THE BEAGLE TIMES

PREHISTORIC PLANET

             by Kwei, Maya, Ella, and Georgia

     Long before humans exsited, strange creatures roamed the land. Some of which were the mighty dinosaurs. Another might be pterosaurs, pteranodon, pterodactyl, and Quetzalcoatlus. Now you may be thinking, “Aren’t pterosaurs and dinosaurs the same things?” Well, believe it or not, pterosaurs and dinosaurs arent the same things. Pterosaurs are actually winged-lizards! And dinosaurs are just dinosaurs. 

     One of the most famous and my personal favorite creatures are dinosaurs. As you may know, dinosaurs went extinct about 65.5 million years ago. But, do you know when they first appeared? Did they always exist? Were they descendants from even more ancient beasts? What were those ancient creatures?

     Well, to maybe make you feel better, dinosaurs weren’t descendants from even greater beasts (that we know as of 2022). But they were descendants of microscopic creatures, which means really tiny creatures. You might be thinking, “How is that possible? Dinosaurs were absolutely huge, right?!”. 

     Dinosaurs weren’t always the giant beasts you’d expect. In fact, the first dinosaurs were really small, not much bigger than a turkey. For example, the Compsagnathus was no bigger than three feet long! 

     There were different time periods where dinosaurs exsited. The three periods of the dinosaurs' existence were the Triassic Period (250 -200 million years ago), Jurassic Period (200 - 145 million years ago), and Cretaceous Period (145 - 65 million years ago)! 

     One of the most famous dinosaurs, the one, the only… Tyrannosaurus Rex! The Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-rex for short) had an amazing bite force of 12,800 pounds! That’s enough force to crush a car! Imagine getting bitten by that!

     Guess what? The T-rex wasn’t even the biggest carnivorous dinosaur! The Spinosaurus takes first place in that competition! Fun fact about the Spinosaurus: the Spinosaurus has a giant sail on its back. It also used its long claws for spearing fish. They also had crocodile-like snouts, again for catching fish.

     But when they went to land, they were the dominant carnivore. But it was neither their bite force nor their strength that made them so intimidating. It was their size that scared other creatures. 

     A strange fact about the Spinosaurus was that it was discovered in Egypt! But in South America, Argentinosaurus ruled the land, at a whopping size of 131 feet long and 70 feet tall! Also, the Argentinosaurus lived in herds. Now, predators such as the Giganotosaurus which often hunted in packs or individually. But when they hunted in packs they were able to hunt even the Argentinosaurus.

     Aquatic Reptiles

     Like pterosaurs, aquatic reptiles lived along with dinosaurs, but they weren’t, in fact they were far from them. For example dinosaurs had legs, aquatic reptiles did not. And some aquatic reptiles had very crooked teeth. But those crooked teeth actually were a miracle. They use them to catch fish that might swim away. 

    Elasmosaurus was in the plesiosaur family. It ate mostly fish and other reptiles. Mosasaurus was fifty-six feet long. It could swim up to 30 mph. It technically had three rows of teeth, one on the top, one on the bottom, and one on the top of the inside, all used for grabbing fish. Each tooth was about two inches long! It only ate meat. Megalodon was a giant shark. It was so big that it could eat whales! It also was highly territorial and had excellent hunting strategies. One of which was that it would swim below prey so they wouldn’t see the shadow. Then they would wait for the perfect moment to charge up and land a finishing strike!

Ice Age Mammals

After the dinosaurs passed away after the meteor crashed, mammals ruled the Earth. The largest three are the Wooly Mammoth, Giant Rhino, and the Megatherium aka the Giant Sloth. Even though you think that they were the best of the best, they had a pretty big downfall. 

Another very iconic creature from the ice age was the Smilodon. The Smilodon was a very keen and agile hunter. It used its seven to eight inch dagger like teeth to take down even the mightiest of foes. Worst of all, they were even known to hunt in packs. They were capable of taking down even the Mammoths. 

But the Mammoths won’t go out without a fight. Mammoths live in herds with up to fifteen individuals. Each with a maximum of fifteen foot long tusks with the capability to pierce through tough skin.  

Moving on, the Megatheirium was solitary and very antisocial. They ate only plants and greens. It weighed up to 8 tons. Megatheirium also lived in trees and moved pretty slow about the speed of an average sloth today, which is pretty fast for its size. They also weren’t really aggressive. It mostly just minded its own business.

Glossary with Pronunciation 

Pterosaurs (tear-o-sors) Prehistoric winged reptiles that ate fish, meat, and each other.

Quetzalcoatlus (kwet-sol-coe-ot-lus) Wingspan up to 36 feet and weighed 200-500 pounds! Main food source: small dinosaurs and fish.

Pteranodon (tear-an-o-dawn) Wingspan of 23 feet or more. Lived close to big bodies of water, and loves to fish.

Pterodactyl (tear-o-dak-tal)  Like Pteranodon, similar in size and similar diet.

Tyrannosaurus (tie-ran-o-soar-us) 12 to 20 feet tall, hunted pretty much whatever it could get its jaws on. 

Spinosaurus (spine-o-saur-us) Up to 23 feet tall, spent most of their life under water and mostly hunted fish.

Argentinosaurus (Arj-en-tino-saur-us) 130 feet long, lived in herds with up to 20 members. Lived in forests and plains.

Giganotosaurus (Jig-en-no-toe-saur-us) 39 to 43 feet long, often hunted alone but when it hunted in a pack it could take down an adult Argentinosaurus. 

Elasmosaurus ( Uh-las-muh-saw-rus) Aquatic beast that could weigh up to 2 tons and average a speed of up to 42 mph!

Mosasaurus (Moh-za-sawr-us) One of the most dominant creatures to rule the sea. But could it beat a Megalodon in battle?

Megalodon (Meg-a-low-dawn) Giant shark that could possibly take down anything. But it hunted whales, but, couldn’t whales hunt it?

Wooly Mammoth (Woo-ley-mame-mawth) 10-12 feet tall, ate roots and plants. And only weighed about 4 to 6 tons! 

Giant Rhino (Jie-ant-ry-no) 16 feet long and ate grass, leaves, and any frozen plants available. The horn was up to three feet long!

Megatherium (Mega-thee-re-um) Megatherium was also known as the Giant Sloth that was 12 feet tall. It is also known for its appetite for all sorts of plants, berries, and anything non-meat.

FROZEN FACTS by Kwei and Connor

Polar Bears

Creatures that live in frozen tundras are pretty amazing. For example, the polar bear can survive below freezing weather. That’s pretty amazing. Polar bears can even swim in freezing water without any pain (mostly). They can also catch seals through frozen ice. But of course they have to break a hole in the ice before they can catch the seal. Polar bear moms take very good care of their cubs. They also are very protective of them. Did you know that polar bear males including the fathers eat cubs? Talk about a family fued. Polar bears can also go six months without food! 

Arctic Foxes

But moving on, let’s now talk about something much less deadly. Arctic foxes are very cute but also pretty rare. Currently there are only a few hundred thousand left on Earth. That’s not a lot! But thankfully they are recovering. Arctic foxes are mortal enemies of Golden Eagles and bears. Bears are also known for digging up dens and eating pups. Arctic Foxes also are solitary which means they prefer to live alone. So that means that they have fewer mouths to feed in the winter.

Penguin

Penguins are famous for being one of the few birds that can’t fly. They are also known for fishing. Did you know that they can eat double their size in fish? Penguins are very strong swimmers. They also live in very big groups of only about ONE MILLION!  Well anyways, male and female penguins take turns sitting on the eggs to keep them warm and protect them, while the other gets food. Only 50% of penguin eggs hatch and even less make it to adulthood! You can thank predators, pollution, and climate change for that.

Humpback Whales

Humpback whales are some of the weirdest whales but they are also one of the biggest at a size of fifty-five thousand pounds! The Blue Whale isn’t only the biggest whale but the biggest animal on Earth. But if they’re the biggest creature ever is a different story. But moving back on topic, the humpback whale doesn’t have teeth, which may sound weird, but they actually have toothbrush-like bristles, thousands of them and they eat creatures. Now don’t worry that it may eat you, they only eat super small and sometimes even microscopic creatures. Microscopic means so small that you can’t see it without a microscope. For example, you’ve never seen an atom because it’s so small. So a Humpback Whale has to literally eat millions of them each day! They also live in groups called pods with up to 15 whales. Now that may not sound like a lot compared to some of the other animals in this article. But remember, each whale can grow up to 50 ft in length! Which is pretty big.