Department of Education Administration

Novouralsky City District

Municipal educational institution

"Average comprehensive school No. 56"

"My first step into science"
Do dinosaurs have relatives on Earth?

Pritykin Leonid,

student 2 "B" class

MOU "Secondary School No. 56"
Leaders:

Verevkina E.S., teacher

elementary grades;
Zakharova G.A., teacher

additional

education;
Pritykina A.V. Mother

Novouralsk, 2010

Plan


  1. Introduction…………………………………………………….p.

  2. The main part……………………………………………... p.

    1. 2.1.Short story development of the animal world………….p.

    2. 2.2. The era of the dinosaurs…………………………………………………………….

    3. 2.3. Archaeological excavations…………………………... p.

    4. 2.4. Relatives of dinosaurs on Earth……………….....p.

    5. 2.5. Questionnaire………………………………………...p.

  3. Conclusion………………………………………………….p.

  4. References…………………………………………p.

1. Introduction
Earth is the only known planet where life exists. The earth has been constantly changing over many millions of years of its history before becoming the planet we live on today.

I would like to consider a period, or rather an entire era, in the history of planet Earth, which is very interesting with such a variety of new life forms. And the most famous of these creatures were the dinosaurs.

Do they still have relatives on Earth?

Prepare a presentation.


Methods:

Theoretical (reading literature);

Practical (preparation of the scheme, questioning, organization of competitions).
Object of study: the development of animal life on Earth.
Subject of study: family ties dinosaurs with modern animals.
Relevance: many modern animals are also on the verge of extinction, and even such ferocious crocodiles (there are 28 species on Earth) are also disappearing. They are currently cultivated and protected.

Scaled reptiles (lizards, iguanas, tuatara, etc.) are also endangered, which is why it is necessary to know more about the life of these modern "relatives" of dinosaurs. My work, in which there is a selection about the life of dinosaurs and modern reptiles will help in many ways to understand, those who are interested in this topic.

2. Main body
2.1. A Brief History of the Development of the Animal Kingdom
Where did life come from? Earth has mild temperatures, and its atmosphere contains gases and water ideal for plant and animal life. huge stage geological history called "time of hidden life". Scientists have little evidence that there were any creatures on Earth. Bacteria and single-celled creatures do not leave fossils. However, there is indirect evidence that there were creatures that gradually developed and turned into soft-bodied multicellular organisms.

At the beginning of the Cambrian period (590 - 505 million years ago), the first skeletal organisms appeared in the process of evolution. They had the ability to absorb the mineral calcite from sea ​​water and lay it in the form of a living shell.

All life in those days was concentrated in the oceans, very soon they were filled with the most different forms life. There were many-legged or no-legged animals, with heads or tails covered with shells, with spines and tools for digging holes - it seemed as if nature was ready to try anything, just to see what would be effective.

The second result of the evolution that gave rise to hard shells was that animals equipped with a shell leave beautiful fossils. The history of life from this point onwards is well documented. That is why the next stage of geological history - from the Cambrian to the present day - is called "manifest life".

As evolutionary forms changed, some of the animal species became land dwellers with articulated limbs and lungs capable of breathing air. These were the first amphibians.

The process of conquering land by animals took place over millions of years.

2.2 Dinosaur era

Dinosaurs lived in mesozoic era, it lasted 170 million years. The era was divided into three periods: Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous.

Dinosaurs evolved from a lineage of diapsids called archosaurs, meaning "reigning reptiles". In addition, the archosaur group included pterosaurs, as well as crocodiles and alligators that we know today. The typical archosaur of the Triassic period was a bipedal carnivore, no larger than a wolf, and usually much smaller.

"Dinosaur"- translated from Latin "terrible lizard" Some of the dinosaurs that appeared on Earth were carnivores, while others were herbivores. Some moved on 4 limbs, others on two. They were the most significant land animals between the late Triassic and the end Cretaceous. However, by the end of the Cretaceous period, dinosaurs, like many other groups of animals, became extinct.

At the beginning of the era of dinosaurs, in the late Triassic, all the land on Earth was merged together and was called the supercontinent Pangea. However, the main time for the flourishing of dinosaurs and the development of evolutionary lines falls on the Jurassic period.

The best-studied fossils jurassic a, but the history of marine reptiles goes back to the Triassic, when there were several separate early forms of ichthyosaurs. Some were like eels, others were huge and resembled whales.

IN Triassic period There were several types of reptiles that could soar in the air using skin membranes. However, it was only with the evolution of Late Triassic pterosaurs that truly flying species appeared among the reptiles.

What were the first dinosaurs? There is no such answer to this question. Paleontologists express only general assumptions.

As far as we know, the ancestors of dinosaurs were small carnivores. It is possible that the first dinosaurs appeared in South America. The most complete skeletons of early dinosaurs have been found there, although scattered remains have come to the surface in other parts of the world.

In the late Triassic period, the first dinosaurs, including Eoraptor, were found on the shores overgrown with lush vegetation. the size of a fox. In terms of shape and size, Eoraptor corresponds to all ideas about a primitive dinosaur.

Prosauropods were the main herbivorous dinosaurs of the Late Triassic. . The most famous of the herbivorous dinosaurs was Plateosaurus. The length of his body reached 8 meters.

Plateosaurus

During the Jurassic period, the appearance of the Earth changed significantly. Large bays gradually deepened, turning into oceans. The climate became warm and humid, which contributed to the flourishing flora and, accordingly, the distribution and development of reptiles, especially dinosaurs.


Pterosaurs were flying in the sky, which had just begun to evolve. Pterodactyloids were the dominant group of pterosaurs since the Late Jurassic.
pterosaurs

In the shallow waters of the Jurassic period, numerous marine reptiles fed on fish and invertebrates that inhabited the warm waters.



A wide variety of cetacean and eel-like ichthyosaur forms that existed during the Triassic period have been reduced to a dolphin-like form.

ichthyosaurs
During the age of the dinosaurs, carnivores of various sizes evolved to prey on game of various sizes. Theropods were large and ferocious animals, but some of them were quite small.


Sauropods were large herbivores of late Jurassic times.

The most studied skeleton brachiosaurus. Approximately half the height brachiosaurus in height is the neck.

brachiosaurus

The last of the pterosaurs were true monsters, some with wingspans larger than those of gliders or small planes. The largest modern flying birds, such as the albatross or the Andean condor, would be dwarfed by the giant pterosaurs that dominated the skies at the end of the dinosaur age.

The peak of the dinosaur era is the Cretaceous period. By the onset of the Cretaceous period, the supercontinent Pangea had split into separate parts.

Pterosaurs continued to evolve and reached the highest diversity. Then came the time of decline, as the birds that appeared began to occupy their niches. As a result of this competitive evolutionary pressure, pterosaurs adapted to the limited living conditions and took on more and more bizarre forms.

Ichthyosaurs declined and became extinct at the beginning of the Cretaceous. Their place is fast-swimming marine predators during the Cretaceous, a group of animals called mosasaurs occupied it. They were close relatives of modern monitor lizards, but they had adaptations to marine life that turned them into real sea ​​snakes of his time.



The end of the Cretaceous period was the time of the dominance of a ferocious predator - a tyrannosaurus rex. Adapting to such a formidable neighborhood, some herbivorous dinosaurs acquired means of protection - they developed horns, armored shields and spikes that helped defend themselves from terrible predators. Some lizards have become invulnerable, having acquired horns, armored shields and heavy maces at the ends of their tails.

tyrannosaurus rex
There are many theories regarding the reasons that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Basically, scientists express several theories:

The fall of a meteorite, which caused a shock wave of enormous power and fires;

Climatic changes, such as rising temperatures or cooling of the atmosphere, which could have had a detrimental effect on dinosaur populations;

Natural disasters caused by the strongest volcanic eruptions or earthquakes.

Whatever the reason, the dinosaur kingdom was over. Some new forms of life spread on Earth, which turned out to be mammals. In the days of the dinosaurs, they were small, insignificant creatures, but they had such adaptability that they reigned on Earth when the dinosaurs gave way to them. As a result, they evolved, spread and occupied all the niches that used to belong to dinosaurs.

2.3. Archaeological excavations
Thanks to the work of hundreds of paleontologists who discovered and studied fossils, there are fewer blank spots in the history of the Earth.

Fossilized dinosaur bones may remain buried in rocks millions of years. Sometimes the top layer of sedimentary rocks is weathered, and the fossils are on the surface. Then they can be discovered and studied by paleontologists who are trying to find out what life was like in the distant past.

Paleontologists study maps, looking for places where dinosaur remains might be found. Then scientists go on expeditions in search of these ancient animals.

Scientists cannot say how many years each individual dinosaur lived, but it is believed that long-necked herbivores lived longer than others. If they were warm-blooded, they could live up to a hundred years, and if they were cold-blooded, then up to two hundred.

Hermann von Mayer (1801 – 1896) was the first German paleontologist to describe and name the first bird, Archeopteryx, as well as some of the pterosaurs found in southern Germany. In addition, he was a pioneer in the study of dinosaurs in Germany and Northern Europe.

Eberhard Fraas (1862 - 1915), an outstanding German explorer, being a member of an expedition to East Africa in 1907, discovered the Jurassic deposits of the remains of dinosaurs. The prefabricated skeleton of a brachiosaurus stood for many years in the Humboldt Museum in Berlin.

In 1993, amateur collector Ruben Carolini, as a result of excavations in Patagonia, discovered the skeleton of the largest carnivorous dinosaur, the Giganotosaurus. The assembled Giganotosaurus skeleton adorns the lobby of the Academy of Natural History in Philadelphia (USA).

The American Museum of Natural History in New York has the largest collection of over 100 dinosaur species.

P

aleontological museum. Yu.A.Orlova is rightfully considered one of the largest natural history museums in the world. The history of the museum is outlandish finds of fragments of skeletons of ancient animals.

The real gem of the Late Paleozoic Hall is the North Dvina Gallery of Permian Reptiles, assembled by Professor V.P. Amalitsky in 1898-1914. Here you can also see the bizarre skeletons of giant herbivorous dinocephalians found in the Ocher locality in Perm region in 1953-1960.

2.4. Relatives of dinosaurs on Earth
It would seem that there are not many evolutionary steps yet and higher mammals will appear, but this did not happen during the dinosaur period. Although in the era of dinosaurs already lived invisible mammals such as shrews, hedgehogs without needles, but they were on the sidelines. Who knows, if the dinosaurs had not died out, then perhaps the planet would have had a completely different look, and the appearance of a person would also have been different.


Troodon's large brain led a Canadian paleontologist to speculate that if dinosaurs hadn't died out, Troodon would today would have evolved into a sentient humanoid form, or the humanoid could have evolved from the coelusaurus - after all, they had prehensile, freed forelimbs and a bipedal gait.

Humanoid
Dinosaurs have disappeared, but are there any distant relatives these marvelous and amazing lizards. To do this, you need to look into more ancient ages than those when dinosaurs lived. The author tried to do this with a little research. He drew up a diagram, where he showed how the development of the animal world on Earth proceeded.

Scheme of the development of the animal world on Earth
Kisteperovy fish

400-360 million years ago

(cyacanthus is the only famous representative brush fish)

Amphibian

300 million years ago

(Stegocephalus - combined the features of a brush fish and an amphibian)

animal reptiles

reptiles

Mammals Ichthyosaurs Turtles Crocodilo-

Pliosaur-like

Mesosaurus
ancient lizards

Primitive

Ground

pterosaurs crocodiles

Dinosaurs reptiles

(tuatara, monitor lizard, iguana, etc.) crocodiles

65-38 million years ago

predators (Nile, marine, etc.)

(theropods) herbivorous coelurosaurs

(sauropods)
Humanoids?

After analyzing this table, we can say that the closest relatives of dinosaurs that have survived to this day are the current reptiles: tuatara, iguanas, monitor lizards, and other reptiles.

Tuatara

An animal that appeared on Earth 200 million years ago lives in New Zealand, that is, it is the modern day of dinosaurs. This animal is called tuatara or a three-eyed lizard.

Hatteria is similar to large lizard with a massive body and a large head. Reptiles grow all their lives, males grow up to 75 cm. This is a unique representative of an extinct group of reptiles, one might say, a living fossil.

Tuatara are beak-headed reptiles. At the end of the skull, the tuatara has a semblance of a beak, hence the name of the detachment. The resemblance to giant ancestors is betrayed by a low crest of triangular scales, which starts from the back of the head and stretches along the back and tail. Tuatara are painted in a dull olive color with numerous light cells throughout the body. Tuataria are nocturnal animals.

Animals are preserved only on the islands, little accessible to humans.


iguana



Few animals can be found that are more ugly than the sea iguana. This is a brownish-brown or blackish lizard, with scattered throughout the body irregular shape large blurry spots, reminiscent of the color of the rocks, where these lizards spend their entire lives. The largest iguanas reach up to two meters. These lizards live mainly in Africa, there are on the islands of Madagascar. A crest of elongated triangular scales that runs along the back and neck gives the lizard a menacing appearance.

One of the largest iguanas is the marine iguana. Lives only in the Galapagos archipelago and feeds exclusively on algae. marine iguanas are excellent swimmers. Iguanas live in large herds.

monitor lizard

Of those lizards that are found in Central Asia, monitor lizard the largest. The length of the body reaches 60 centimeters, and even the tail, which is one and a half times longer than the body. The monitor lizard in its appearance resembles the most ancient inhabitants of the Earth. In general, the monitor lizard is very similar to a crocodile.

It is called so - "desert crocodile". The head of the monitor lizard is flattened from above and covered with horny plates. various shapes. The color of the monitor lizard is grayish-brown, in good harmony with the places where it constantly lives.

In Russia, there is only one type of monitor lizard - gray monitor lizard. Asylums he most often serve as the holes of rodents, turtles and birds, which he deepens and expands. Sometimes it digs its own hole. In September it flows into hibernation. Desert crocodiles are diurnal. It hunts rodents, lizards, young hedgehogs, small birds and snakes. Currently, the number of reptiles has greatly decreased.

crocodiles


Crocodiles, though not exactly close relatives, are also descended from common reptiles, the progenitors of all land animals. They appeared even before the era of dinosaurs, observed the flowering of these amazing animals, and having survived to this day, their appearance and behavior remind us of dinosaurs.


The most famous and, if I may say so, the most famous of all crocodiles, the Nile, from ancient times served as the subject of true descriptions and fabulous stories.

The lifestyle of a crocodile is as follows: he lives on land and in water, lays and incubates eggs on land, where he spends most of the day. and returns to the river at night, as the water is warmer at night than clear sky and dew. He becomes from the smallest to the largest among all animals. Its eggs are no larger than those of goose, and the young are at first of very small size; but when grown up, it is 17 cubits long.

He has four legs, eyes like a pig, big protruding teeth, no tongue. It does not move the lower jaw, but, on the contrary, raises the upper one, which is not characteristic of any animal. Its claws are large, the skin, covered with scales, cannot be separated from the back.


We can say that these are modern dinosaurs, which in this form have survived to this day.

2.5. Questionnaire
Questionnaire
1. Have you read about dinosaurs?

Not really


2. Which of the following animals would you classify as dinosaurs?

A) crocodile D) stegosaurus

B) monkey E) lizard

C) plesiosaur E) turtle

3. Would you like to meet a dinosaur?
26 people took part in the survey. On the first question of the questionnaire, most of the guys know who dinosaurs are. The answers of the guys to the second question were as follows: they attributed to dinosaurs:

A) crocodile - man D) stegosaurus - man

B) monkey - man E) lizard - man

C) plesiosaur - man E) turtle - man

Not all the guys expressed a desire to meet with a dinosaur, but only 17 people. (Appendix 1,2,3)

3. Conclusion

For many centuries people have been studying and will continue to study the development of life on Earth. There are a lot of mysteries in the history of the development of the animal world. Look around and see wonderful world, where tiny monkeys and huge hippos live nearby, kangaroos and huge lions jump. Many questions immediately arise. This is what happened with dinosaurs: they even surprise in the pictures, and I want to know more about them. And so it happened with the author, he studied the life of dinosaurs in great detail.

Having studied the development of life on Earth from the era of dinosaurs to the present, and it turned out that some modern animals are very similar to dinosaurs, the author, by drawing up a diagram, proved his assumptions that dinosaurs and modern animals (reptiles) do indeed have common ancestors.


  1. Literature

  1. Dickson D. « amazing dinosaurs". - M .: "Onyx 21st century", 2001. - 125p.

  2. Dixon, D. "World Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs." - M .: "Eksmo", 2008. - 256s.

  3. Yakovleva I. "Trace of the dinosaur". - M .: "Rosmen", 1993. - 190s.

Internet sites:

1. www. AQUARIA. RU/books/chegod.shtml?1. Aquarium - science or entertainment? Club "Russian Aquarium"

2. www. SMALLANIMALS. EN/page – 44 htm! Small and dangerous.

Annex 1

Survey results

1. Have you read about dinosaurs?

Not really

Yes - 21 people (81%)

No - 5 people (19%)

Annex 2
2. Which of the following animals would you classify as dinosaurs?

A) crocodile D) stegosaurus

B) monkey E) lizard

C) plesiosaur E) turtle

A) crocodile - 6 (23%) D) stegosaurus - 21 (81%)

B) monkey - 0 E) lizard - 5 (19%)

C) plesiosaur - 20 (77%) E) tortoise - 12 (46%)

Annex 3
3. Would you like to meet a dinosaur?

Yes - 17 people (65%)

No - 9 people (35%)

1. Purpose of the study: -to find out whether dinosaur relatives exist in our time 2. Research objectives: -Compare existing animals with various types dinosaurs - Prove that now there are relatives of dinosaurs 3. Object and base of research: - Archeology and zoology - Subject of research: dinosaurs and animals similar to them - Research participants: giraffe, rhinoceros, armadillo, crocodile, snake, ostrich 4. Research hypotheses: -I think that nowadays there are relatives of dinosaurs 5. Research methods: -comparison of various animals with dinosaurs 6. Research results: do dinosaur relatives exist in our time 7. How can we help dinosaur relatives


This presentation is about dinosaurs. A bit of history: Dinosaurs lived years ago. These terrible lizards were land animals - they did not swim or fly. Dinosaurs are divided into two main groups - lizards (a pelvis like a lizard) and ornithischians. In total, about 600 species have been described, which are assigned to 44 families that lived in different periods of the Mesozoic. Scientists are discovering new species. Dinosaurs sometimes traveled great distances in search of food, and many roamed in herds in which adults kept around the babies to protect them. They were distinguished from other reptiles primarily by the position of their legs: they placed their legs vertically, and did not spread them out, like, for example, crocodiles. The skeleton of adult dinosaurs, found near their nests, suggests that some species took care of their offspring, among them Mayasaurs, whose name translates as midwife lizards or caring mothers.


Here are some of them. PLATIOSAUR - This is one of the largest and most powerful lizards of its era - its length was more than 8 m. Sauropods have long been considered amphibious animals that spent most of their lives in rivers and lakes, completely immersed in water, only sticking their heads out , in order to feel their weight less, however, it has now been proven that their herds continuously roamed overland in search of food, eating grass to the roots and tearing leaves from trees.






Predators carnivorous dinosaurs belong to the group of tyropod beasts. All of them ran on their hind legs, all were lizards. Giants are known among them, but there were killers the size of a turkey. Carnosaurus is considered the largest of the predators. The smallest (90 cm) of the Compsognathus predators. The main length was the neck and tail. He weighed about 2 kg, like a chicken.














Crocodiles are the only surviving representatives of the archosaur subclass, they have not changed much over millions of years, this conclusion can be drawn from the remains of skeletons that are found around the world. By their behavior - how they catch, eat prey, care for offspring - you can imagine what the archosaurs were like.


Comparing Dinosaurs to Birds Looking at the skeleton of birds, you can see that the leg bones are very similar in structure to the leg bones of dinosaurs. The legs of birds are also covered with scales. Birds lay eggs. Many birds are similar in appearance: for example, an ostrich looks like a strutiomim.

From the early childhood I liked dinosaur cartoons. Then I learned to read, and I had a small home library with books and coloring books about dinosaurs. And all the time I wanted to understand how they lived, why they died out, and whether they have relatives in our world. After all, many existing animals are similar to dinosaurs.

Purpose of the study: to find out if dinosaur relatives exist in our time, or maybe not all dinosaurs have died out.

Research objective: compare existing animals with different types of dinosaurs.

Hypothesis: I think that in our time there are animals - relatives of dinosaurs. For example: giraffes, rhinos, turtles, chameleons, crocodiles.

Historical information about dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs (from the Greek "terrible lizards") are animals belonging to the class of reptiles. They could be the size of a cat or a chicken, or they could reach the size of huge whales. Some of them moved on 4 limbs, while others ran on their hind legs. Among them were clever hunters-predators, but there were also harmless herbivorous animals, some of them switched to life in the water. Some of them were slow, while others could move at great speed.

Dinosaurs appeared on our planet about 230 million years ago, and died out 65 million years ago. These are some of the most amazing living creatures on our planet. All dinosaurs were reptiles with scaly skin and claws on their feet. Most of them laid eggs with hard shells.

Comparison of dinosaurs with animals.

Some animals may look like dinosaurs, but this is not enough. Skeletons and behaviors should be similar.

First I compared external image and behavioral features of the giraffe, armadillo and rhinoceros with dinosaurs.

GIRAFFE: thanks to his long neck can eat leaves from the tops of trees, like diploc.

The armadillo is covered with a bone shell, like an ankylosaurus.

The RHINO looks something like a Triceratox. He also has a large, heavy body and a horn on his nose.

So these animals are relatives of dinosaurs? No. Both the giraffe, and the armadillo, and the rhinoceros are mammals, and the dinosaurs are reptiles. Therefore, we must look among the reptiles.

Comparison of dinosaurs with reptiles.

Compare turtle, crocodile with dinosaurs.

TURTLES: They outlived the dinosaurs and survived into modern times. But they are not related to dinosaurs.

CROCODILES: About 250 million years ago, a group of reptiles appeared - archosaurs. From them came:

  • pterosaurs - air reptiles
  • dinosaurs - land reptiles
  • crocodiles are inhabitants of rivers and swamps.

This means that crocodiles are the closest relatives of dinosaurs that have survived to our time. If you watch crocodiles - how they catch and eat prey, how they care for offspring, then you get an approximate idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe lifestyle of dinosaurs.

Comparing dinosaurs to birds.

While researching birds, I discovered an amazing thing. The bones of the legs of birds are very similar in structure to the bones of the legs of dinosaurs - predators (Deinonychus, compsognathus). Although birds are not reptiles, there are still some very important features similarities:

  • the feet of birds are covered with scales
  • birds lay eggs in hard shells

Many scientists believe that it is birds that are the closest relatives of dinosaurs: the Ostrich looks very similar to the strutnomim, and also ran fast.

Conclusion:

Thus, by conducting research work, my hypothesis about the existence of relatives of dinosaurs in our time was confirmed. That is, the pigeons that we feed in the parks may be the closest relatives of dinosaurs.

Crocodiles are also related to dinosaurs. They evolved around the same time as the dinosaurs.

Horseshoe crabs are considered to be the most ancient of the animals living on Earth today - aquatic chelicerae from the class of merostomes. On this moment known four modern look these arthropods. They live in the shallow waters of tropical seas. South-East Asia And Atlantic coast North America. Horseshoe crabs appeared on our planet about 450 million years ago.

Cephalopods neopilina originated on Earth 355-400 million years ago. They live in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans at depths from 1800 to 6500 meters. These creatures were discovered only in 1957.

Latimeria is the only extant genus lobe-finned fish and are now considered living fossils. Now there are only two types of coelacanths - one lives off the eastern and southern coasts of Africa, and the second was first described only in 1997-1999. near the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia.

Interestingly, at the moment, scientists do not know what a young coelacanth looks like and where young fish live for the first few years of their lives - no young individuals have been identified during diving. It is believed that coelacanths originated on Earth 300-400 million years ago.


Cockroaches appeared on our planet about 320 million years ago and since then have been actively spreading - to currently scientists know more than 200 genera and 4500 species.

The remains of cockroaches are, along with the remains of cockroaches, the most numerous traces of insects in Paleozoic deposits.


The oldest surviving to this day large predator is a crocodile. At the same time, it is considered the only surviving species of crurotarsi - a group that also included a number of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. It is believed that crocodiles appeared on Earth approximately 250 million years ago.

Crocodiles are common in all tropical countries, living in a variety of fresh water bodies; relatively few species are tolerant of salt water and are found in the coastal part of the seas ( nile crocodile, combed crocodile, African narrow-nosed crocodile).

The first crocodiles lived mainly on land and only later moved to life in the water. All modern crocodiles are adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle - living in water, however, they lay their eggs on land.


small class crustaceans Gill-footed shields appeared on Earth 220-230 million years ago, when dinosaurs still lived on the planet. Shields are small creatures and are rarely longer than 12 cm, however, due to unique system they managed to survive.

The fact is that shields live in stagnant water of temporary fresh water bodies, due to which they are spared from natural enemies and in their niche are at the top of the ecological pyramid.


Tuataria, a type of reptile, are the only modern representative an ancient order of beakheads. They live only on a few islands of New Zealand, despite the fact that the hatteria have already become extinct on the North and South Islands.

These reptiles grow up to 50 years, and average duration life is 100 years. It is believed that they originated on the planet 220 million years ago, and now tuatara are included in the IUCN Red List and have conservation status vulnerable kind.



The Nephila spider is not only considered the oldest on the planet - scientists believe that this genus originated about 165 million years ago, but it is also the largest web-weaving spider. These spiders live in Australia, Asia, Africa, America and the island of Madagascar.

Interestingly, fishermen collect the Nephila web, form a ball out of it, which they then throw into the water to catch the fish.