nutrients and to
keep the tree upright, even if it is fifty feet tall
and facing into a stiff, surge of wind.
You're going to need a world class
vascular system to transport nutrients
from the roots to the leaves fifty feet
straight up. It's a tough problem but
you will have a few million years to
work it out.
A M P H I B I A N S
Four legged land animals had their likely origin with
freshwater fish, struggling to survive periodic drought
by using meaty lobed fins for walking, and their
swim bladder capable of breathing like a lung
until they reached the next water hole.
In time, the land became lush with vegetation.
Here was a land guaranteeing a free lunch for all -
no competition and no predators. Water here
is available only for drinking. Bladders replace gills
and genetic innovations slowly transform meaty
fins used for paddling into jointed legs designed
to have the animal walk upright. An entirely
new genetic path was being pioneered from scratch.
I N S E C T S
The Earth is a greenhouse
rotating in endless summer
with no place for polar ice caps.
A Devonian year was 400 days,
and each day lasted 22 hours.
The planet's two supercontinents,
Gondwana and Euramerica,
were becoming infested with insects,
spiders and centipedes.
C O R A L R E E F S
The Devonian world was one of near endless,
sunlit shallow seas under a placid vacation
sky. Coral reefs sprawled for thousands of miles
in all directions beneath the ocean's surface.
These colorful reefs provided homes for
ancient trilobites, sea scorpions and
animals with coiled shells, among others.
This tropical paradise lasted sixty million
years before the global environment
took a drastic turn for the worse.
Nearly eighty percent of marine life
was lost in the resulting global mass
extinction. The cause remains yet to be
determined as there is little evidence
to support any one particular explanation.
For the moment,
all talk on the matter is mere speculation.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
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