Miles’s Time Adventure 3:Killer Bug-eyed

Hey!  Today, we go back 300 million years, to a time before dinosaurs.  We will meet the first reptiles, and killer insects.  Wwwwwwhhhhhhhoooooossssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  Ah, here we are.  Now, these lizards here are Petrolacosaurus. they are the first reptiles, facing a whole new world-full of whole new dangers.  Remember Brontoscorpio and Pterygotus?  Well, they’ve returned as giant insects like-whoa!  This!

 

Eagle-no! Dragonfly!

It’s called Meganura, and it’s as large as an eagle.  But this is just one of four kinds of giant insects we should see.  Look!  Mesothelae!  otherwise known as giant spiders!

 

Along came a giant spider....

She’s HUGE!  About as large as a human head!  If she were to be alive 300 million years later, she would hunt cats!  But 2 down 2 to see!  Meanwhile, let’s see what evolution did to cause reptiles.

 

Ah, amphibians. They then evolved into reptiles.

Cool, eh?  Aha!  Pulmonoscorpius!

 

Sting!

One more giant creepy crawlie too see!  And here he comes!  Arthropleura!

 

that's one big millepede!

And that’s it for today!  Next time, we explore the world of the nastiest dinosaurs ever.  Next time, we explore T-rex and raptors!

Miles’s Time Adventure 2:Silurian Seas

Hey!  Ever wonder what was on Earth before us?  We check out some giants in the Silurian.  At this time, the first jawless fish appeared on Earth.  We’re going after Brontoscorpio, a giant sea scorpion.  Also, check out this artist’s depiction of it.

 

That is wild!

So, let’s see some giant sea scorpions.  Whhhhhhhhhoooooooooooossssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh!  Luckily, I went on a boat.  But let’s dive!  Splash!  Look!  Cephalapsis!

 

Meet the first jawless fish!

These seem to be running from-whoa!

 

Yes-it's a scorpion!

 This is Pterygotus, another sea scorpion.  Except, it’s as large as a crocodile.  The largest arthropod ever.  This menace could easily kill Brontoscorpio.  Here’s why.  Cephalapsis has something Brontoscorpio does not-sensors.  The Cepalapsis can sense vibrations.  Looks like to these fish, size is nothing.  But wait-look!  The Brontoscorpio!  Over there!

 

Looks like land is now dominated!

Hard to believe, but soon these massive killers will shrink.  Meanwhile, Cephalapsis will undergo several stages of evolution until finally, the first reptiles will evolve.  But these lizards face an enemy their ancestors feared-the arthropods are back!  Next time, we meet evolutions newest masterpiece-reptiles.  And we see other killers-giant bugs.

Miles’s Time Adventure 1:Killer Croc

Hey there!  For our first trip back in time, we go to prehistoric Texas, to track down the owner of this:

 

That's a true killer!

we’re going after Deinosuchus, a 50-foot crocodile.  We should see other dinosaurs, too.  Next stop, 75 million years back to Texas!  Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooooooooooosssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  Ah, here we are.  And we should see-aha!  Nyctosaurus!

 

Look at that crest!

This is a pterosaur, a kind of flying reptile.  Now, let’s fly with them, in this:

 

Up, up, and away!

Wahoo!  Oh, my god!  A Deinosuchus just jumped out of the water and caught a Nyctosaurus!  Hey, look down there!  I see a stampede!  Let’s check it out.  Wow!  A herd of Parasarolophus!  These animals communicate through their crests.

 

Albertosaurus and Parasurolophus

Hey, an Albertosaurus!  Must be the cause of the stampede.  But with Deinosuchus around, they have to compete for food.  I’ll boat upriver.  Row!  Row!  Whoa!  Deinosuchus!  

 

Looks like competition for Albertosaurus!

But there’s one more dinosaur to see.  One that was small but sneaky.

 

A killer in the making!

Introducing Troodon, an early raptor.  And now that we’ve seen killer crocs, among other things, it’s time to go back.  Next time, we go back to when the waters were a no-no.  We meet a killer so deadly, it had a stinger the size of a lightbulb.

Safari with Miles 6:Whale of A Tail

Hey, there!  Our final adventure will take us into the seas.  We’ll:

• Take a trip into time to see how whales evolved
• Go on a whale watch in the Arctic
• And go to the Bahamas to see a true giant

To get a good picture of whales, we need to go back in tiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeee!  So, here we are, in the Eocene, At this time, mammals took over the world.  Except for birds, of course.  But we’ll talk about that another time.  We’re here in the mangrove swamps, and here, killer whales rule.  But, look!  Moertherium!

 

Moertherium, an elephant of a tapir-or elephant!

Believe it or not, these odd mammals are early ancestors to elephants!  But underwater we must go to see this sea monster.  Hold your breath!  

 

What a lovely sea!

And look!  Two killer whales, more commonly known as Basilosaurus.  

 

Hard to believe these are whales!

Now, we saw killer whales, but what about real living whales.  We’re going to the Arctic ocean, where whales are common.  Let’s go!  Hey, look! Harp seals!  Awwwwwww!  They’re adorable!

 

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! A baby!

But now, let’s look fore some wh-look!  Off the starboard!  

 

Narwhals tusking!

These are narwhals, and yes-they’re whales.  A long time ago, merchants sold these tusks, saying they belonged to unicorns!  Bull hooey!  But look!  Orcas!  Otherwise known as the killer whale!  Killer whales can easily be trained, hence all that Seaworld publicity.  Orcas are supreme killers, but not like other whales

 

Whoa! This is a real Kodak moment!

But narwhals and orcas aren’t the biggest whales here-that honor goes to this guy-the bowhead whale!

 

These whales are huge!

But there’s one more animal to see-introducing the beluga whale!

 

Parrot+whale=him!

So we’ve seen the Arctic’s coolest sea life, but let’s see a true giant.  Out with the cold and in with the -Bahamas?  Yes, that’s where we’re going to see the largest animal ever, the blue whale.  Ahhhh, the tropical beaches, the exotic wildlife, and the tropical fish.  But let’s go!

 

Ahhhh! Paradise

So we’re 30 miles from shore.  Aha!  A blue whale!  Look at her!  She’s huge!

 

Whoa!

That’s it for our adventures, but next time I’ll have a new series.  The topic: Can you spell D-e-i-n-o-s-u-c-h-u-s?

Safari with Miles 5:Card Shark

Hello there!  Grab your scuba gear, ’cause we’re diving into the deep in search of some killer fish-sharks!  We’ll

• Explore the coolest sharks of all-the extinct ones!
• View the three most wanted sharks
• And latch on to the shark’s best friend!

Our first part of the safari will take us back in tiiiiiiiiiiimmmmeeee!  Ah, here we are.  Our first stop is the Devonian, when sharks started to evolve.  This is stethacanthus, one of the first sharks.

 

The first shark!

Uh, oh!  Hyneria!  If you’ve seen Walking with Monsters, you know what that is!

 

There goes stethacanthus!

But, let’s see other sea monsters.  Next stop, the jurassic, home of sea creatures aplenty!  This fossil is of hybodus, an extinct shark that faced a true monster-liopleurodon! 

 

Fossilized hybodus

But liopleurodon was bigger and more dangerous, it WAS the largest carnivore ever.

 

This is a true monster!

But finally, megalodon.  He was huge!  He dwarfed great whites!  See this diagram as proof!

 

He's Huge!

Green for great white, red for megalodon.  But let’s see real super-sharks.  The top most dangerous sharks are:1. great white 2. tiger 3. bull.  Bull sharks can survive in freshwater, making them even deadlier.  But sailors say they’d rather get killed by a great white then a “terrible tiger”.  But can sharks be friendly to fish?  Of course!  Check out the remora!  There are 4 genera of remoras.  Sharks don’t eat these dentists-yes, dentists.  Remoras actually clean the insides of sharks’ mouths.  So we’ve seen how sharks evolved into true killers, and seen their enemies along the way, explored the killers of the deep, and dived into the world of remoras, but the monsters we’ll see next time are bigger.  Next time, we explore the world of whales and how they evolved.

Safari with Miles 4:Hot-Diggety Dog

Welcome back!  On our 4th adventure, we’ll:

• go to Africa to see a true killer
• hike in Yellowstone  to see a pack-hunting predator
• and discover the toughest of all domestic dogs

So, let’s begin our safari into the world of dogs.  We begin our journey in Africa.  Look at this.  It’s the african wild dog.  These hunters can have 2-19 pups in a single litter.  Despite this big breeding, the african wild dog is classified as endangered.

 

These dogs have made quite a kill!

Our next stop-Yellowstone National Park.  We’re going off in search of coyotes.  Ah, this part of the park is lovely!

 

Look at these plains!

 

 

These wild dogs hunt in packs.  They can take down prey the size of elk!  Oh, wow!  I see one!

 

This coyote is a truly wild creature!

But our safari will take a domestic turn.  Introducing-the rottweiler!  These tough dogs make excellent guards.

 

Its no doberman-it's a rottweiler!

Dogs are truly amazing animals-but next time, we dive into the sea to explore Earth’s coolest killers-and see just how big they got.