Carboniferous Period
359 Million to 299 Million Years Ago
 http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/carboniferous.html
"... takes its name from large underground coal
deposits that date to it. Formed from prehistoric
vegetation, the majority of these deposits are
found in parts of Europe, North America, and
Asia that were lush, tropically located regions
during the Carboniferous.

In the U.S., scientists divide the Carboniferous
into two parts: the earlier Mississippian (359.2
million to 318.1 million years ago) and the later
Pennsylvanian (318.1 million to 299 million years
ago).

... Carboniferous coal was produced by bark-bear-
ing trees that grew in vast lowland swamp forests.
Vegetation included giant club mosses, tree ferns,
great horsetails, and towering trees with strap-shaped
leaves. Over millions of years, the organic deposits
of this plant debris formed the world's first extensive
coal deposits—coal that humans are still burning
today.

The growth of these forests removed huge amounts
of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, leading to
a surplus of oxygen. Atmospheric oxygen levels
peaked around 35 percent, compared with 21 per-
cent today.

This abundance of oxygen sparked an exponential
increase in the size of vascular plants. It also may
explain the giant creepy-crawlies that now emerged
—the size reached by insects and similar creatures
is thought to be limited by the amount of air they
are able to breathe.  ... Most impressive of all were
dragonflies that grew to the size of seagulls. One
exquisitely detailed fossil of a dragonfly that died
320 million years ago shows it had a wingspan of
2.5 feet ...

Amphibians were also growing in size and diversity.
There were predatory species that resembled modern-
day crocodiles. Armed with vicious teeth, they reached
lengths of almost 20 feet ... They also reduced their reli-
ance on wetland habitats through a crucial evolutionary
adaptation known as the amniote egg. This protected
the embryo inside with a fluid-retaining membrane
while still allowing in air. In time, the earliest reptiles
appeared. ...

Africa collided with eastern North America in the late
Pennsylvanian, an event that formed the Appalachian
Mountains. Vast coal swamps stretched across the
lowlands to the west of the rising mountains. By the
end of the Carboniferous, the Earth's landmasses were
moving toward a single, global supercontinent called
Pangaea.

10 graphics from the Carboniferous Period
  http://tinyurl.com/carboniferousperiodgraphics

~356 million ....

View of the earth in the early Carboniferous:
  http://www.scotese.com/newpage4.htm

~315 million ....

The earliest evidence for the existence
of reptiles has been found in Canada.
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7047065.stm
"... the hands had five fingers and scales, sure evidence
they were made by reptiles and not amphibians. The
most likely contender was a lizard-like reptile named
Hylonomus lyelli ..."

~306 million ....

View of the earth in the late Carboniferous:
  http://www.scotese.com/late.htm

~300 million ....

Walking With Monsters -- Part 4 of 9
Carboniferous
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_With_Monsters#Episode_two
"... Carboniferous — Place: Kansas, USA (in a coal forest)
— Oxygen Content: 40% Above Today
— Hazards: Giant Insects

[featured in this part]

• Petrolacosaurus
• Arthropleura
• Meganeura
• Mesothelae
• Proterogyrinus ..."

~299 million to ~251 million ....

Permian Period
299 Million to 251 Million Years Ago
  http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/permian.html 
"... ended in the largest mass extinction the Earth has
ever known, began about 299 million years ago. The
emerging supercontinent of Pangaea presented severe
extremes of climate and environment due to its vast size.

... The lush swamp forests of the Carboniferous were
gradually replaced by conifers, seed ferns, and other
drought-resistant plants.

Early reptiles ... moved in where amphibians had previ-
ously held sway. Over time, they became ideally suited
to the desert-type habitats in which they thrive today.

Being cold-blooded, reptiles had to find ways to deal
with big daily variations in temperature, from below freez-
ing at night to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit ... during the
day. ... Later, other mammal-like reptiles known as therap-
sids found an internal solution to keeping warm—scientists
suspect they eventually became warm-blooded, conserving
heat generated through the breakdown of food. These more
metabolically active reptiles ... became the dominant land
animals of the late Permian.

The Therapsids flourished during the Permian, rapidly evolv-
ing many different forms, ranging from dinosaur-like fanged
flesh-eaters to plodding herbivores. Some species reached
a huge size, weighing in at over a ton. In the latter part of
the Permian, smaller varieties emerged, likely warm-blooded
and covered in insulating hair. From them, mammals would
arise.

The Permian seas came to be dominated by bony fishes with
fan-shaped fins and thick, heavy scales. ...

The Permian ... represented the last gasp for much early pre-
historic life. The period ... came to a calamitous close 251
million years ago, marking a biological dividing line that few
animals crossed. The Permian extinction—the worst extinc-
tion event in the planet's history—is estimated to have wiped
out more than 90 percent of all marine species and 70 per-
cent of land animals.

Various theories seek to explain this mass extinction [see
below] ... But whatever the cause, new animals and plants
would evolve to fill the void. Not least among them: the
dinosaurs.

12 graphics from the Permian Period
  http://tinyurl.com/permianperiodgraphics

~280 million ....

Click-drag virtual reality display of the earth's
climate and continental drift from the present day
back to ~280 million years ago:
  http://www.scotese.com/paleocli.htm

Walking With Monsters -- Parts 5 & 6 of 9
Carboniferous / Early Permian
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_With_Monsters#Episode_two
"... 280 Million Years Ago — Early Permian
— Place: Bromacker Quarry, Thuringia, Germany
— Global Temp: 20% Colder Than Today
— Hazards: Extreme Seasons

[featured in this part]

• Dimetrodon
• Edaphosaurus
• Seymouria ..."

~260 million ....

~255 million ....

View of the earth in the late Permian:
  http://www.scotese.com/newpage5.htm

~250 million .... 

Walking With Monsters -- Part 7 of 9
Late Permian
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_With_Monsters#Episode_two
"... 250 Million Years Ago — Late Permian
 — Place: Siberia
 — Global Temp: 60% Hotter Than Today
 — Hazards: Extreme Heat, Volcanic Activity

[featured in this part]

• Gorgonops
• Rhinesuchus
• Diictodon (gender-identified as male)
• Scutosaurus
• Labyrinthodont ..."

... returned to the Siberian Trap data to estimate the amount 
of carbon dioxide - and global warming - that could result. 
His worst case scenario is a temperature rise of 5°C, enough 
to kill off many species but not the 95% wipeout that ended 
the Permian.

... it seems likely there were two Permian killers. The Siber-
ian Traps did erupt, contributing first to a nuclear winter cool-
ing effect (caused by dust) and and then to global warming
(due to greenhouse gases). Over 40,000 years, some land
animals gradually died out while life in the seas lived relatively
calmly on, as the water temperature gently rose. 

Then the seas gave up their frozen methane [due to the rise
of 5°C caused by the Siberian Trap eruptions]. In just 5,000
years, there was massive loss of species from the world's
oceans.

In a third and final phase of the extinction, the Permian killer
returned to stalk the land for another 35,000 years [due to
a total rise of 10°C from the combination of the Siberian
Trap eruptions + the temperature rise from the melting of
the frozen methane]. By the end of that process, 95% of
the Earth's species were extinct."

~250-251 million to ~199 million ....

Triassic Period
250 Million to 199 Million Years Ago
  http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/triassic.html
"The start of the Triassic period (and the Mesozoic
era) was a desolate time in Earth's history. Something
... had triggered the extinction of more than 90 percent
of Earth's species. ... Life that survived the so-called
Great Dying repopulated the planet, diversified into
freshly exposed ecological niches, and gave rise to
new creatures, including rodent-size mammals and
the first dinosaurs.

By the start of the Triassic, all the Earth's landmasses
had coalesced to form Pangaea, a supercontinent
shaped like a giant C that straddled the Equator and
extended toward the Poles. Almost as soon as the
supercontinent formed, it started to come undone. By
the end of the period 199 million years ago, tectonic
forces had slowly begun to split the supercontinent in
two: Laurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south.

The giant ocean called Panthalassa surrounded Pangaea. 

... The Tethys Ocean filled the C and was the zipper upon
which Pangaea began to split apart. Earlier failed attempts
at the split formed rift valleys in North America and Africa
filled with red sediments that today contain the best pre-
served fossils of Triassic life. 

The oceans teemed with the coiled-shelled ammonites,
mollusks, and sea urchins that survived the Permian extinc-
tion and were quickly diversifying. The first corals appeared,
though other reef-building organisms were already present. 

Giant reptiles such as the dolphin-shaped ichthyosaurs and
the long-necked and paddle-finned plesiosaurs preyed on
fish and ancient squid. 

An artist's depiction captures the burst of new life that occurred in the early- to mid-Triassic period. Massive extinctions at the end of the preceding Permian period allowed the plants and animals that survived to grow and diversify relatively free of competition and predators. These conditions gave rise to the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and early crocodilians.

An artist's depiction shows a Herrerasaurus lurking in a forest in what is now Argentina as smaller animals hide in the undergrowth. Herrerasaur fossils are among the oldest ever discovered, dating back about 228 million years to the mid-Triassic.

An artist's rendering shows hatchling Nothosaurs heading for the safety of water as a hungry but terrestrial Ticinosuchus attacks near a lagoon in ancient Switzerland. Nothosaurs lived during the mid- and late Triassic period and were among the earliest reptiles to take to the sea.

The bottom rung of the food chain was filled with micro-
scopic plants called phytoplankton; two of the major
groups still in the oceans today first appeared.

Frogs, salamanders, crocodiles, turtles, and snakes slunk
and slithered on and off the Triassic coast, lakes, and rivers.

Pterosaurs, a group of flying reptiles, took to the air.

Pterosaurs, like these depicted gliding near an ancient sea, first arose during the Triassic period about 215 million years ago. They endured for 150 million years, colonizing every continent and evolving into more than 120 species. They died out along with the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous.

• Diictodon is seen evolving into the larger Lystrosaurus
• small insectivorous Euparkeria that is depicted as an ancestor of the dinosaurs
• Aeshna (animated as dragonfly)
  
• pack of venomous therocephalians
• numerous Proterosuchus
• Euparkeria is confronted by a chasmatosaur and evolves into an
  Allosaurus, heralding the imminent dominance of the dinosaurs ..."

• Coelophysis
• Placerias
• Cynodont (identified as Thrinaxodon in the encyclopedia)
• Postosuchus
• Peteinosaurus
• Plateosaurus
• Lungfish
• Dragonfly (live acted)
• unidentified Phytosaur (in book)
• unidentified Metoposaur (in book) ..."

~199 million to ~145 million ....

Brachiosaurs congregate along the coast in this artist's depiction. At up to 92 feet & 50 tons, these sauropods (large, herbivorous dinosaurs) were much larger than any land animal alive today. Long, lean limbs, high shoulders, and a 30-foot-long neck allowed Brachiosaurus to graze from the treetops of North America and parts of Africa, where its fossils have been found.

A Brachiosaurus as seen next to humans in the movie "Jurassic Park".

An Allosaurus tramps through a Mesozoic-era forest in this artist's depiction. Allosaurus was the top predatory dinosaur of the late Jurassic period in North America. Not a particularly fast runner, it likely ambushed unsuspecting prey as it passed by.

The late Jurassic Stegosaurus, like the pair walking through a North American forest in this illustration, was a slow-moving, plant-eating dinosaur that grew as long as 30 feet and as much as 2 tons. Its most impressive feature was a row of large plates and tail spines down the length of its back—some more than three feet tall.

The late-Jurassic Archaeopteryx lithographica, shown here with legs akimbo and wings outspread, is believed by many to be the world's first bird. Found in the Solnhofen Limestone Formation in Bavaria, Germany, Archaeopteryx lithographica possessed developed wings that probably allowed it to fly for short distances.

• Diplodocus
• Allosaurus
• Ornitholestes
• Stegosaurus
• Brachiosaurus
• Anurognathus
• unidentified small Ornithopod (possibly Drinker)
• another species of unidentified Ornithopod in a different skin color (possibly Othnielia)
• Damselfly (live acted)
• Dung beetle (live acted)
• Coelurus (in book)
  

• Ophthalmosaurus
• Cryptoclidus
• Hybodus (identified as shark, revealed on website and in encyclopedia)
• Leptolepis (identified as fish, revealed in website, live-acted by herring)
• Rhamphorhynchus
• Eustreptospondylus
• Liopleurodon
• Perisphinctes (identified as ammonite, revealed in book)
• Horseshoe crabs (live acted)
• Jellyfish (live acted)
• Squid (live acted)
• Bark beetle (live acted)
• Unidentified turtle carcass