LITTLE-KNOWN HISTORY OF KERGUELEN Part Two

The following is from http://www.jmooneyham.com/anthisref.html#section105 :

Approximately 534,000,000 BC:
A sudden mass imbalance within the Earth may set off rapid geologic changes worldwide now (with significant climatic consequences afterwards)
Between 750 million BC and 2,000 AD the Earth's surface sea level will drop some 1,968 feet due to loss of water to subterranean regions.

Approximately 500,000,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include starfish, corals, and clam-like shellfish

Approximately 490,000,000 BC: The Earth may have slowly reduced its previous tilt of 70 degrees from the vertical to some 20 or 30 degrees now. It's taken many millions of years for the planet to reverse the extreme tilt of its axis possibly incurred by the Moon-generating collision.

Approximately 450,000,000+ BC: After many false starts (species which failed to make the transition) finally one form of plant life manages to survive the change from water to dry land. I.e., the very first successful species of land plant now makes its debutAll other land plants on Earth will eventually evolve from this primordial survivor. The first land plant evolves from what was originally a fresh water plant. Eventually some of this plant's descendents will return to the water, while others go on to populate the continents.

Approximately 439,000,000 BC: The Ordovician mass extinction occurs, wherein...
...about 85% of all marine animal species are killed off (there were no land animals at this time)

Approximately 425,000,000 BC: Portions of the continents are growing closer again
Emerging lifeforms of this time include land scorpions, club mosses, clams, mussels, snails, and certain types of fungi and algae which will survive into the 21st century AD.

Approximately 395,000,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include sharks, amphibians, spiders, and ferns.

Approximately 367,000,000 BC: The Devonian mass extinction takes place, and is apparently near the magnitude of the Ordovician event 72 million years before...

Approximately 364,000,000 BC: Something of a global extinction event takes place now......though it is not of the catastrophic scale of some others.

Approximately 350,000,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include insects, reptiles, mosses, and land snails

Approximately 340,000,000 BC: A wiener-length, lizard-like creature has firmly established itself in a semi-aquatic environment......i.e., it alternates between water and land-based activities. It's one of the earliest vertebrates to do so. Its domain is the shallows of swamps along the coasts of large land masses. 20th century scientists will name it "Casineria".

Approximately 360,000,000 BC- 250,000,000 BC: A cosmic impact in Australia now may be the cause of the worst extinction event(s) ever suffered by Earth. The impact of an object from space creates the 80 miles wide so-called "Woodleigh" crater, in the vicinity of Shark Bay in western coastal Australia. Could this be the doomsday rock which almost wipes out all life on Earth much bigger than a bacteria, in the combined Permian-Triassic extinctions? Altogether 96% of all sea life and close to that in land life dies in these extinctions.

Approximately 300,000,000 BC: The super continent Pangea takes shape; Vascular land plants like trees may have spread over the continents sufficiently by now to cause a worldwide increase in oxygen; Gigantic insects may roam the world. The high oxygen levels may enable enormous growth in insects.

The above article(s) come from and make references to a collection copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 by J.R. Mooneyham (except where otherwise noted in the text). Text here explicitly authored by J.R. Mooneyham may be freely copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes in paper and electronic form without charge if this copyright paragraph and link to jmooneyham.com or jrmooneyham.com are included.

Note from Donald: Please be patient. You will eventually see how this all relates to Kerguelen, and how Kerguelen continues to influence the world today!