Favorite Prehistoric Time Period

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In this thread, talk about your favorite prehistoric time period to read about. Use this if you can't recall their names.
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http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/coast/natural_history/nh_geologic_time_scale_large.gif

Personally, my favorite time period to read about is the Triassic.

Why I Love The Triassic
- The first dinosaurs evolved during this time period, but they were small or medium in size. Supergiant dinosaurs came later.
- There were no flowering plants. Primitive plants like horsetails and ferns were more common.
- This was the first time period in which air-breathing vertebrates (in this case, reptiles) dominated the sea. The sea had previously been dominated by fish. Today, fish still haven't reclaimed their domain because the sea is ruled by cetaceans.
- The primitive sauropodomorphs (AKA "long-necks") that lived during the Triassic had a primitive appearance in some ways. For example, they still had large claws on their feet. They also were not as large as later sauropodomorphs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riojasaurus
- Theropod dinosaurs existed during this time period, but they were not at the top of the food chain yet. They still had to deal with pseudosuchians like Postosuchus, as well as non-theropod predators like Herrerasaurus. At the time, most theropods were lanky stick figures like Coelophysis. Theropods did not become burly, muscular beasts until the Jurassic.
- Some of the Triassic synapsids, such as Megazostrodon, had a very mammal-like appearance. The last common ancestor of all modern mammals may have evolved during the Triassic ... or it may have evolved during the Jurassic. That's still up for debate.
- Some very primitive turtles, such as Proganochelys, lived during the Triassic.
- This was the last time period in which Pangaea existed. It broke up during this period.
- There were plenty of interesting non-dinosaurian reptiles during this time period, such as Rhynchosaurus, Scleromochlus, Smilosuchus, Sharovipteryx, and the truly weird Longisquama.
- This was the last time period in which large non-mammalian synapsids, like Kannemeyeria, existed. These animals declined after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction. The last little non-mammalian synapsids probably perished alongside the dinosaurs.
- This time period was home to Helicoprion, which had a circular saw of teeth for some reason.
- This time period was home to the largest Ichthyosaur ever - Shonisaurus. Ichthyosaurs continued to exist in later time periods, but never again achieved such gargantuan sizes.

I also like the Triassic because the aquatic reptiles which lived during this time period were dazzling in their diversity. Observe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atopodentatus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothosaurus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanystropheus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endennasaurus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sclerocormus

My favorite time period is the Planck Epoch which is from 0 to 5.39*10^-44 seconds after the beginning of the universe. All four forces of nature were unified into a single "superforce". There was no matter and causality did not even exist. Micro black holes were constantly being created and destroyed. Space and time did not exist as we know them today.

There some other aspects of the Triassic that I forgot to mention.

- The last conodonts ever lived during this time period. R.I.P.
- The last parareptiles lived during this time period. R.I.P.
- The first rhynchocephalians lived during this time period. They later gave rise to some fairly interesting forms, such as Pleurosaurus. Today, the only remaining rhynchocephalians are tuataras.
- Early pterosaurs, such as Preondactylus, evolved during this time. The Triassic also gave us Scleromochlus, which may have been ancestral to pterosaurs.
- A day in the Triassic only lasted 23 hours. Our days increase in length by one hour every 200 million years.
- The Triassic also gave us the dinosauromorphs, which gradually evolved into dinosaurs. The dinosauromorphs were quite diverse and interesting. Sadly, hardly anyone seems to know about them or care about them. The dinosaurs could not have existed without predecessors like Lagerpeton.
- Even the fish during this time period were different. Lobe-finned fish were more common, and some of them were pretty funky. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreyia

Carboniferous— when the world was owned by plants (and possibly fungus). Not to mention giant insects, which are fascinating. Oh, also the oxygen levels were so high it’s theorized lightning strikes didn’t just create fire, but action film level explosions. Who doesn’t think exploding lighting is cool?

There were no "prehistoric time periods".

The Earth and the universe were all created in seven days in 4000 BC. We all know THAT!

Jeeze!

It changes a lot, but I'd say Permian for now. I've always liked the fact that the dimetrodon was more closely related to us than to dinosaurs or crocodilians.

Here are some more Triassic creatures that I like.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euparkeria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancleavea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanaresuchus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smok_(archosaur)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesaurus

Overall, I'm very fond of prehistoric creatures that resembled crocodiles. I love crocodiles.

The Triassic was also home to one of my favorite prehistoric creatures - Effigia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effigia

This creature is interesting because it was convergently similar to ornithomimid dinosaurs ... even though it was a pseudosuchian and not a dinosaur.

The copperage, wiki; The Chalcolithic (English: /ˌkælkəˈlɪθɪk/; Greek: χαλκός khalkós, "copper" and λίθος líthos, "stone") period or Copper Age, in particular for eastern Europe often named Eneolithic or Æneolithic (from Latin aeneus "of copper"), was a period in the development of human technology.The Copper Age was originally defined as a transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, but is now usually considered as belonging to the Neolithic.The archaeological site of Belovode on the Rudnik mountain in Serbia contains the world's oldest securely dated evidence of copper smelting from 5000 BCE.

According to Parpola, ceramic similarities between the Indus Civilization, southern Turkmenistan, and northern Iran during 4300–3300 BCE of the Chalcolithic period suggest considerable mobility and trade.Copper smelting is also documented at this site at about the same time period (soon after 6000 BC), although the use of lead seems to precede copper smelting. Early metallurgy is also documented at the nearby site of Tell Maghzaliyah, which seems to be dated even earlier, and completely lacks pottery.

Although traditional view holds that the transition to the Bronze Age has first occurred in the Fertile Crescent in the 4th millennium BCE, finds from the Vinča culture in Europe have now been securely dated to slightly earlier than those of the Fertile Crescent.
also The Rise and Fall of Gold Metallurgy in the Copper Age of the Carpathian Basin: The Background of the Change https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.10 ... 5-1292-3_7
The paper deals with the different use of gold and copper in the Early and Middle Copper Age on one side and the Late Copper Age cultures of the Carpathian Basin on the other side. Transylvania was in the antiquity one of the richest gold mining areas of Eurasia. This is demonstrated on the basis of Roman and Medieval texts, expecially on hand of those about the Decebalus gold treasure found by the troups of Trajan in 106 A.D.

In strong contrast to the wide use of gold (and also of copper) in the very gold rich area of Transylvania during Early and especially Middle Copper Age cultures (i.e. the Tiszapolgár and Bodrogkeresztúr and their corresponding cultures in other parts of the Carpathian Basin, among others the Lasinja culture in Transdanubia with its gold discs) there is no trace of the use of gold in the Late Copper Age. In the Late Copper Age also a very strong decrease in the number and also weight of the copper artifacts can be observed, too, and it is very remarkable that the few copper objects were daggers. This stays to indicate wartime or at least a continuing armed unrest during Late Copper Age. Invasions, conquests and similar events never promote production, accumulation, hoarding and public use of gold.

The Triassic is my favorite, but I also love the Devonian. I mostly love the Devonian because this was the period in which Jaekelopterus - the largest arthropod in earth's entire history - lurked in freshwater streams.



It's not very hard to see why our ancestors went onto land. Holy Moses.

Other Facts About The Devonian:

- The first ammonites lived at this time.
- Large, tree-sized land plants first evolved during this time.
- There were giant terrestrial fungi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototaxites
- Some pretty cool sharks lived at this time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladoselache
- Titanichthys roamed the sea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanichthys