paleo

THE TIME AFTER THE DINOSAURIS

65 million years ago ended the CRETACEOUS, probably by a catastrophe, because many animal species, that ruled the earth for millions of years, were suddenly extincted, amongt them the dinosaurs and the ammonites.

65 million years ago began the T E R T I A R Y, which is divided into the PALEOCENE, the EOCENE, the OLIGOCENE, the MIOCENE and the PLIOCENE.

In PALEOCENE, before 65 to 55 million years, huge birds like the Diatryma had developed (see also the size comparison at the beginning):

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The EOCENE, before 55 to 35 million years, one could describe as age of the hoofed mammals. These reached, like, e. g. the Brontotherium, enormous measurements, however not the size of the dinosaurs:

On the left a reconstruction of that animal, on the right the Brontotherium, comapred with a present rhinoceros.

In these times developed also the primary horse, of which we have found very good fossiles in the pit Messel near Darmstadt and which was as big as a small dog:

In OLIGOCENE, from 35 to 23 million years ago, the horse developed on and on.

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In MIOCENE, from 23 to 12 million years ago, lived a strange relative of the elephants, the Dinotherium:

Near the end of Miocene, 12 million years ago, lived an enormous bird, unable to fly, the Phororhacus. It was 1,5 meters tall and had a strong bill and powerful claws:

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The PLIOCENE, from 12 to 2 million years is the last and probably also the most interesting era of the TERTIARY, cause at the end this era, man appears for the first time.

But at first some other creatures of this epoch. In South America lived a big hoofed mammal, that looked like camel with trunk, called Macrauchenia, which we see on the image left below. Next to this, a giant sloth, that lived some time later in South America, the Megatherium, compared to man (it was as big as an elephant).

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Near the end of PLIOCENE lived the Machairodus, a huge sabre tooth tiger, the enemy of the Australopithecines, the first humans. Circa 5 million years ago the pedigrees of chimpanzes and man divided, from 3,5 to 3 million years ago lived the first upright walking human, the Australopithecus afarensis, whose skeleton has been christened "Lucy" by the discoverers:

From the left to the right: living image of Machairodus and a life-sized model of Australopithecus afarensis next to an anthropologist.

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Two million years ago, with the beginning of Q U A T E R N A R Y, that lasts up till now, developed out of the Australopithecus afarensis the Homo habilis, whom we see here:

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The first period of Q U A T E R N A R Y we call PLEISTOCENE. It began 2 million years ago and ended 12 000 years ago. During this time, man developed on and on. Out of the Homo habilis devoloped 1,5 million years ago Homo erectus, also known as peking man and Homo heidelbergensis:

On the left we see the skull of peking man, in the middle a reconstruction of Heidelberg man, whose lower jaw, that we see on the right, has been found in Mauer near Heidelberg.

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Out of the Homo erectus deloped the Steinheim Man, the Homo sapiens steinheimensis, who lived 300 000 years ago in the region of the today's Steinheim an der Murr in Baden-Wuerttemberg; he is the common ancestor of Neanderthal man and modern man:

On the left, we see the original skull of Steinheim, a woman, who shows traces of violence. On the right the reconstruction of a Steinheim-man. The original skull is visible at Urmensch-Museum in Steinheim/Murr. There, one finds also life images and skeletons of some of the animals that lived together with Steinheim man. In those time, there were two great landscapes: the grasslands (prairie) and the woodlands. In the grasslands lived these animals:

From the left to the right: wild horse, prairie giant stag, prairie elephant and prairie bison

In den woodlands lived these animals, that like a bit different than their relatives in grasslands.

From the left to the right: water buffalo, wood giant stag, wood elephant, aurochs

Here some skeletons of the prairie animals:

On the left, the skeleton of the prairie giant stag, in the middle and on the right the skeleton of the prairie elephant. All these skeletons one can see at Museum am Löwentor in Stuttgart, the prairie elephant skeleton also at Urmensch-Museum in Steinheim/Murr

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100 000 years ago developed out of the Steinheimer man the Neanderthal man (Homo sapiens neandertalensis) and the modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens). The differences between both, one can see on the following animated Gif and the images next to this:

From the left to the right: This self-made morphing-gif shows the differnece between the coarser Neanderthal skull with bulges above the eyes and the more graceful skull of modern man. This difference, we can also see on the image in the middle: above the skull of modern man, below the Neaderthal skull. The image on the left finally shows a typical Neanderthal skull.

The Neanderthal man was best adapted to the ice age in Europe, whereas the modern man appeared there very late. The Neanderthal man lived from the huge woollen mamooth, which we see here:

Another animal, hunted by Neanderthal men, was the woollen rhinoceros:

Circa 35 000 ago, the Neanderthal man suddenly was extincted. Not very long before this, the modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens) entered Europe. Maybe these two occasions are connected? Here some of the oldest findings of modern man from Cro-Magnon in France: