history of the Earth

Gigantopithecus was the largest ape that ever lived. It stood as high as 3 meters, weighed up to 500 kilograms and lived in the tropical forests of southern China for 6 to 9 million years. It probably didn't stray into the open like modern gorillas and was a fruit-eater. Due to the cooling of the climate forested areas turned into savanna landscapes. Somehow Gigantopithecus managed to survive the first few glacial periods but 100,000 years ago, at the beginning of the last of the Pleistocene ice ages, it went extinct.   There was simply an insufficient food supply for the giant ape, which probably had massive needs.  sources: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/160106-science-evolution-apes-giant https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=580610545&sxsrf=AM9HkKkyvyVNt3QthAe8yLHimHj9grDtHg:1699477129548&q=gigantopithecus&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjC9vDUpbWCAxUPPhAIHSIRCrwQ0pQJegQIDRAB&biw=1920&bih=923...

Fossils are the geologically altered remains of a once-living organism and/or its behaviour. They can be formed in few different ways but the most common way is permineralisation. It occurs when dissolved minerals carried by ground water fill up space inside the cells of plants and animals.The dissolved minerals crystalise in these cellular spaces and eventually form rocks in the shape of the animal or plant. Another way is when the organisms remains are decomposed entirely, leaving an empty space in the shape of the organism, it can be later filled with minerals and form a mineralised 3D shape of the organism. Sometimes, organisms leave behind indications of their behaviour such as tracks, nests or burrows. These fossilised behaviours are known as trace fossils. Soft tissues can also be preserved. They form in special circumstances that often need rapid burial and low oxygen environments that stop the organism from decomposing or being scavenged by other organisms. These cir...

With a 11 to 12-m wingspan, Quetzalcoatlus is the largest flying organism ever known. This gigantic pterosaurs lived around 70 million years ago, probably in an environment inhabited also by the Tyrannosaurus and Torosaurus. Over the years belives, beliefs about how it flew and how it hunted changed. Latest studies says that Quetzalcoatlus was flying occasionly and only for short distances but it was a strong flyer when it did fly. It would probably have used its powerful hind legs to launch as high as 2.4 m when taking off. The most accepted hypothesis is that it lived like a stork and that it would hunt small prey like mammals, lizards and possibly small dinosaurs on land while also utilizing small streams and pounds to catch fish and crustaceans. Because of its size and flight capability it probably didn't have to worry about predators too often.  sources: https://www.google.com/search?q=quetzalcoatlus+compared+to+a+human&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiI3crl-_CBAxVEgosKH...

Synapsids are one of the two major clades of vertebrate animals that evolved from basal amniotes (a group of tetrapod vertebrates), the other being the diapsids, which include reptiles and birds. What distinguished them from diapsids was development of a single temporal opening on the side of the skull. Around 280 million years ago climate started to change which caused many groups of primitive reptilian and amphibians to rapidly decline. Aynapsids instead adapted to the new conditions and dominated the earth. Over time synapsids evolved into many different forms from carnivores to herbivores. At the end of the permian period took place the biggest mass extinction in history of our planet. After that synapsids that didn't extinct started competing with reptails. Dinosaurs quickly replaced them and only smaller ones which adapted to the new environment survived. They endured the cretaceous extinction which killed dinosaurs. New mammals filled many different ecological niches and spr...

 About 6 mln years ago Mediterranean Sea almost completely dissapperd as it was slowly cutting off from the global ocean, the last one was cut off through what is now the Strait of Gibraltar, which did not exist then, but the process itself began 15 million years ago. At the peak of the crisis, the water level was so low that the sea had shrunk to a few large, hypersaline lagoons. At this time Nile was reaching Sicily and was connecting with the Danube. For the many animals, plants and microorganisms it was a death sentence but for some land animals of the area, this was an opportunity to explore new territories. After 600,000 years of desiccations, river erosion near Gibraltar caused the Zanclean megaflood which brought bach the sea and ended the crisis. As the collision between Africa and Eurasia continues, it is highly likely that the Strait of Gibraltar will close again but this time water probably won't evaporated so fast becouse we live in colder climat. sor...

Named for the Ediacara Hills of South Australia, in which they were discovered in 1946, were the first animals, despite sponges, made up of more than one type of cell, that required atmospheric oxygen for their growth. Almost all of these fossils are dated between 575 and 542 million years ago. These creatures had wide variety of shapes and sizes from circular discs reaching 20 cm to frond-shaped that can be as long as 1 meter. Some of them were similar to today's jellyfishes, soft corals and seeweed but some were unlike to the organisms known today. At the begining of the Cambrian explosion they disappear almost simultaneously probably becouse of the emergence of Cambrian predator animals. Ediacaran fauna's relationships with the rest of extant and extinct animals has not been possible to firmly establish, so they may not be connected to the rest of the organisms on Earth. sources:  https://www.google.com/search?q=ediakar&tbm=isch&hl=pl&bih=839&biw=1...