Ancient creatures, sometimes not only their bodies, but even the traces left by those creatures during their lives can be preserved in this way. We call these petrified remains and remains fossils.
From the fossils, we can see the appearance of ancient animals and plants, and thus we can infer the living conditions and living environment of ancient animals and plants. We can infer the age of formation and changes experienced by the strata where the fossils are buried. We can see the evolution of organisms from ancient times to
Changes today and so on.
For example, in dinosaurs, the parts that can form fossils are the hard parts of the body, such as shells, bones, teeth or woody tissues, which can become fossils under very favorable conditions.
As for turtles, their entire shells are hard, so compared to snakes and dinosaurs, they are more likely to be fossilized and preserved.
Therefore, Cao Meili is not blindly happy, but an inference based on certain scientific basis. For example, from 2004 to 2007, when archaeologists were excavating an open-pit coal mine in northeastern Colombia (which is also an "extraordinary" fossil site)
, the fossils of Titanoboa and roodi1yormsuchus were found in two adjacent places.
Both reptiles were distributed in South America 6,000,000 years ago. This fossil site is one of the first discoveries that gave people a preliminary understanding of the beginning of the current ecosystem.
The evidence that Titanoboa and roodi1yorm crocodile live next to each other shows that the current confrontational behavior of snakes and crocodile offspring further reflects the natural enemy relationship between these two reptiles.
For example, modern anacondas in the Amazon basin (including the green python, currently the world's largest snake) often feed on living members of the crocodile family, such as caiman.
In the wild ancient times, the size of animals was extremely large, because it was an era of law of the jungle. Without hard shells, sharp teeth and claws, and huge body sizes, it would be difficult to survive in that cruel living environment.
As a result, a number of extremely ferocious and powerful prehistoric behemoths were born.
Currently, the green anaconda is the heaviest snake in the world, but its weight is only 25o kilograms.
Snakes are cold-blooded animals, and their body size is greatly affected by external temperature. The large size of ancient giant snakes shows that the equatorial region of South America may have been hotter 5.5 million years ago than it is now.
It is speculated that 6,000,000 years ago, the average annual temperature in the equatorial region of South America may have reached about 32.8 degrees Celsius. If Titanoboa also existed in the central part of the north, it can only mean that the temperature in North America may have reached more than 30 degrees Celsius.
.
In fact, this has been proven from other places, such as the three northeastern provinces in northern China. In the era when ancient dinosaurs existed, the temperature there was very high, at least much higher than now. There may have been rainforests, swamps and other tropical landscapes.
Therefore, it is not impossible that Titanoboa can only live in areas with higher temperatures in the northern United States. The main issue is the period in which they lived, which is urgently needed for research.
Han Peacock stood aside and watched the students split into three waves. One group dug the Titanoboa, while the other group urgently dug a hole nearby.
The remaining students went to besiege the small earth mountain not far away.
"It's really a pity that you really don't have a brain."
"The brain bones of snakes are too fragile to form fossils."
"Hurry up and measure it to see if it's twenty meters or not."
"Less than twenty meters. Only eighteen point seven meters."
"This is not bad. It is already bigger than the largest python found in other places."
"Meili, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to see what's over there. Please clean up here carefully. By the way, I'd like to ask Boss Han how to deal with this giant python." Cao Meili climbed out of the pit and directly entered another pit.
"Such a large fossil is not easy to move, so let's put it here first! I plan to build a museum directly here to protect these fossils." Han Peacock said with a smile.
"Great. This way we can preserve the integrity of the fossils to the greatest extent."
"Come here and see, what is this? Why does it look like a scorpion to me?" At this moment, Cao Meili shouted.
The classmate who just participated in the excavation of Titanoboa is considered to be the best learner and the most knowledgeable among their group of students, so Cao Meili needs support.
"Isn't it possible? The ancient giant scorpions became extinct hundreds of millions of years ago. This lower level shouldn't be more than 80 million years old. How could giant scorpions appear?" The professor was finally of some use.
Han Peacock walked over curiously. He felt that the fossils there were a bit strange, but he never felt a huge scorpion at that time.
"You can't be wrong, this is a sea scorpion." At this moment, another classmate said.
"Who can really prove that sea scorpions became extinct 390 million years ago? It's just that they were not found later, so they were judged to be extinct. Now that we have found them here, it means that up to this one, sea scorpions
It is not extinct yet. If this sea scorpion really lived 80 million years ago, then our discovery this time would be great."
"Really a sea scorpion?" Some students who didn't know what it was shouted in surprise.
"Yes, it must be a sea scorpion. This huge creature has been found in Germany. It is an ancient marine scorpion. They are taller than humans, a full 2.5 meters long, and their claws alone are 47 centimeters long.
Just as the professor said, this kind of sea scorpion became extinct 390 million years ago, otherwise humans would face serious threats. In addition to their huge size, ocean scorpions also have the appearance of modern scorpions. They live in salt water and lakes in the ocean.
In the fresh water of the river, the time is about 460 million to 255 million years ago.
This marine scorpion has an armored shell and a huge body, indicating that it was once the king of the animal kingdom, sitting at the top of the food chain, eating fish and trilobites, and even cannibalizing each other.
They generally live in the water, sometimes walking on 6 legs on the seabed, and a pair of hind legs turn into boats for walking. They use hard shells to protect themselves, otherwise they are easily attacked by opponents.
They may also wait until their new shells harden before they mate. They are a very magical creature, and people have not yet understood how they are related to today's scorpions."
Watching Cao Meili talk about the situation of sea scorpions, Han Kongque really admired this girl. It is rare to have such strong professional knowledge at such a young age. This also shows that there are talents in the country.
out.
"Be careful, be careful, haha, there's a turtle down there, that's what I'm saying! There must be a turtle here, and since it's in the water, there might be crocodile fossils, these are big guys!"
Just after completely clearing out the sea scorpion, another one appeared next to it.
Ah! It’s really big. Isn’t this kind of turtle the food of Titanoboa?”
"Not only it, the ancient giant crocodile is also the food of Titanoboa."
Sure enough, the fossils of ancient giant crocodiles were immediately discovered. These fossils were mixed together. No wonder Han Peacock couldn't recognize what they were.
The upper layers of soil were lifted layer by layer, and Han Peacock could see that the top layer here was a huge fossil of a scorpion-like creature. Next to him was a turtle, and facing Titanoboa was a giant python.
Huge crocodile fossil.
The place where this giant snake fossil was unearthed actually also unearthed the skeleton fossils of giant tortoises and ancient crocodiles. This only shows that they may be the prey of this giant snake.
"The next step is to clean up slowly. Although these animals do not live in groups, it is definitely unusual to appear here at the same time. You guys work hard, and I will go and see what's going on over there." Cao couldn't continue to make discoveries.
Beauty continues to change jobs.
"Ah!" After Cao Meili said this, the audience burst into mourning. The rest of the work was too boring and incomparable to the surprise now.
"Stop screaming, this place is really unusual, and there may be many strange creatures there."
Cao Meili ignored these classmates. She walked quickly towards the hill, because exclamations came from there from time to time, which let Cao Meili know that there was something happening over there.
"What's going on here?" The floating soil on the top of the hill has been cleaned up, and layers of rocks are exposed. Among these covers, some fossilized animal bones can be clearly seen.
"Judging from the exposed situation, it seems to be an Iguanodon." A tall white young man replied.
"Iguanodon? The fossils here are very big?" Cao Meili was a little confused.
"It's very big and well preserved. It looks like it's not just one iguanodon, but many."
Iguanodon belongs to the group Sauromorpha, Ornithischia, Ornithopoda. Iguanodon is a large ornithopod dinosaur. It is about 9 to 10 meters long and 4 to 5 meters high. It has a sharp claw on the thumb of its front hand, which may be used for resistance.
Predator.
They mainly existed in the Fanlantian to Barremian stages of the Early Cretaceous Period, from approximately 14,000 to 12,000 million years ago.
The era of survival was roughly in the middle of the process from the first appearance of the agile Hypsilophodon to the hadrosaurs, the most prosperous of the ornithopods.
Looking at some of the rocks that were cleared, I could clearly see a huge creature buried in the rocks.
"Did there ever be an earthquake here? Or maybe it was a volcanic eruption, otherwise it would be impossible to preserve it so completely." Cao Meili said.
"I also think so. If there really was an earthquake and this area was instantly buried, then it would be impossible for there to be just a few Iguanodons buried underground in this area."
"This is easy to understand. Four or five huge creatures appeared over there, including a Titanoboa, a primitive giant tortoise, an ancient giant crocodile, and a huge ocean scorpion."
"So, there must have been an earthquake here, causing a subsidence or a mountain landslide, which instantly buried the area."
"But marine scorpions live in the water, while Iguanodon is a herbivorous animal." Cao Meili said a little troubled. (To be continued.)
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