Ancient Island: A natural history...
Somewhere in the great, unknown sea, a true oddity existed: an island, far to the east of Florida, frozen in time; an island where prehistoric creatures never perished. On the day it was discovered, some time in the middle ages, only three people had been on it and survived. The first one committed suicide, wanting to forget the nightmare. Sometime in the seventeenth century, a team of explorers set out to find the island and either explore or colonize it.
Sadly, the island was too bloodthirsty for colonization with most of the people there eaten by the monsters on the island or killed by other forces from storms to geologic activity. It wasn't until the whole colonist group was killed that exploration seemed to be enough. They had plenty of time for exploration, but for reasons unknown, the expeditions had stopped at the turn of the nineteenth century.
The explorations started again in the early twentieth century, but unfortunately, fate had different plans. Two hundred years after its discovery, the island shared the same fate as Atlantis of old. A massive volcanic eruption from the depths of the sea wiped out the magnificent island, taking its unique creatures and unexplored history under the waves. Now, the only records are that of a few books passed down by the explorers. The island, as far as their descendants now know, is no more than a legend. THIS is the natural history of the island and its unique wildlife; the lost logs of the discovery of the millennium.
The Traveling Land
Ancient Island was a geological traveler. Geologists speculated that the island originated sometime in the Carboniferous period and retained similar habitats. It eventually connected to the land of Pangaea, breaking off at the end of the Triassic Period, taking with it several animals to add to its already diverse life.
The island rode along volcanic eruptions, sailing the oceans like a geologic boat. Land bridges came and went, and animals rode along with the island and continued to adapt to the habitats it had already formed. The island traveled through the ancient Tethys sea during its cruise halfway around the world. Dinosaurs joined from the early Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous and mammals joined in as well as giant birds at the start of the Eocene.
In the latter part of its journey, Ancient Island became the ball in a geologic Ping-Pong game. It went back and forth between places like Africa, South America, Europe, and North America. During its journey, the land got battered by earthquakes and volcanic activity, taking pieces of it to the sea. When the land reached its journey's end, it was the size of Madagascar, then it sank to the depths of the ocean in 1935.
Yes, I will be treating this place like it was in OUR world. That way, you can sort of picture it in real life and will make some of the creatures seem sensible.