"Prehistoric Earth"-Collection Activity of Xuzhou Children's Creative Painting

      Ordovician species

    The Ordovician began 500 million years ago, with the highest number of trilobites. Common species include corals, brachiopods, gastropods, sea lilies, and nautilus. Some groups have been further developed, such as pen stones, corals, brachiopods, sea lilies, mosses and mollusks.

    Silurian and Devonian (439-363 million years ago)

    After a long evolution, the earth finally entered a period dominated by vertebrates. Fish became the overlord of the time. 367 million years ago, huge meteors cut through the night sky and fell into the sea, and the sky was shining with light. At this time the global climate is drying up and the temperature is falling. The amount of oxygen in the ocean has dropped to very low levels. As a result, many marine life, including reef-building animals, a variety of fish and brachiopods, have become extinct.

    The rainforest is the most prosperous place, and insects make up one third of the total weight of animals and plants. The sturdy exoskeleton protects small animals from harm and prevents them from drying out during drought and rain. It took 40 million years for plants and insects to create good conditions for amphibians before amphibians climbed from the water to the shore, where plants and herbivores provided sufficient food. As no larger animal competed with it, amphibians spread rapidly.

    Ocher Carboniferous and Permian (about 363-251 million years ago)

    During the Carboniferous Period, the climate was humid, and new and strange forests appeared. This was the earliest forest on land. These forests are not as dense and dark as the swamp forests of today. They are made of equavers, thick layers of ferns, and tall and thin trees.

    Sting insects are the first animals to master flying techniques. Reptiles, birds, mammals and even fish all flew into the sky after them. Flying greatly facilitates avoiding predators, conquering new territories and finding new sources of food.

    Evolution of reptiles (about 250-205 million years ago)

    Reptiles include large carnivorous animals, lightweight predators, scaled armor, herbivorous animals with mouths like pigs, and fish-eating animals like crocodiles. They lived with the earliest dinosaurs. Many reptiles are larger and more common than the earliest dinosaurs, but these reptiles and dinosaurs are much larger than the earliest mammals; mammals that emerged during this period were not larger than rats.

    The heyday of the dinosaur (about 208-146 million years ago)

Tyrannosaurus

      The Jurassic was the heyday of dinosaurs. In addition to dinosaurs on the land and ichthyosaurs in the water, pterosaurs and birds also appeared. In this way, for the first time, vertebrates have occupied three major ecological areas: land, sea and air. At the same time, the single continent on the earth was broken down into two continents, and the plants and climate became more diverse. But the earth is still warm and there are no grasses or flowering plants.

      The last prosperity of dinosaurs (about 146 million-65 million years ago)

     By the end of the Cretaceous, all the dinosaurs, as well as ichthyosaurs and pterosaurs, had been reduced due to abrupt environmental changes. At this point, the reptiles who had dominated the country have fallen into a state of stagnation, withdrew from the stage of history, and the earth's landscape changed dramatically. After the sea reached record heights, the shapes of the continents were very similar to today. Flowering plants appeared, and many insects-from bees to ants-also appeared. Giant lizards swim in the ocean with giant turtles. In the air, pterosaurs spread their wings up to 12 meters. On land, dinosaurs dominate, and their size and shape exceed all previous types.