Chapter 3
The Brontosaurs and The Bees
…
380 Million Years Ago
Having fast-forwarded time 80 million years to the Devonian Period, Peridot takes you by the edge of a large river, populated from shore to shore by ferns, horsetails, and great trees. The current is calm, but still moving at a noticeable pace.
"Since we last left our aquatic friend Pikaia back in the Cambrian," Peridot begins, "fishes have undergone quite a number of important changes and diversified into a few distinct groups. Starting with the stiffened notochord, fishes grew entire skeletons of bone and some even started coating their bodies with tough armor. The descendants of these earliest fishes include the lampreys of the present day, which are these blood-sucking noodle things that give me the creeps." Peridot shivers, before taking a stick and drawing along the ground as she talks, illustrating the evolution of fish.
"Later fishes developed jaws by modifying their gill arches into something that could open and close, allowing them to take in more water so they could breathe better. It was later on that this jaw was equipped with teeth, and so these animals were able to hunt for their meals. From these fishes came things like sharks and stingrays." Peridot draws accordingly. "And that takes us to where we are now, 380 million years in the Devonian! Fishes have since given rise to two major lineages: the ray-finned fishes - basically most types of fish you can think of, like tuna, salmon, and perch - and the lobe-finned fishes, which are what we're going to see now!"
Motioning towards the water, Peridot urges you to peer closely into the water. You make out a long, slender form in the water, rather large, like the length of a broom. Peridot pulls out a small cylindrical device from her gem, "you might want to stand back, I've only tested this thing on Pumpkin." You take a few steps backward as she fires a laser from the device, at which point the large freshwater animal is hauled from the water. Gaping its mouth, the animal wiggles around and flaps its tail about frantically. "Easy! Easy!" Peridot yelps, before pressing a small button on the device, which sends out a small tingle that calms the animal down.
"Phew! Hehe, I'm a genius." Peridot giggles, before turning towards you. "This, my friend, is called Tiktaalik. It's one of those lobe-finned fishes I was telling you about. See, the thing that distinguishes the lobe-fins from the ray-fins is… well… in their name! Here, take a look." Peridot walks up to the fish, the laser from the device still keeping it still, and holds up one of its fins. "Notice how fleshy the limb is? That's because there's a little arm in there, with a wrist and tiny digits and everything! As you almost certainly know, ray-finned fishes have a 'ray' of spines as their fins, which helps them out in open waters. But lobe-finned fishes originally lived in freshwater areas where there were tons of rocks and water plants in the way, so they used their fleshy arm-fins to creep around in the water or push away the plants. So when some species began making small journeys out of the water in search of food, they already had limbs with decent strength to help them move!"
Peridot lets the fin down, before moving her hand along the length of the Tiktaalik's body. "Originally, fishes had a sort of air-sac in their bodies that helped them breathe along with their gills. The ray-finned fishes turned this organ into a swim-bladder, which stops them from sinking as they swim, while the lobe-finned fishes modified it into true lungs. So an animal like Tiktaalik was not only able to collect oxygen from the water with gills, it could also breathe in air on the surface. In water and on land! That's living a double life!"
Peridot gently places the animal over the water before turning off the device. The Tiktaalik crashes into the water with a loud "SLAP!" as water splashes all over Peridot. Grumbling, she uses the heat from her gem to dry off. "I'm sure I deserved that…"
Once finishes, she begins leading you back to the time machine. "Over the next few million years, these lobe-finned fishes will only get better and better and moving outside the water, but they would still remain attached their freshwater homes for all of their basic survival needs, like reproducing. It's through baby-steps like this that the first land vertebrates evolved. Notice how fishes like our Tiktaalik didn't evolve their fleshy limbs or their lungs because they started living on land: they were already using them for other things. That happens a lot over the evolution of life: the features that we see on organics living on Earth in the present day usually evolved in completely different contexts before they were repurposed for other things. It's pretty neat, don't you think?"
You nod with a small smile as the both of you enter the time machine. Peridot sets new coordinates. "Let's go see some end-results of this gradual process, in person!"
…
300 Million Years Ago
The time machine appears in yet another woodland, but this time the feeling is much different. Exiting the pod, you notice that the trees have gotten much MUCH taller, so much so that you can't even make out the sky. The vegetation is very dense all around you, and you nearly cling to Peridot as a strong buzzing sound comes closer and closer to you, accompanied by a chorus of chirps and squeaks.
"Hey friend, take it easy, I got you." Peridot smiles as she holds your hand, "welcome to the Carboniferous! Nearly all the world is forest! As you can tell, land plants have really taken off, and have supported a much larger terrestrial ecosystem than ever before. All that noise you hear around you are some of the many species of insects that have evolved since the Devonian. Including that guy! Incoming!"
You both duck as the loud buzzing emanates from an enormous insect flying by, with a wingspan that looks similar to a hawk. Peridot's eyes sparkle as the looks after it, "oooh! That's a griffinfly. It's a distant relative of the dragonflies, but a lot bigger clearly!"
More fly by the two of you as you steer clear of the wings, "because there are so many plants around the planet, the levels of oxygen in the atmosphere have risen exponentially! Insects and other arthropods rely on oxygen for their growth, and so much of the bugs you see around us have evolved to larger sizes. This is about as large as insects and their kind will ever get."
"Speaking of animals," Peridot looks over her shoulder before grinning and pulling you along, "during the Carboniferous the lobe-finned fishes had given rise to the first tetrapods, including the giant amphibians you see before you!"
Peridot has pulled you to a grove of ferns, which she pulls aside so you can get a safe view of some truly impressive amphibians in a lagoon. They're very crocodile-like with wide, flat heads, long bodies, and short, stout limbs. They're all just resting against each other, to which you sigh gratefully, as you also noticed the rows of sharp teeth lining their jaws.
"Tetrapods are the group that encompasses all of the land-living, four-limbed vertebrates and their descendants. So every amphibian, reptile, bird, and mammal you know evolved from animals like these. But these early tetrapods, comfortable as they are walking on land, still relied on the water to lay their eggs. That won't be the case for long, though. Come on! Let's see if I can find a nest."
Returning inside the time machine, Peridot takes the controls and skirts around the forest as carefully as she can, occasionally swatting through a branch or two. Finally, she stops and gently lowers the pod just enough so you can see a small nest cavity inside the log of a tree. The parent is nowhere to be seen.
"Steven's let me try eggs before… they were pretty tasty, but when he told me about where eggs came from… I didn't really feel like eating them anymore. But you gotta give them credit! Hard-shelled eggs were one of the last major evolutionary developments that finally broke the ties keeping tetrapods to the freshwater environment. While early tetrapods, and one of their descendant groups the amphibians, used eggs to store their embryos, they were soft, gelatinous things that needed to be in water to survive. The adaptation for hard-shelled eggs allowed water to be stored inside the egg, still there to keep the embryo alive. For the tetrapods that laid these eggs, called amniotes, this was a way to protect their young from the dangers of aquatic predators. They could now live further and further away from the rivers and streams, and become proper land living animals."
Peridot began to focus her attention more on the log than the eggs, as her mind clicked. "Before we leave the Carboniferous, I should mention something very crucial you're gonna want to keep in mind." She takes the ship and cruises across the forest. "From the time that trees started producing it, wood has been a valuable adaptation for sustaining the longevity of the plants who have it. In these times, there were no organics that could digest wood, so there was nothing to decompose it when the tree finally died. With every passing year, these trees died and sank into the ground, where the heat and pressures of the Earth's movement would eventually turn them into a type of rock called coal. Now: when organics die and decompose, all the carbon that is stored in their bodies rises away into the air, waiting to be captured by photosynthesizing plants. But with nothing here to eat all this wood, the carbon atoms are left stuck inside the coal where they'd be buried for millions of years, away from the recycling motion of the carbon cycle." Peridot scratches her nose as she sets new coordinates, "just… yeah, just remember that for later."
…
252 Million Years Ago
The time machine is now floating in space yet again, hovering over the primeval Earth. You watch with Peridot as all of the continents appear collected together in one enormous landmass.
"The continents are always moving. So there are some times in prehistory when they're all separated from each other, and others when they smash together, forming one supercontinent. During this time, the Permian, the last supercontinent formed (for the moment), called Pangaea. If you look, you can make out North America and Eurasia at the top, and South America, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica at the bottom. Yep, they're all there!"
Peridot turns to you now, holding up her tablet and showing you pictures of different animals. "Land animals diversified greatly following the Carboniferous, particularly the amniotes, who now occupied a lot of different niches, some entirely new! There were burrowing animals, gliding animals, big predators, big prey, and even a few species that actually went back to living in the water! There's no place like home, I guess."
Despite this, Peridot begins to frown, "but these times won't last much longer. Here, let's fast-forward a little bit, and pay close attention to where Siberia is."
Indeed, you look towards the globe and watch as time passes by. Great patches of red emerge across Siberia, and before long thick clouds of smoke and ash bellow outwards from that region, eventually encompassing the entire planet in darkness. You take a second to process this, as Peridot stops fast-forwarding.
"That, my friend, is what mass extinction looks like. There have been a few in Earth's history, affecting all organic lifeforms, but some more-so than others. During the end of the Permian, 252 million years ago, the biggest mass extinction event (for the moment) occurred. What you just witnessed was a large series of volcanic eruptions that spewed whole oceans of lava and threw up a thick blanket of choking carbon-dioxide-rich clouds. With so much carbon in the air, the temperature rose and heated the entire planet. Organic life on Earth starved and suffocated as whole ecosystems were destroyed: perhaps as much as 96% of all animals and plants died out. Those cute little trilobites we saw earlier? They all went extinct during this time, along with many other groups of fascinating organics."
You look surprised as Peridot sets the coordinates up so soon. "Yeah, I just wanted to stop here real quick to set some context for the next part of our journey. It is sad, but I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't a total loss. Organic life on Earth came so close to dying forever, but it didn't! All the living things that we see in the present day are the direct descendants of those who survived through all the destruction. It's part of the reason why being a Crystal Gem is so important to me: I get to help preserve the life on a planet that suffered through so much. Makes me wonder about all those successful colonies the Diamonds supervised. If they had been stopped in time, maybe some life could have survived and started anew? Who knows…"
…
150 Million Years Ago
It's a new day. The sky is filled with white, puffy clouds as a gentle breeze blows through the air. Emerging from a large grove of ferns is an elderly man with a blue, button-up shirt and tan pants, his white hair flowing messily in the breeze. With an earnest smile, he speaks.
"I'm standing here amidst a world lost in time, inhabited by creatures beyond your imagination. Welcome to the Jurassic Period, during the age of-" he is interrupted as Peridot's time machine appears nearby in a flash of light. The man is startled by the sight as he holds his hands to his face.
Not hesitating, Peridot opens the time machine window and nearly sticks her whole body outside it. "HEY! What are you doing here Attenborough?!" she screams.
"I'm just informing our audience about the wonders of-"
"Nah nah nah, you got two whole stories. TWO! This is my turf. Beat it!" Peridot exclaims, slamming her fist on the wall of the pod.
"Hmph… very well. My apologies." David Attenborough politely bowed his head and walked up to his time scooter. Starting the engine, he is teleported away from the scene.
Peridot crosses her arms, grumpily. "Errreeeyah!" she groans to herself. Noticing your confused look, she sheepishly turns back to you, blushing. "Ehh hehe. Forgive me. Anyway… welcome to the Jurassic Period! Just for frame of reference: Earth's history is divided into different parts based upon the life and events uncovered from the rocks. There are Eras, which are divided into Periods, which can be further divided into Epochs, and so forth. Everything we just saw from the Cambrian onward belonged in the Paleozoic Era. Where we're at now is called the Mesozoic, and we're smack in the middle of it!"
Hopping out of the pod, Peridot takes a big whiff of the air, exhaling deeply and with excitement. "Ahh, nothing like a breath of humid, low-oxygen air to get you pumped! After the great dying at the end of the Permian, life rebounded! There were so many niches left open that the surviving organics were able to diversify into a number of unique forms. A few of which I've really been wanting to see! Come on!"
Peridot takes your hand and leads you onwards through the brush. The plant life surrounding you is certainly much more removed from the coal forests of the Carboniferous. There are still plenty of ferns and horsetails, but now most of the trees are represented by conifers like ginkgos and monkey puzzles. It's a very green world.
Just cresting over a hill, Peridot stops and hops in excitement. "Hehehehe look! Look at that!"
It's honestly hard not to notice. Before you is an impressive herd of long-necked dinosaurs, slowly moving through a patch of trees and making short work of their foliage.
"The Mesozoic was the heyday of the reptiles, and none were more dominant than the dinosaurs! Even before I started reading up on them, I knew they had to be popular animals amongst you humans. Now I can certainly see why! This was the first time in Earth's history that land animals gained such massive sizes, but of course, not all the dinosaurs were large."
Peridot carefully strolls by a large cycad (a palm-like plant related to conifers) and rests herself on the ground, taking in the sight of the animals. You join her, a little more wary of the giants. "Dinosaurs were some of the most successful vertebrate animal groups that ever lived. They occupied nearly all of the major herbivorous and carnivorous niches on land and ranged all across the planet. What made them so great was the fact that they were able to carry their limbs directly underneath their bodies, as opposed to other types of reptiles that sprawled about on splayed limbs. Like… look at that lizard over there."
Peridot points out a small, nobby-scaled lizard scuttling quietly nearby. "Notice how it runs. It's only able to get a short distance before stopping to rest. That's because of the way its skeleton is built. With splayed legs, a lizard has to move its body side-to-side, which only allows one lung to breath at a time. That way, it's not able to get the oxygen it needs, and it has to keep resting to build back its strength. Now, pay attention to these dinosaurs. Notice how elegantly they move. That's because their hips and shoulder girdles have adapted to hold the limbs directly underneath the body. With this arrangement, dinosaurs didn't restrict their breathing by walking, and they could move faster and for longer distances as a result. Some dinosaurs even supplemented their lungs with a system of air sacs that allowed for constant oxygen consumption. Now that's efficient!"
You both continue to watch the dinosaurs, who are beginning to move on after felling every tree they've eaten from. There is a young one amongst the adults. "Aww, cute. You might be familiar with these dinosaurs. They're called Brontosaurus. At 70 feet in length and weighing over 16 tons, these were powerhouses of muscle. Your Earth scientists haven't really figured out just why the necks on dinosaurs like these evolved to be so long, but we have no doubt that it would have been a big help in feeding! Long-necked dinosaurs like Brontosaurus had peg-shaped teeth for stripping the needles off conifer trees, and they needed to eat constantly just to support all their energy needs. Dinosaurs seem to have been endothermic, able to generate their own body heat, as opposed to most other reptiles which were ectothermic, where they need to sun themselves to get the head they need to function."
Two Brontosaurus face each other, each one eyeing the other closely. "Whuh oh… are we about to see some action? I imagine big dinosaurs like these could be really mean." Peridot cranes her neck for a closer look. At the moment, one Brontosaurus simple gives the other a smooch on the cheek.
"Aww." Peridot beams, "how sweet. Still, I was kinda hoping to see some action."
Suddenly, the two of you hear a harsh clunking sound from behind. Peridot whips her head, wide-eyed and teeth-bearing. "Oh no. That sounds like the time machine!" She takes off after it, leaving you to trail behind. You push away cycad fronds from your path, huffing and puffing as you try to keep up with the gem. It isn't long before you bump right into her, knocking her down to the ground with a "yeeugh!"
"Hey! Watch it!" Peridot grabs your shirt and yanks you down to her level. "And keep quiet! I'm trying to figure away out of this situation."
Cocking an eyebrow, you look in Peridot's line of sight and see the problem. An intimidating carnivorous dinosaur has been playing with the outer shell of the time machine, using its mouth, hands, and feet to knock it around. Almost like an oversized house cat playing with a ball. It has three fingered hands tipped with very sharp, curved claws, and the top of the head is adorned with small bumps and crests over the eyes.
"That's Allosaurus. It just so happens to be one of the largest of the Jurassic hunters around here, and it's toying with my time machine like it's some… some… some toy! Urrrrr! I could move it away with my special device… but I haven't tested it on big things yet."
After a while, the dinosaur starts pushing at the pod with its head. The limbs of the pod retract, giving the time machine its spherical shape. Soon it begins rolling along, as the Allosaurus moves it away from you both.
"No no no no no! We have to follow it! Keep close!" Peridot quietly barks, slowly following the large predator.
…
It takes nearly half an hour before the Allosaurus stops rolling the time machine about. In that time the landscape has changed from forests of conifers and groves of ferns to a rocky coastline, with rough waves crashing against the shore. There are all sorts of flying reptiles about in the strong gusts. For the moment, all seems well, and Peridot relaxes a little.
"Okay… okay, she stopped. I think we're good. She'll get bored and walk away." Peridot says.
However, the dinosaur has other plans. After looking around the coast, the Allosaurus eyes a particular rock and begins rolling the time machine towards it. Stopped just at the rock, the dinosaur gives a good quick with its hindlimb and send the pod striking against the rock.
"WHA?! STOP IT!" Peridot yells as the dinosaur continues to kick the time machine at the rock. "IT'S NOT FOOD! STOP YOU'RE GONNA BREAK IT!" she starts crying. Pulling out her device, she rushes at the Allosaurus, right before you can reach out and stop her.
"YEEEEAHHHHHHH!" Peridot screams as she sends a laser from the device. It strikes the Allosaurus, but only envelopes its hindlimbs and tail. Giving a huff and growl, the predatory dinosaur tries to turn and face Peridot, who begins an attempt to pull and drag it away from the time machine. The weight of the animal is a little too much for the device, which shuts off before long. Finally free, the dinosaur is now able to turn, and starts trotting towards Peridot. "Eep!" she yelps, before sprinting back towards you. "RUN! RUN!"
Panicking, you grab some rocks and start chucking them at the Allosaurus, which flinches from the small, annoying blows. It stops, sniffs towards you and Peridot (who is wrapped around your body in a frightened hug), and snorts. Taking leave, it trots back off into the forest.
You both sigh in relief, slinking down to the ground for a minute.
"That… was… close." Peridot huffs, before looking down at her device. "I clearly have work to do on this thing." She puts it back into her gem, before getting up and checking on the time machine. To her luck, there are only a few dings, but nothing too severe. "Remind me to stop somewhere soon to buff out these scratches." You give a tired thumbs up to her.
Easing down, Peridot starts looking around along the beach, noticing all the small shells and things about. "You know… we've been hanging out on land for a while now. Let's head in the time machine and see what's been going on underwater! I could use a break from dinosaurs."
After slowly getting up and entering the pod, Peridot steers the machine under the rough waves. Thankfully, the water is rather clear, so much so that the headlights aren't needed.
"As I mentioned earlier, life had rebounded dramatically following the Permian mass extinction event. But perhaps one of the greatest environmental changes for life on Earth occurred throughout the Mesozoic Era. At about this time, 150 million years ago, marine organics began a major shift in diversity. The main types of plankton found in the oceans prior to now were green algae, close relatives of land plants, but their numbers began to dwindle after the mass extinction as the chemistry and nutrient distribution of the oceans changed. At that point, another type of plankton, red algae, started predominating the base of the ocean food web. This kickstarted a chain reaction that cascaded throughout all of the major marine groups of organics. It was a marine revolution!"
Peridot takes you further towards the seabed, where you can make out many different types of ocean life. "New groups of corals developed, the direct ancestors of those that form coral reefs in the present day. There were new types of mollusks, including some of the first species of snails to use special organs to drill into the shells of their prey. And the first crabs and lobsters arrived on the scene, efficient predators that could crush hard shells with their pincers. The lobe-finned fishes declined noticeably, but the ray-finned fishes had begun to flourish into so many different types. It's basically around this time that the modern ocean ecosystem developed."
Taking the helm, Peridot begins her ascent towards the surface, but not before stopping to appreciate a pod of large dolphin-like reptiles. "Oh yeah, there were still some derivations from the present day, like these marine reptiles called ichthyosaurs. It's funny, not just how quick it took land vertebrates to head back into the oceans, but how often it happened. These reptiles won't be the last vertebrates to do so."
As the pod rises, Peridot puts in some new coordinates. "The landscape needs just a little bit more time to reach its modern state, and to see that we have to go forward in time. Hang on!"
…
120 Million Years Ago
Just cresting over the top of a bright pink tree, the time machine lands on a steady row of branches. Pedals flutter all around the pod as you take in the sight of a much more colorful world. Pinks, reds, yellows, and purples dot the region, and there are familiar sounds of chirping and buzzing in the air.
"Ooh, I should really bring Pearl here sometime. Though I bet she won't last long with all these dinosaurs all about." Peridot chuckles, reaching into the chest and grabbing some snacks. She offers you a granola bar, and you take it happily.
"We're in the next and final period of the Mesozoic, the Cretaceous. We're still in the age of dinosaurs, no doubt about that. In fact, I think it's safe to say that dinosaurs did even better during this period than the last! But I'd argue that the real stars of the Cretaceous Period were the flowers!"
Peridot opens the window just enough to pick a flower from the tree: it's a magnolia. "Flowering plants were the last major lineage of land plants to evolve, and they are the most successful of them all. Palm trees, maple trees, grass, apples, orchids, cacti, venus flytraps… they're all flowering plants! Starting as small, bushy aquatic plants, the ancestors of the flowering plants evolved a special arrangement of leaves called petals that often sported bright colors. Now, as you can see, this magnolia is a simple shade of pink, but if I flip an ultraviolet light on it…" which Peridot does "... you can see an even more elaborate display of color! Why is that?"
Pulling down the scroll bar on the holoscreen, Peridot causes the time machine to shrink yet again, but only to the size of a bee. Speaking of which… you notice some large forms buzzing around you as Peridot maneuvers around the giant flowers.
"It seems the evolution of flowering plants is tied to the evolution of insects. During the Cretaceous, a number of different insect groups evolved that developed more along social lines. These insects created their own societies, where by a single queen gives birth to all the offspring, of which a few select forms may grow: soldiers, workers, and so forth. These insects worked so well together that they might as well be their own organism. They became eusocial! One line of insects, the cockroaches, gave rise to one such type of eusocial insect, termites, but those species became adapted to eating wood. What we're concerned with is the other lineage, the wasps. Some of those eusocial species gave rise to the ants, while the other evolved into bees."
Peridot follows one of the bees as it lands on a flower. The bee starts looking for nectar as pollen becomes brushed along its hairs. "Insects like bees really helped flowering plants get their start and take over the plant world. Flowering plants found that they could recruit insects to help with pollination by giving them sweet nectar to drink. They co-evolved together: it's a whole different type of fusion! Some of these relationships became so intense that some insects can only ever feed on the nectar of one type of flower, and some flowers can only be pollinated by just one kind of insect. That certainly makes them special, even though they become more vulnerable to environmental risks."
The bee suddenly stops for a brief moment before flying away rapidly. This causes all the other bees to start buzzing off, but not before one unfortunate bee gets trapped between a pair of giant, toothy jaws. Peridot yelps and pulls the time machine away, setting the scroll bar up to make the pod just big enough to remove you both from the threat. The deadly maw turned out to be the beak of an odd bird, which perched on the tree next to the small time machine.
Peridot coos, "aww, it was just a little birdy. Towards the end of the Jurassic, one lineage of dinosaurs lengthened their arms and changed their outer coat of fluff into branched feathers. The muscles in the breast became strengthened and allowed for rapid motion of their wings. These dinosaurs, originally using their feathers for insulation, started using their wings for balance while hunting prey animals as well as providing lift when running along tree branches. Eventually, powered flight evolved, and the skies became filled with birds!"
The time machine, grown back to full size, flies out across the colorful Cretaceous landscape. You take in the great herds of long-necked dinosaurs, small collections of horned dinosaurs, and a small pack of tyrannosaurs on the prowl. A pair of flying reptiles, pterosaurs, soars above the pod. It's a world of reptiles indeed.
"As much as I'd love to stay and see more dinosaurs, we really should continue on with my story. And that means that we have to come to another sad part of the story." Peridot, with a bummed expression, takes the time machine higher upwards until the entire planet is visible. There is a familiar shape to the continents now: Pangaea has since broken up and most of the familiar land masses are nearing their present-day locations. Africa and South America are now separated by a very thin, newborn Atlantic Ocean; Australia is starting to break away from Antarctica; and North America and Eurasia are just barely touching towards the poles.
"The dinosaurs were the dominant land animals for the remainder of the Mesozoic Era, but like all great animal dynasties, their rule came to an abrupt end. Allow me to demonstrate." Peridot sets time in a fast-forward motion yet again, and all appears normal at first. The continents slowly move, but you notice that the sea levels have begun lowering and that puffs of volcanic smoke are radiating from India, which has begun separating from Madagascar. Peridot stops quickly and the clock reads: 66 Million Years Ago.
"A drop in sea levels and a rise in intense volcanism had started causing problems for life on Earth, though for a little bit it seemed that things would recover just enough so that the usual pace of things would remain the same. And then came some bad news, crashing down. Literally!"
Peridot turns the time machine in such a way as to give you a good view of the Gulf of Mexico. "Don't blink" is all Peridot says as you watch a tiny blip slam into the Earth and send an enormous cloud of debris into space. The light is so intense that you can't help but look away for a few seconds. When you turn back, the bright explosion has turned into a ring of death that begins encircling the entire planet.
"The end of the Cretaceous, and the Mesozoic, coincides with another great mass extinction event. A rock from space - we don't know if it was an asteroid, a comet, or a meteor - slammed into the planet with the force of 100 trillion tons of TNT. After impact, earthquakes and hundred-foot tsunamis engulfed much of the land, as you can see right now. It was total devastation. It won't be too long before the impact winter kicks in, when clouds from the explosion blanket the Earth in a darkened, snowy apocalypse that shuts down all major ecosystems. 75% of all organic life died out."
Peridot holds up the little magnolia flower, still safe in the time machine. "Thankfully, the casualties are not as severe as those in the Permian. No major groups of life died out this time, many organics survived relatively unharmed. Even the dinosaurs lived through it… remember, birds are dinosaurs! And if it wasn't for this mass extinction event, the world as you know it wouldn't be here! For all we know, humans probably wouldn't have evolved. I wonder if Pink Diamond would have liked a planet of dinosaurs?" Peridot puts a finger to her chin in contemplation. "Anyway… I shouldn't be too sad. If humans hadn't evolved I wouldn't have gotten to meet Steven or Connie or Greg… or you." You give Peridot a smile and a pat on the back.
"Come on… let's proceed." She blushes.
…
To Be Continued!
