Asteroid

  

A G E    O F     D I N O S A U R S

The dinosaurs dominated the landscape for 

175 million years.  

 A S T E R O I D       I M P A C T

 One day 66 million years ago an asteroid 7 miles across

hit the Earth with the force of a speeding bullet.

The impact liquified rock twenty miles deep.

A mile high tsunami resulted.  Clouds of debris blocked

sunlight for years, destroying photosynthesis because

of the widespread plant die offs.  75% of all animal

species were swept from existence as starvation and

toxins took their toll.

T O X I C     V O L C A N T I C     G A S

 A second source of catastrophic death was also 

occurring in India as volcanic eruptions belched 

toxic gases, rich in sulfur, into the atmosphere.

The Earth's plants were not only cut off from

their ultimate energy bar, the sun, but the rain

came laced with chemicals only a refinery 

would appreciate.

 A G E     O F     M A M M A L S

The world is an empty place.

The noise and nuisances of life are gone.

Every life strategy you can think of is available

to those able to show up.  Recovery from mass extinction

begins immediately.  

First off, who are our survivors?

Generally speaking, small seed-eating animals

that can survive long periods without food. 

Eventually DNA fills this land of opportunities

with animal improvisations of every sort.

The species best engineered to meet the

circumstance wins out over time.  But

success is not guaranteed.  There are always

new challenges that must first be met.

E L E P H A N T     B I R D

 The large bipedal predator like T. rex was gone.

An ostrich type bird eventually developed enough

to occupy this long empty niche.  The musclebound 

legs say this bird would never get off the ground.

A small head with a bird bill replaces a massive

jaw filled with teeth as in the earlier dinosaur version.

Apparently useless wings replace clawed forearms.

No need for a tail as counterbalance to the weight

 of a heavy head and neck up front.

This bird was a dinosaur with feathers.

P R I M A T E     A N C E S T O R

The oldest known species of primate lineage.

Purgatorius appears in the fossil record about

100,000 years following the Cretaceous - Paleocene

extinction.  It probably ate seeds and lived in trees

like a squirrel.  The prominent nose makes it

easier to track down buried seeds.

How horrible it must have seemed to them

once they found out their distant offspring

would turn out to be apes.

*   *   *   *   *

©  Tom Taylor

 

OVER   EASY

 

 

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