Africa



Typically thought of as the warmest continent, a closer look will reveal that Africa is in fact a whole range environments put together. However, during the early Triassic, it was mostly rainforest, like the rest of the world. Animals had to adapt fast to the rapid change. Gorgonopsids managed to become arboreal hunters, hunting prey down below from the trees. One particular gorgonopsid, †Leobratus, has a short cat like skull and longer than average sabreteeth. During the Norian Hothouse Event, the rainforest's diminished, as the world heated up. Afterwards the rainforest grew back.

In the early Jurassic, Pangea broke apart. Africa and South America split, and now both animals on both continents have unique ways to evolve. Unlike the northern hemisphere, where pareiasaurs went extinct after the Triassic, pareiasaurs existed in Africa for some time afterwards. A giant desert spread out into the middle of Africa, and pareiasaurs ruled, along with desert bennettites and pedenyphta. Temperatures were actually much cooler than deserts elsewhere, the highest temperature only 29 degrees. Once Africa split apart from South America, North Africa became flooded underwater. These were tropical oceans, which remained warm throughout the whole year. Fossils have been found in Egypt, which shows that the waters were rich in cephalopods, mainly belemnites. Sea slugs and cnidarians were also very common, but one of the most impressive creatures were the ichthyosaurs. This mid Jurassic African species was normal for its time, 9 metres long. The species, †Kaldesodon egypticus, had strange morphological features about them, including tooth cusps, crocodile like teeth, and more elongated body than average. However, unlike other ocean areas, they were not the top predators. Instead the top predator was an enormous macropredatory nothosaur, †Niloticosaurus giganteus. At 12 metres long, it is the largest nothosaur ever discovered. Bite marks matching †Niloticosaurus have been found in ichthyosaur remains, showing that it did indeed take the role as top predator. Among the remains are of a marine lystrosaur from the early Triassic, but these are dubious and many belong to another animal. In addition, some younginiformes also were found there. The rest of Africa was either desert or fern prairie, though a few canyon ecosystems existed. In the desert habitats, pareiasaurs roamed. However, once dicynodonts appeared, the pareiasaurs became in serious trouble. They became outcompeted and eventually were driven to extinction. Many gorgonopsids are found here, and looking at the skulls it appears they lacked whiskers. Living in their shadows were therocephalians, which remained very small and nocturnal. Like elsewhere in the world, mountains were pushed up as a result of the moving continents. In Africa these mountains existed in Morocco, and were snow capped. A group of flying cynodonts, the Chiropteramimids, can have their origins traced back to these Moroccan mountains. They evolved from late Jurassic gliding cynodonts in the rainforests, and as they migrated further up they evolved the ability to fly. Soon, the Chiropteramimids spread out into the cold areas on the planet, taking the role that weigeltisaurs took in warmer areas. The rainforest's in what is now the Congo, beautifully preserved several remarkable evolutionary significant organisms. The first is †Protoanthus, one of the first angiosperms. It lived in the water, and had at least twenty branches, each tipped with tiny flowers. The second evolutionarily significant find was that of †Apismimus, a tiny water beetle, that showed signs of evolving towards a lifestyle similar to bees; collecting pollen from flowering plants. The beetle was only .25 centimeters across, and was so well preserved, that the pigmentation of the beetles shell was shown, which reveals that it had a very shiny, black shell. Other fossils found were that of early gymnotiformes, dwarf gorgonopsids, and large dicynodonts.

The end of the Jurassic, with the Tithonian Warming Cycle, rose the Inland Sea levels, expanded deserts and rainforest's. When it cooled down in the Barresian, the inland sea began to shrink. However, an enormous lake was formed, which still exists today; the Nok Lake. Here there are many different kinds of fish preserved, and even freshwater ammonites, along with various copepods and shrimp. The most surprising find was that of a freshwater ichthyosaur, which has yet to be properly named or described. In the mountains, gorgonopsids diversified, with several definitive fossils showing that they evolved shaggy fur. After the cooling cycle ended, the continent remained pretty much the same. In the Cape of South Africa, fossils of mesosaurs are known. However, these fossils became increasingly rare, before they disappeared completely. Lamniformes fossils are known, showing that for the most part they were basking shark like fish, feeding on plankton, making them vulnerable to attack, especially by the macropredatory ichthyosaurs there. Elsewhere, new archosaurs began to diversify, and compete against the gorgonopsids. The gorgonopsids could not handle the competition. The last African gorgonopsid, †Hyaenagorgon, scavenged off carcasses, but even they succumbed to the new amazing power the archosaurs evolved, and they went extinct. Therocephalians managed to fill in small niches, to avoid competition with archosaurs.

The late Cretaceous, in the Campanian, the minor glacial event began. Somehow, this coincided with the return of the Egyptian Inland Sea. This time, instead of nothosaurs, there was a highly specialized archosaur called †Aquatidontosaurus. This suchimorph was very bizarre, its anatomy very similar to theropod dinosaurs from our timeline. They had four toed, webbed feet, a long, crocodilian tail, and short front and hindlimbs. There is an ongoing debate about whether or not this animal was quadrupedal or bipedal, and so far there is enough evidence to show that it could go either way. It was pretty large, 8 metres long, and fed on sharks. After the Campanian cooling, the Inland Sea disappeared, and so did †Aquatidontosaurus. Nevertheless, at the start of the Maastrichtian ice age, they went extinct, and so did the inland sea. The waters around the Southern Cape became incredibly cold, and because of this and the warm currents from the Pacific, this made the Cap prone to intense storms, which would sweep inland and reek unimaginable havoc. Fern prairies became very common, but by the end of the Maastrichtian they were replaced by angiosperms, mainly grass. This had a profound effect. Many insects died out and evolved with the new plant, and many herbivores had to change their eating styles to match that of grass. Grass even evolved in the sea. This drove a herbivorous suchimorph to become an underwater aquatic grazer. This remained into the early Cenozoic. More to be added soon...