Tullimonstrum

Welp, i tried😅

1: edaphosaurus

2: ophiacodon (my beloved)

3: tullimonstrum/tully monster

4: basilosaurus

5: zhongijanichthys

6: gastornis

7: liopleurodon

8: pelagornis

7: teratophoneus

10: allosaurus

Here in the carboniferous period the longest period of the paleozoic, about 358.9-298 million years ago are vast swamps covering the landscape

The oxygen here is much higher about 35% of the atmosphere compared to 21% today. thanks to the growth of trees removing amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

But...this could also mean that insects and other arthropods got bigger.......

about 350-320 million years ago is when delitzschala bitterfeldensis appeared as the first flying species to ever lived...

This is where the evolution of flight begins. woth a wingspan of just 2½ cm in a irregular pattern of coloured spots on his wings. it is that delitzschala is a camoflauged insect. as it clearly matches it's surrounding dull greenery in the swamps. as evolution goes on, other insect species later evolved flight. then 215 mya. in the mesozoic this ability was later achived by pterosaurus, then birds are next to gain the ability to fly, then in the cenozoic which is the era we still live in today, bats also evolved flight since 50 million years ago as a result of convergent evolution.

But this series mainly focuses on the paleozoic. lets just move on!

(shi's reconstruction of meganeura)

Now, arthropods are the dominant species of this time period, they are abundant.

The carboniferous also saw the emergence of the first amniotes like synapsids and reptiles.

(hylonomus on left,archeothyris on the right, tully monster on bottom, meganeura holding a dead petrolacosaurus. art by: shi468/shi again/ shi reincarnated)

In the depths bellow are tullimonstrum, colloquially known as tully monsters. these creatures that look like something straight out of a sci-fi series are actually soft-bodied bilaterian animals & also discovered in the mazon creek fossil beds of central illinois,usa by francis tully in 1955

(artist's reconstruction of tullimonstrum as a lamprey-like animal)

it's claw or jaw for snatching onto prey as might be a carnivore. it can reach length up to 15 inches long which isn't that big if you think about it.

(hypothetical reconstruction of edestus based on ther eugeneodonts)

This fish had more curved but not round blades or tooth whorls unlike helicoprion who lived later at the permian. and is about 6.7 meters in length and weighted 2 tons. he's a tough predatory fish with serrated teeth that have a long v-shape that stacked up on eachother akin to roof tiling.

(illustration of megarachne)

This is megarachne, now if you haved watched the original bbc documentary: WWM episode 2 reptiles beginnings, you might think it's a giant spider but it's actually a eurypterid A.K.A sea scoripon.

Thats because megarachne was "misidenified" and it's thought to be a large spider untill further studies...

she's a 54 cm long eurypterid, discovered in argentina. but unlike most sea scorpions who live in the ocean,megarachne perferred to live in freshwater enviorments.

She has blade-like structures on her appendages to engage in feeding method known as sweep-feeding, ranking though the solf-bodied sediments of aquatic enviorment with her frontal appendages to capture and feed on small invertabtates, so she's a carnivore. but when comes face-to-face with another carnivore

(reconstruction of C.concinnus)

Ctenacanthus major is a large shark from the 2 americas/americanos continents.

But theres not much about him so he isn't a well-known species.

Early Reptiles & synapsids thrived in the vast swampy coal forest.

A petrolacosaurus was crawling entering the territory of a territory of a ophiacodon.

(illustration of ophiacodon during the events of carboniferous rainforest collapse by shi468/shi again/shi reincarnated)

Ophiacodon weight 230 kg and reach lengths to about 3 meters.

This one isn't happy that a creature stumpled onto it's territory, it's name means:"snake teeth". petrolacosaurus makes a run for it managed to run away from this carnivorous synapsid.

In whats now usa, some proterogyrinus are thriving. they are embolemeri tetrapods from the mid-carboniferous.

The Arthropleura came into the lake without knowing. he's related to modern millipedes, about as long as a car. his jaws could deliver a strong & nasty bite don't worry. arthropleura is a herbivore meaning that he eats plants

The minor extinction event is slowly approaching. concentration of carbon dioxide crashed in the atmosphere in one of all time global lows. the remaining swamps & forest are unable to survive this great danger and finally wiped out. fire is naturally ignited causing a "natural" forest fire. the climate becomes cooler & drier. dwarfism is caused, shortly after, animals and plants that adapted to these forest are unable to keep up with the rapid changes and then gone extinct.while others survived

So now. we entered the permian period...

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