First Animals on Earth . . . Found in Australia

First Animals on Earth. . . found in Australia

The first animals were in the Ediacaran Period of the Precambrian Era.  I recently listened to a book by Bill Bryson called In A Sunburned Country.  It is a book about Australia.  He tells a story about a geologist who was in the Australian Outback.  This geologist climbed a bit onto a cliff to get shade to eat his lunch.  There he found fossils of the first animals.  This type of fortunate discovery is an example of serendipity.  The geologists was named Reginald Sprigg and he was in the South Flinders Range of mountains.  

The "leaves" you are seeing in the drawing are actually NOT leaves.  They are not even plants.  They do look like leaves but they are an animal called Charnia.   Charnia fossils were the first fossilized animals to be identified as from the Pre-Cambrian Era.  The rounder flat animal is called a Dickinsonia.   It had no mouth.  It appears to have secreted digestive juices (acid) on the bacteria mats on the sea floor and absorbed the bacteria nutrients.  Some of the other animals you see include sponges and jellyfish.  Some of these very early animals of the Ediacaran Period would go on into the Paleozoic Era and some (like sponges and jellyfish) have descendants stillin the oceans today. 

Back then, around 600 million years ago, there was no life on land at all.  But the seas had begun to teem with animal life. . . or Kingdom:  Animalia.   It appears that many of these animals were filtier feeders who ate plankton.  The plankton could be from Kingdom:  Protista, or Kingdom:  Eubacteria.  The earliest form of life appears to have been a type of bacteria called Archaebacteria.  Then the Eubacteria appeared, then the Protists.  Animals appeared next.  Somewhere in there the fungi or Kingdom:  Fungi evolved too.

So many know about the Cambrian Explosion of life. . . seen in the Burgess Shale at Yoho National Park in Canada.  But now we know that there appears to have been a Precambrian Explosion as well.

We are going to Australia in a couple of weeks or so.  So we want to see the Australian fossils of these early animals of the Precambrian Explosion. . . They are in the South Australian Museum in Adelaide.   

NOTE:  Remember that the printable version of this is found by clicking on the buttons labeled either Paleontology. . . . . or . . . . All Printables.      Newer drawings are at the bottom of the correct list.  There are sub-lists in the Paleontology page. . . and I had to add "Animals of the Pre-Cambrian."

T. rex mother with one chick in Nest

T. rex mother with one chick in Nest

(new drawing)

The well known paleontologist Robert Bakker once said that when he thinks of T. rex he thinks of gentleness.  This is because there is good evidence that T. rex chicks had to be cared for.  They possibly were even carried around in their mother's and maybe father's mouth.  In fact, it is probable that T. rex and the other large theropod dinosaurs lived in packs and the larger dinos cared for the young, kind of like in a pride of lions.  

This is a simple drawing for younger kids to color.  

Dilophosaurus

Dilophosaurus emerges from a Forest

Dilophosaurus lived in the Early Jurassic about 190 million years ago in what is now Arizona, USA, North America.  It was about 23 feet or 7 meters long from nose to tip of tail.  It weighed about 880 lbs or 400 kg.  Dilophosaurus was a killer. . . or a predatory carnivorous dinosaur 

The full scientific name is Dilophosaurus sinensis.  The genus name of sinensis means two crested because this animal had two crests on the front part of its head.  You can only see one in my side view drawing.  

In Jurassic Park, the movie, Dilophosaurus with a frill.  That IS a possibility, but there is so far no scientific evidence of this frill.  Also, Dilophosarus was considerably bigger than the ones shown in the movie.

The tree to the right of the dinosaur, the tree with the fan shaped leaves is a Ginkgo.  The first type of Ginkgo tree first appeared on the Earth millions of years before the dinosaurs.  It still is around and is considered a living fossil.  To be more precise, the first Ginkgo tree appeared around 270 million years ago, in the Permian Period of the Paleozoic Era.

Printable forms of my drawings are found by clicking on the correct button above. . . that would be Paleontology. . . . or . . . . All Printables.   Scroll down to the bottom of the lists.  The new drawings
are found at the bottom of the lists.  

Tiger Quoll in the Outback

Quoll in the Outback

A quoll is a marsupial that is somewhat like a possum or opussum.  They are endemic to Australia, New Guinea and Tamania.  The word "endemic" means that the species lives only there.  Or are native to only that part of the world.  .  

There are several species of quoll.  Two speces live in New Guenea and four speces live in Australia.  In Australia they live mostly within a few hundred miles of the coast.  Quolls are carniverous.  They eat mostly smaller mammals.  They once lived all over Australia but the introduction of predators like foxes has drastically affected their numbers.  

This is a drawing of a Tiger Quoll.  A Tiger Quoll is the only species with a pouch up front or underneath instead of facing backwards.  Notice the baby quoll or pup with its head poking out of the pouch.  

By the way, the Tiger Quoll is known by several other names as well:  Spotted Tail Quoll, Spotted Quoll, Spotted-Tail Dasyure, or Tiger Cat.  But remember, it is a marsupial and NOT a cat.

NOTE:  The printable version of the drawing are found by clicking on the Animals or All Printables buttons at the top of the page.  Remember that new drawings are at the bottom of the lists.  

P-51 Mustang on D-Day

P-51 Mustang on D-Day

Today is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day.  This is the day that the Allies landed in Normandy France to start the liberation of Europe from NAZI tyranny.  The above plane is the P-51 Fighter Plane from the U.S. Army Air Corps.  It has black and white stripes painted on the wings that were done that way for D-Day.  They called them "Invasion Stripes."  Some other planes, like the P-47 fighter, also had the invasion stripes.  A few months later most of the planes had the stripes removed.  The ships down below, in the English Channel, include destroyers, a battleship, and a cruiser... plus in the foreground are two landing craft on their way to the beach.  

P-51 with D-Day Invasion Stripes

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=187921

This link is a web site with the photo and other WW 2 era photos of planes with invasion stripes.

My father was a B-24 Bomber pilot in WW 2.  I don't think he participated in the bombing on D-Day.  But my dad did fly 13 missions over Europe to drop tanks, fly clear to the bombers' target and escort the bombers all the time.  Dad was never shot down but he did crash land on the way to Europe.  His two best friends, who enlisted with him right after Pearl Harabor was bombed...both died in plane crashes during training.  Those two young men gave their lives, even though they never saw combat.  Today we salute all the soldiers who died and those who survived their service years.

Without brave soldiers we would certainly not have our freedom.  

B-24J Liberator 

B-24 Bombers DID participate in the pre-invasion bombing of the Normandy Coast.


NOTE:  The printable version of the drawings are found by clicking on the top button labeled Transportation.  The drawings are also found under the All Printables buttons.   The  newer darawings are found at the bottom of the lists and the older drawings are further up the list. 
     

Cassowary

Cassowary

A Cassowary is a large flightless bird.  It is similar in size to the Emu, but the Cassowary is slightly shorter and somewhat heavier.  This group of large flightless birds include the Ostritch, the Emu, the Kiwi, and the Cassowary.  The group of birds is called Ratites.  They are pretty awesome in thier size.   As far as the Cassowary, it comes in 3 species.  The species are:  Southern Cassowary, Northern Cassowary, and the Dwarf Cassowary.  The Southern Cassowary and the Northern Cassowary can weigh around 100 lbs or a mass of 220 kg.  The Dwarf Cassowary weighs in at only 

40 or so lbs.  The Southern Cassowary can get to be up to 5.6 feet tall.  That is 1.7 meters tall.

The Cassowary is like a raptor dinosaur, is that it has a large claw on it's inside toe.  This claw is used for defense and for killing prey.  Although their prey is mostly insects and spiders.  Cassowaries also eat lots of different plant species.  It is estimated that they eat around 100 diffrent species of plant, especially ripe fruit from the plants.  The Cassowary keeps seeds in its gut for many hours so it can disperse seeds very effectively.  

The claw on the toe can be deadly.  A few years ago a Cassowary breeder or farmer fell down in his Cassowary pen.  He was killed by his own Cassowary.  He was an elderly man, living in Florida, when this happened.  Cassowaries are considered the most deadly bird to Man.

Cassowaries are endemic to some parts of Australia and New Guinea.  

The Five Wise Virgins from the Parable of the Ten Virgins

The Five Wise Virgins from the Parable of the Ten Virgins

The parabale of the Ten Virgins is found in Matthew 25:  1-13 in the Holy Bible.  Some people think that this parable is directed to the believers of Jesus.  The implication is that at the Second Coming of Christ, the Believers include those who have followed the teachings of Jesus and those who have not.  In fact, it implies that half of the Believers will not be found worthy.  

These virgins were part of a custom as either bride's maids or perhaps torch bearers (lamp bearers).  Five of the ten virgins that were invited did not bring enough oil in their lamps. . . so when the bridegroom was delayed they ran out of oil.  They asked to borrow some of the oil from the five virgins who were prepared with enough oil and were told no.  The five wise and prepared virgins said that if they loaned some of their oil then there would not be enough left for themselves.  

The five unprepared or foolish virgins had to leave and go buy more oil.  While they were gone the bridegroom came and the five wise and prepared virgins got to go to the wedding.  The other five, the five foolish virgins, showed up late at the building where the wedding was and were denied entry.  

The message is that when Jesus returns to Earth as a ressurrected God we all need to have our lamps full.  Lamps full means to me that we have kept God's commandments as much as we can.  And that when we have sinned we have repented and taken advantage of the Atonement of Christ to receive forgiveness.  

In this drawing I drew only the five wise or worthy virgins, as they make their way to the wedding.  You can infer that they are following the Bridegroom.   

NOTE:  This drawing, in printable form, is found by clicking on the top button labeled 

"All Printables"   or    "Religious".    New drawings, like this one, are found at the bottom of the correct lists.