WWM: Water Dwellers

Walking with Monsters
Part 1
The Cambrian Period
530 MYA

Though life has been slowly evolving in the Earth’s oceans for billions of years, the diversity of multicellular life has recently exploded into an immense plethora of strange and wondrous creatures.

Some creatures are familiar today, such as the free-floating Jellyfish that drag prey into their maw with stinging tentacles. Other creatures will also be successful, such as the tough, adaptable Trilobites on the seabed. These armored filter-feeders will survive for 300 million years, despite competition from all sides.

The first superpredator has also evolved. The four-foot Anomalocaris might not look like much by today’s standards, but in these ancient seas, it’s a behemoth with nothing comparable.

However, dominance of life on this planet does not lie with any of these. Rather, a tiny creature known as Haikouichthys has recently developed a semi-rigid notochord running the length of its body. Later on, this cartilaginous development will grow into a series of tiny, tough bones that will support a surprising amount of weight. Haukouichthys may be the ancestor of the first fish.

Life on Earth is just beginning…

Part 2: [link]

(Credit for Walking with Monsters goes to Impossible Pictures and the BBC)