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Dinosaurs, Dragons, Loch Ness, and Reptile People; Where does fact end and fiction begin?

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By around 110 million BC the first portions of the Kerguelen island continent had appeared. Large sections of the island continent would remain dry land for millions of years, after which they would all eventually submerge to become one with the sea floor again (with the last disappearing from the surface around 20 million BC). This article lists some developments possibly relevant to the Kerguelen island continent, and certain higher lifeforms which may have arisen or taken refuge there.


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BACK to timeline contents: Perspectives contents: Antarctic and Kerguelen continents: Dinosaurs, dragons contents


[Caution: Extreme speculation ahead; this section mostly created for "What If?" entertainment value]

"...More history is waiting to be discovered under the sea than in all the world's museums combined..."

-- undersea explorer Robert Ballard, circa 2000

-- Explorers-in-Residence See Gloom and Gleam in the Future By David Braun, National Geographic News; http://www.ngnews.com/, 4-11-2000

"...the known number of dinosaurs now stands at slightly more than 250. But...there might be 500 or more yet to be discovered"

-- Dinosaur fossil record compiled, analyzed ["http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/634.html"] By Tony Fitzpatrick; Feb. 10, 2004; news-info.wustl.edu

The premise: An evolutionary development somewhat similar to apes-to-human occurs many millions of years before the rise of humanity. And rather than involving apes, this consists of a couple species from an independently evolved primate family (highly distinct from humanity's own primate ancestors)-- or pseudo-primate-- evolving into something else: something where one symbiont possesses a smallish humanoid shape and likeness, and human-like intelligence-- but is still a decidedly different species from 21st century humanity. The second species is something like a much smaller and less intelligent version than the first, which serves to complement the larger, smarter species. This symbiotic pair of species might live and thrive millions of years before humanity emerges on Earth. This strange pseudo-primate symbiotic lifeform itself could have helped drive reptile evolution in the vicinity too, to heights never to occur again, elsewhere on Earth. Could later human encounters with these unusual but rare reptiles have been the basis for stories involving dragons and reptile people? And could rare and wary examples of these beasts still survive somewhere on the planet today?

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Sometime between 295,000,000 BC and 250,000,000 BC: A foot long lizard which lives in Europe, Asia, and North America is running upright, on two legs, like a human being; it may be the fastest animal alive today

The earliest upright biped isn't a mammal, or even a dinosaur, but a still older reptile. In Germany circa 290 million BC, a foot long lizard (Eudibamus cursoris, a bolosaur) is running erect-- on two legs. This makes bipedalism something which developed at least three separate times during the evolution of life on Earth: in reptiles, dinosaurs, and mammals.

Eudibamus cursoris was a plant eater/herbivore, and likely the fastest animal on the planet at the time (when running). It had a long tail which might have helped it manuever, as well as balance while erect. Eudibamus cursoris doesn't seem to be directly related to either of the reptiles or dinosaurs which appeared later on.

Bolosaurs (and so possibly Eudibamus cursoris as well) were distributed across Asia, Europe, and North America during this time.

-- Ancient Two-Legged Lizard Intrigues Scientists By Maggie Fox, Reuters/Yahoo! Science Headlines, November 2 2000

The bolosaurid Eudibamus cursoris lived during a period between 290 million BC to 250 million BC. The group is thought to have died out around the end of the Permian, during one of the largest extinction events ever witnessed by the Earth.

-- Newly Found Bipedal Reptile Fossil Predates Dinosaurs By More Than 60 Million Years ["http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/11/001102150002.htm"], 11/3/2000, University Of Toronto (http://www.utoronto.ca); Contact: Janet Wong; (416) 978-6974; jf.wong@utoronto.ca

Eudibamus was a member of the Parareptilia group of reptiles. Its legs and feet show similarities to human limbs. For instance, the foot is unusually long for a reptile of this size, in order to enable its upright bipedalism. Its arms are also shorter than its legs, as in humans.

290 million BC to 268 million BC is given in the article cited as the relevant span of Eudibamus.

-- Ancient reptile walked on two legs ["http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1003000/1003886.stm"] By Dr David Whitehouse, 2 November, 2000, BBC News Online

Eudibamus may have generally ran in a posture similar to human beings. It is believed that during slow travel it may have moved quadrupedally. During its fastest sprints it may have ran on its toes.

-- Ancient running reptile was bipedal, say Science researchers ["http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/aaas-arr102700.html"] 2 NOVEMBER 2000, EurekAlert!, US Contact: Ginger Pinholster gpinhols@aaas.org 202-326-6421 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Fossils of Eudibamus cursoris so far found indicate an animal weighing about a pound or less. It sported extra long middle toes on its longer than usual feet. Eudibamus would have been awkward in quadrupedal motion. On two legs, it was very fast. Likely capable of sprinting at 15 mph, compared to only 13 mph spurts for modern (21st century) bipedal lizards.

It's a mystery as to how Eudibamus could have gone extinct, considering its significant advantages over its competitors of the time.

-- Lizard may have been first biped The Associated Press, November 2, 2000, http://www.nandotimes.com

295 million BC to 250 million BC is given by the article cited below as the likely span of the Eudibamus.

-- Newly found bipedal reptile fossil predates dinosaurs by more than 60 million years ["http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/utor-nfb103000.html"] (possibly by Diane Scott, University of Toronto at Mississauga), EurekAlert! , 2 NOVEMBER 2000 Contact: Janet Wong jf.wong@utoronto.ca 416-978-6974 University of Toronto

The closest known surviving relative to Eudibamus cursoris in the early 21st century is the turtle. The best fossil currently available seems to be of an animal drowned in a flash flood. Eudibamus cursoris is of the Bolosauridae family of reptiles.

The likely stride of Eudibamus was similar to that of the modern Jesus Christ lizard of South America, which can run bipedally across water fast enough to avoid sinking. However, Eudibamus looks to have been even faster. It survived at least 30 million years.

Some scientists dispute the idea that Eudibamus ever moved in an upright, bipedal manner, let alone run in that position.

The Jesus Christ lizard is not the only modern lizard capable of moving bipedally; there are many others.

-- Two-Legged Sprinter, Reptile With Unusually Fast Locomotion ["http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/runningreptile001102.html"] By Amanda Onion, ABC News, 11-2-2000

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Sometime between 250,000,000 BC and 245,000,000 BC the Permian mass extinction apparently does away with 77-96% of all animal species on Earth...

...and perhaps within only thousands of years, rather than millions.

-- 2150 biodiversity ["http://www.enviroweb.org/coe/e-sermons/weedplan.html"] and WRI Article: "A History of Extinction" ["http://www.wri.org/wri/biodiv/b03-koa.html"]

Around 250 million BC up to 90% of all verterbrates on land and in the sea went extinct. A massive die off of plant life also took place-- enough to drastically change the course of rivers worldwide, it appears. The clues provided by river course changes indicate the extinctions occured very quickly as such things go, more likely within only thousands of years rather than millions.

Although large tectonic/geologic movements may also cause such indications, none seem to have occured around this time.

The plant life seems to recover pretty quickly to the extinctions-- at least compared to the animal life.

-- New evidence indicates huge vegetation loss accompanied mass extinction ["http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/nsf-nei083100.html"] 7 SEPTEMBER 2000, EurekAlert!, Contact: Vince Stricherz vinces@u.washington.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington

70% of land species and 85+% of ocean species went extinct by the time the Permian period ended. The extinctions appear to have occured within only one million years or less-- terribly fast, as such things go.

-- Scientific American: IN BRIEF: Fast Extinction ["http://www.sciam.com/1998/0898issue/0898inbrief.html"] (appears from the URL to be the August 1998 issue)

Even the insects almost don't survive this one. The actual die off may have occurred over a period of one million years or less-- maybe much less. There may have been more than one cause for the extinctions, but one prime suspect is an enormous lava flow up to four km thick in Siberia, over a region as large as the future USA. In the 20th century the ancient hardened lava flow will be called the Siberian Traps. The volcanic gases released along with the lava may have helped plunge the world into a 'nuclear winter' type environment-- or, alternatively, they may have formed 'greenhouse gases' which effectively cooked the planet for a while. In the 'cooked' scenario much life would have had to take refuge towards the poles (higher latitudes), worldwide. Or, both circumstances could have taken place, only one after the other. First a colder period, then a hotter one. Which scenario actually transpires will remain a mystery to scientists circa 1999 AD.

Other factors could include a comet or asteroid strike during this period-- or even perhaps the killing radiation of a gamma ray burster, coming close to sterilizing the entire galaxy at this time.

-- Space Today and the Washington Post, on or about 12-18-96; "Recently Discovered Cosmic Blast May Be Biggest Since Big Bang" by MALCOLM W. BROWNE, 5-7-98, The New York Times;"Cataclysmic Explosions May Have Held Up Alien Visitors", Author: Robert Matthews, New Scientist magazine issue 23rd Jan 99

Perhaps it was a series or multitude of comet impacts over time which caused the extinctions. Or such a series may have combined with the gases emitted by the Siberian Traps above to have had the effect.

-- NOW, IT'S COMET SHOWERS THAT DID IT From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #54, NOV-DEC 1987 by William R. Corliss, citing Piet Hut, et al; "Comet Showers as a Cause of Mass Extinctions," Nature, 329:118, 1987

A fossilized forest in the central Transantarctic Mountains from the Upper Permian offers climatic evidence for its location which seems to conflict with long established ideas about the period.

-- A PERMIAN POLAR FOREST From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #84, NOV-DEC 1992 by William R. Corliss, citing Edith L. Taylor, et al; "The Present Is Not the Key to the Past: A Polar Forest from the Permian of Antarctica," Science, 257:1675, 1992

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Approximately 220,000,000 BC: Longisquama, a small bird-like reptile with feathers, is gliding between trees today like the flying squirrels of the 20th century will later

The find of a fossil of a small bird-like reptile with feathers (Longisquama) calls into question the issue of dinosaurs being the precursor to birds. It may instead be that birds, like dinosaurs, evolved from the reptile line directly.

The small feathered reptile appears to have glided between trees like modern day flying squirrels. Only it did its gliding in central Asia, around 220,000,000 BC.

The first true birds (like Archaeopteryx) are not judged to have emerged until 145,000,000 BC.

The most birdlike dinosaurs, like Velociraptor and Bambiraptor, existed 70 million after Archaeopteryx-- or around 75,000,000 BC.

It may be that fossils up to now (2000 AD) assumed to be feathered dinosaurs are in truth flightless birds.

-- Ancient feathered animal challenges dinosaur-bird link ["http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/osu-afa061600.html"], EurekAlert!, 22 JUNE 2000, Contact: Terry Jones jonest@ava.bcc.orst.edu 541-737-6120 Oregon State University

Longisquama insignis, an ten inch long archosaur, was of the same reptile genus which eventually begat birds, crocodiles, and dinosaurs. Its arms and back display primitive feathers.

-- Feathers on reptile older than dinosaurs, reported in Science ["http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/aaas-for061500.html"], EurekAlert!, 22 JUNE 2000, Contact: Heather Singmaster hsingmas@aaas.org 202-326-6414 American Association for the Advancement of Science

The little reptile was a tree-climber, which lived alongside dinosaurs in the Triassic. Though the skeleton is very bird-like, it is speculated that the exterior appearance was much that of a lizard, only with a bird-like head and neck.

The possible primitive bird may have been somewhat similar to the small 21st century flying dragons of Southeast Asia, of the Draco genus, which are able to expand their rib-cages to create wing-like gliding surfaces.

-- Feathery Fossil Shows Birds Aren't Dinosaurs-Report By Maggie Fox, Yahoo!/Reuters, June 22 2000

Might wings have first evolved to help animals run faster? Some studies of Archeopteryx seem to suggest this. Or perhaps wings evolved to aid gliding from tree to tree? It might even be that both routes were taken, only by different species. Some may have grew feathers to glide, while some found a way for feathers to speed their running along the ground. There may even have been a species suited for using feathers for both purposes.

Modeling of Archaeopteryx suggests it possessed a running speed of 2 meters per second, but required 6 to take off. It may have been able to achieve almost 8 meters per second by flapping its wings too during its run.

Early wholly flightless birds may have flapped their feathered forelimbs too to gain a speed advantage.

Dissenting scientists prefer to embrace the model that Archeopteryx would scamper or climb up trees to achieve a launching place for its glides.

-- Wings for speed ["http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_336000/336192.stm"], May 6, 1999, BBC News, Sci/Tech

The small gliding reptile probably ate bugs. Such bird-like lizards may pre-date most dinosaurs.

Not all scientists agree that Longisquama sports feathers. Some insist it possesses elongated scales instead. And that the scales were sexual ornamentation rather than functional gliding apparatus.

-- Fossil Ruffles Feathers ["http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/feathers000623.html"] By Amanda Onion, The Associated Press contributing, June 23, 2000

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Approximately 213,000,000 BC- 144,000,000 BC: High sea levels of this time claim and destroy most potential fossil-producing remains. This will make the animal life of this period (including mammals) very difficult for later 21st century human scientists to reconstruct or understand

In other words, much about the mammals and reptiles existing during this period will largely be a mystery to 21st century scientists.

Due to the sparseness of fossils from the Jurassic period (213 million BC through 144 million BC), as of early 2001 AD humanity knows very little about mammalian species of that time.

One reason not many fossils exist is because global sea levels in the Jurassic were very high, and so dry land area limited. This meant many animal remains tended to be washed into the seas.

-- 'Jurassic Park' Unearthed in Argentina's Patagonia By Simon Gardner; Yahoo!/Reuters; February 14, 2001

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Approximately 193,000,000 BC- 136,000,000 BC: The Jurassic Period: The reptile order Squamata makes its debut

Squamata is the main order of modern living reptiles which will survive all the way into the 21st century, which includes both snakes and lizards. Squamata first appeared in the Jurassic. During the 21st century representatives of the order will be found everywhere on Earth but the very coldest of places. Most species are land-based, but others will have adapted to tree-living, burrowing, and aquatic environments. In the 20th century there will be some 2200 known lizard species of the sub-order Sauria.

Most Sauria eat insects, but some eat plants, and larger species may eat larger animals such as mammals and birds. The Komodo dragon will be the largest known living Sauria in the 20th century.

Most Sauria move about on four feet, but a few are bipedal in extremis (and perhaps other times), such as the American Jesus Cristo lizard.

Virtually all the Sauria possess some capacity to change skin colors, though some species are more accomplished in the matter than others.

-- "Squamata", page 1768, The McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1984, 1989

-- Geological Timescale; The Earth, page 15, The Running Press Cyclopedia Second Edition, The Diagram Group, 1993, 1995

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Approximately 165,000,000 BC: The mammals of Earth's southern hemisphere may be 25 million years ahead of their northern counterparts now

Note that this would seem to increase the plausibility of southern pseudo-primates eventually being 25 million years ahead of their northern versions too-- at least unless and until something occured to rob them of their advantage.

As of early 2001 AD there were reasons to believe that the southern hemisphere mammals of 165 million BC were some 25 million years ahead of their northern hemisphere cousins in at least one crucial respect: the evolution of molar teeth, which allowed food grinding in addition to food cutting already present in simpler teeth, thereby greatly expanding the mammals' capabilities in terms of what types of food could sustain them.

It looks likely that molars developed separately among the two hemispheric populations, since it seems unlikely that the southern populations could have crossed the oceans between continents to take the innovation to northern regions themselves.

Those Australian monotremes like the echidna and platypus which lay eggs seem most related to the advanced tooth design southern mammals of this time, while both placentals and marsupials seem more closely related to the northern mammals.

Since scientists have long considered these advanced tooth designs to be a significant evolutionary advantage for their early owners, the next question becomes what happened to all those advanced, possibly egg-laying southern mammal species, of which only a few samples like the echidna and platypus exist by the 21st century AD? As yet we possess too little information about all these early southern mammals to make a good guess. But at first glance it would appear that there may have been a major extinction event afflicting primarily the southern hemisphere, sometime after 165 million BC (A gamma burster from below the galactic plane perhaps? Note that even a month long gamma event from a suitably steep angle could enable much of the northern hemisphere's life to dodge its direct effects). Or maybe egg-laying proved inferior to placental and marsupial methods for virtually all species but reptiles, birds, and the handful of exceptions like echidna and platypus. Or perhaps the southern continents, which suffered more isolation from their kin compared to the northern continents, plus offered smaller land area overall, and fewer of the evolutionary advantages of the Jared Diamond effect ["Why Did Human History Unfold Differently On Different Continents For The Last 13,000 Years? A Talk By Jared Diamond", The Third Culture, found on or about 1-2-99 on the web], allowed the northern species to eventually race ahead of the southern to commandeer mainstream mammal life processes on the planet. Or maybe geological and climate changes which sank one southern continent under the sea and deep froze another (Antarctica) effectively robbed the south of its critical mass evolution-wise, thereby allowing the north to then catch up and surpass what had been their more advanced cousins to the south.

-- Cutting edge by Jeff Hecht, 3 January 2001, New Scientist ["http://www.newscientist.com/"]; Source: Nature vol 409, p 53

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Approximately 150,000,000 BC- 50,000,000 BC: Gondwanaland splinters into all the southern continents of Earth, including the southernmost Antarctica

-- Land of the Dinosaurs ["http://www.e-spaces.com/TOSB/tosb/Discover/dinosaur.html"]

Note that their previous union means that up until now Antarctica likely shared many of the same plant and animal species of Gondwanaland as a whole-- which included primordial versions of New Zealand, Australia, South America, South Africa, and India.

Back in the Tertiary Kerguelen boasted substantial forests of tree species related to the modern trees of South America.

Kerguelen may have once served to connect the continents of South America and Australia, as well as New Zealand.

-- Kerguelen Island, South Indian Ocean ["http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/kerguelen/kerguelen_islands.html"] by Paul Carroll, January 2000

-- Kerguelen cabbage ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/5/0,5716,46205+1,00.html"], ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

The position of Broken Ridge with regards to the central Kerguelen Plateau seemed to remain relatively stable (unchanging) between 83 Ma and 43 Ma. After this the sea floor between these two features began to spread.

-- On the fit of Broken Ridge and Kerguelen Plateau ["http://ibis.grdl.noaa.gov/SAT/at/tikku_cande_epsl_00.html"] (appears to be authored by Anahita A. Tikku and Steven C. Cande), Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 180, no. 1/2, p. 117-132, July 2000

At least some dinosaurs of 130 million BC in the region which humanity would later call China exhibited a body covering of fluffy down and crude feathers. Apparently the covering helped keep the animals warm. The particular fossil cited here was of a two-legged dromaeosaur, a fast and small runner related to Velociraptors.

The bigger a dinosaur was, perhaps the less it needed a feathery coat for warmth.

It appears now that advanced theropod dinosaurs likely looked like strange birds rather than gigantic lizards.

-- First dinosaur found with its body covering intact; displays primitive feathers from head to toe; 25 APRIL 2001; EurekAlert!; US Contact: Anne Canty canty@amnh.org 212-769-5800 American Museum of Natural History; 212-769-5100; www.amnh.org

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Approximately 110,000,000 BC: The first portions of what will be a long-lived island continent on Earth (in piece meal fashion) over millions of years to come is created in the southern hemisphere by immense, climate-changing volcanic eruptions

The total size of the mass will ultimately be one third the size of 1999 AD Australia.

110 million years from now it will be known to submariners as the "Kerguelen Plateau", and lie two kilometers deep. But for millions of years beginning now it will offer varying portions of itself as massive pieces of dry land on Earth.

Mostly the southern portion of the new island continent is formed now by way of massive volcanic eruptions.

-- "'Lost continent' discovered" By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse, BBC News Online: Sci/Tech, 5-27-99, BBC Homepage ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/"]; 1999-06-09 Sunken Continent, The Learning Kingdom Cool Fact of the Day; and Archaeology Underwater News - 2 ["http://www.crystalinks.com/underwaternews.html"] , citing 'Lost Continent Discovered' JULY 1999 - BBC

NGDC/WDC A for MGG - Marine Geology & Geophysics Images ["http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/images.html"] may be helpful in visualizing the size and location of this continent that Earth will eventually lose to the sea.

Only the southern and central portions of the Kerguelen continent are created via volcanic eruption at this time (perhaps similarly to the more modern Hawaiian islands). Note that this includes the sections nearest Antarctica.

The majority of the Kerguelen Plateau and related Broken Ridge formation was created during the Cretaceous. The southern and central regions of the plateau formed around 100-115 Ma (millions of years ago). Greater India separated from Australia/Antarctica 320 My earlier, so the Kerguelen formations seem well differentiated from those larger events.

The major eruption event seems to have been around 110 Ma. The new land masses formed above sea level. Explosive volcanic eruptions above sea level also were occuring during the event.

The northern Kerguelen Plateau seems to have formed in the Cenozoic, however (to be more specific, sampling at two different sites gave numbers of 68 Ma and 35 Ma).

The central and southern portions of the plateau display fossils of plant life indicating existence as dry ground for some period of time. Some parts of the plateau may consist of very old isolated continental fragments from the time of Gondwana breaking apart. The mechanism for this inclusion is unclear. The material may be pieces of continent which have been recycled in the mantle, or surface pieces which simply mixed with new material welling up from deeper in the planet volcanically.

The northern plateau indicates volcanic action (possibly undersea) around 35 Ma (million years ago).

-- ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF A SUBMARINE LARGE IGNEOUS PROVINCE: THE KERGUELEN PLATEAU AND BROKEN RIDGE, SOUTHERN INDIAN OCEAN ["http://www.gl.rhbnc.ac.uk/news/abstracts/abs21.html"], F A Frey and K Nicolaysen (EAPS Dept, Mass Inst Tech, Cambridge, MA 02139; e-mail: fafrey@mit.edu); D Weis (Univ. Libre Bruxelles), M Coffin (Univ. Texas, Austin), P J Wallace (ODP, Texas A&M Univ) and the Leg 183 Shipboard Scientific Party

Another interesting aspect of Kerguelen is the 'clean slate' with which the continent likely begins its periods as a dry land mass, in terms of native life forms. Kerguelen would be populated and repopulated with life in ways similar to that of other volcanically created sea islands over the ages; periodically wiped nearly clean of life by severe ocean storms, tsunamis, and further volcanic eruptions and lava flows. That is, occasional specimens of land plant and animal life would be washed up upon its shores by the sea, from other land masses. Birds would find the land mass on migrations over sea, or when pushed over it by storms. Birds would nest there, and also deposit via droppings seeds from food eaten on other islands or continents. Seals and penguins and other marine life from Antarctica and elsewhere would find Kerguelen. A few land animals like lizards might swim there from nearby land masses, or be transported via storms.

It appears small asteroids and comets capable of causing ocean tsunamis large enough to wipe out island and coastal civilizations over a wide region of the world may happen once every 1000 to 10,000 years. Assuming such strikes as these rarely affect more than 50% of the globe at once when they occur, this means these giant tsunamis on average threaten a given hemisphere only once every 2,000 to 20,000 years. Eliminate the fraction which strike land rather than sea, and you get one lethal strike per every 2,860 to 28,600 years. We could get a bit more accurate by calculating the risk differences relating to some hemispherical regions being closer to 0% or 100% sea covered, but the previous values should be suitable for our purposes here.

The impacts of asteroids and comets are not the only sources of tsunamis. Earthquakes, underwater landslides, and faraway volcanic eruptions can also spur tsunamis large enough to be disasterous to large low lying areas and coastines. Fortunately, these seem to occur with considerably less frequency than the cosmic impacts, like perhaps once every 100,000 years. So the single very large tsunami every 2,860 to 28,600 years remains the most frequent (and deadliest) event to worry over. The once per 100,000 year tsunamis likely are not nearly as damaging as the more frequent impact-spawned events.

Severe storm surges might also have effects similar to tsunamis on vulnerable lowlands and coastlines. But at this time I (JR) don't have a good frequency estimate for those.

-- Mass Extinction & Rise of Dinosaurs Tied to Cosmic Collision By Robert Roy Britt; 22 February 2001; SPACE.com

Heavily land-dependent reptiles like chameleons apparently managed to spread world wide from their original island home of Madagascar via sea-crossing tree rafts, in at least several different migrations over 26 million years.

-- Chameleons walk on water ["http://www.nature.com/nsu/020211/020211-7.html"] by HELEN PEARSON; 14 February 2002; Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd

IMPORTANT 2003 ASTEROID IMPACT UPDATE:

"asteroids with a diameter greater than 200 metres (the length of two football pitches) will hit the surface approximately once every 160,000 years – way down on previous estimates of impacts every 2,500 years"

"the hazard posed by impact-generated tidal waves or tsunamis is lower than previous predictions"

"stony asteroids need to be 1,000 times bigger than the iron ones to make a similar sized crater"

-- Fewer Earthbound asteroids will hit home ["http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-07/icos-fea071503.php"]; 16-Jul-2003; Contact: Judith H Moore; j.h.moore@imperial.ac.uk; 44-0-20-7594 6702; Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine

Note the impact frequency of comets is not covered in the article immediately above. As for the substantial asteroid threat to a specific hemisphere, that would appear to be one impact every 320,000 years or so, adjusting for the new information.

There is also the relatively near proximity to Antarctica to consider. Kerguelen likely shares some climate similarities to portions of Antarctica throughout the shared history of the two continents, due to location and circumstance. It seems likely that a considerable migration of plant and animal forms could take place between Antarctica and Kerguelen-- especially over a span of millions of years, and with the possibility of occasional land or ice bridges between the two appearing, as geological and climate changes affected the region.

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Approximately 100,000,000 BC: There seem to be bipedal dinosaur predators in South America now which will remain undiscovered and unknown to early 21st century human science

There is evidence that Argentina hosted at least several bipedal dinosaur predators around 100 million BC which are as yet unknown and undiscovered by scientists, circa late 2000 AD.

-- New Scientist: Here be monsters ["http://www.newscientist.com/features/features.jsp?id=ns225712"] by Graham Lawton, From New Scientist magazine, 23 September 2000

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Approximately 96,000,000 BC: Australia and Antarctica split apart

-- Common questions: Gondwana and continental drift; FAQ - Gondwana ["http://www.earth.monash.edu.au/dinodream/faq/faqgond.htm"], Monash University Earth Sciences € Monash Science Centre € Ziggurat Creative & Technical Publishing, found on or about 7-8-2000

Note that their previous union means that up until now Antarctica and Australia likely shared many of the same plant and animal species.

Kerguelen may have once served to connect the continents of South America and Australia, as well as New Zealand.

-- Kerguelen Island, South Indian Ocean ["http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/kerguelen/kerguelen_islands.html"] by Paul Carroll, January 2000

-- Kerguelen cabbage ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/5/0,5716,46205+1,00.html"], ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

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Approximately 95,000,000 BC- 85,000,000 BC: Much of the original southernmost portions of the Kerguelen island continent have sunk by now, while entirely new regions are now arising north of them, to create what will ultimately be the center of the island continent's mass

These latter stages of Kerguelen creation appear to be similar to the generation of the Hawaiian islands with which mankind will someday be familiar-- that is, rather than being made in explosive eruptions, they are more gently created via effusive eruptions-- large lava flows but few if any large explosions.

Despite the absence of substantial explosive eruptions, the massive lava flows likely still triggered climate changes and mass extinctions. There appears to be a mass extinction in the fossil record coinciding with this time of Kerguelen-related eruptions.

Could the sinkings of older portions of Kerguelen have overlapped sufficiently with the creation of newer islands to permit migrations of higher Kerguelen life forms between the two, and thus a continuity of Kerguelen-specific evolution of plant and animal life unique to the island continent? That remains unknown as of early 2001 AD. However, even if such an overlap occured, we're still talking about immense effusive eruptions in very close proximity to existing and/or sinking islands. Though life on pre-existing islands might not be endangered by huge explosions in the latter two major Kerguelen eruption events, they would certainly suffer climate changes due to massive lava flows and heat generated so near to their native lands. They would also suffer the evolutionary challenges of migrating to the new lands from the old across significant water barriers. Granted, the time frame for the migrations may have been large, as in millions of years. But the possibility also exists that they were minimal in span, as in mere millennia, centuries, or even just decades. If the overlap between sinkings and risings existed, it could have been catastrophically short, thereby making each successive major Kerguelen sinking/eruption event result in a native flora and fauna upon the newly risen isles drastically different from those which existed on the older islands. Such evolutionary cataclysms could also have spawned sprawling expansions in previously minor player species in the region, as their food sources either exploded in size, or their predators were reduced, or other factors came into play.

In short, great evolutionary boosts could have been enjoyed by certain Kerguelen species as they were forced to island-hop from one doomed land to another. And the sequence of submergences and risings also looks to have resulted in another intriguing possibility: that the Kerguelen island continent first took for itself a healthy share of well developed Antarctic life, then in successive stages heavily modified the numbers and composition of that life, while at the same time isolating it ever further from the Antarctic mainland-- thereby helping insure that the most extreme changes affected on Kerguelen might not be ameloriated by further infusions from Antarctica.

Research indicates that New Zealand broke into two and rejoined again repeatedly over the eons, leading to "...an amazing pattern of speciation and animals..."

-- Extinct bird in 'ground breaker', 7 February, 2001, BBC News Online

-- 1999-06-09 Sunken Continent, The Learning Kingdom Cool Fact of the Day

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Approximately 90,000,000 BC: It appears portions of the Kerguelen island continent are definitely dry land at this time

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Approximately 80,000,000 BC- 75,000,000 BC: Antarctica may be sufficiently close or connected to South America to allow dinosaur migrations between the continents

The 20th century Antarctic Peninsula and associated islands offer many fossils of large dinosaurs-- including marine dinosaurs. The species found suggests that Antarctica was connected to the Americas around the end of the dinosaur era. Scientists believe these particular dinosaurs entered Antarctica in the late Cretaceous, around 80-75 million BC.

-- Fossils Show Dinosaurs Roamed A Warmer Antarctica; Antarctica - Part 2 ["http://www.crystalinks.com/antarctica2.html"], citing Reuters, July 13, 1999

There were likely as many dinosaurs in Antarctica as anywhere else on Earth, when the Antarctic climate was much warmer many millions of years past.

-- Yahoo! News - Dinosaur Hunters Make New Antarctic Finds ["http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&e=19&u=/ap/cold_fossils"] By JAN DENNIS; AP; Jan 26, 2004

"...almost anything we find down there is new to science"

A previously unknown, as much as eight feet tall, running, carnivorous species of dinosaur related to tyrannosaurs apparently lived in Antarctica around 70 million BC, when the region's climate was much like today's American Pacific Northwest. The particular animal from which the fossil was created appeared to have died near the sea shore line.

-- Evidence of a 'lost world': Antarctica yields two unknown dinosaur species ["http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-02/nsf-eoa022504.php"]; eurekalert.org; 26-Feb-2004; Contact: Peter West; pwest@nsf.gov; 703-292-7761; National Science Foundation

The true source of this page is

Note that Antarctica and South America could have shared in other plant and animal species during this time as well, above and beyond the dinosaurs.

Kerguelen may have once served to connect the continents of South America and Australia, as well as New Zealand.

-- Kerguelen Island, South Indian Ocean ["http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/kerguelen/kerguelen_islands.html"] by Paul Carroll, January 2000

-- Kerguelen cabbage ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/5/0,5716,46205+1,00.html"], ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

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Approximately 76,000,000 BC: Australia and New Zealand split apart

-- Common questions: Gondwana and continental drift; FAQ - Gondwana ["http://www.earth.monash.edu.au/dinodream/faq/faqgond.htm"], Monash University Earth Sciences € Monash Science Centre € Ziggurat Creative & Technical Publishing, found on or about 7-8-2000

Note that their previous union means that up until now New Zealand and Australia likely shared many of the same plant and animal species.

Kerguelen may have once served to connect the continents of South America and Australia, as well as New Zealand.

-- Kerguelen Island, South Indian Ocean ["http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/kerguelen/kerguelen_islands.html"] by Paul Carroll, January 2000

-- Kerguelen cabbage ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/5/0,5716,46205+1,00.html"], ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

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Approximately 70,000,000 BC- 45,000,000 BC: Antarctica begins the period somewhat dry, but gradually becomes warmer and wetter; similar conditions or better may encompass Kerguelen

This is a dry time for Antarctica-- but perhaps not desert-dry. The continent gradually becomes warmer and wetter during this period.

-- Antarctic environment and global climate ["http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/umic-aea053100.html"], 31 MAY 2000, EurekAlert!, The University of Michigan News Service 412 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1399, Contact: Nancy Ross-Flanigan rossflan@umich.edu 734-647-1853 University of Michigan

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Approximately 66,500,000 BC- 20,000,000 BC: Kerguelen boasts forests similar to those which will be seen in circa 2000 AD South America

Back in the Tertiary Kerguelen boasted substantial forests of tree species related to the modern trees of South America.

Kerguelen may have once served to connect the continents of South America and Australia, as well as New Zealand.

-- Kerguelen Island, South Indian Ocean ["http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/kerguelen/kerguelen_islands.html"] by Paul Carroll, January 2000

-- Kerguelen cabbage ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/5/0,5716,46205+1,00.html"], ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

-- "'Lost continent' discovered" By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse, BBC News Online: Sci/Tech, 5-27-99, BBC Homepage ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/"]

Note that the presence of trees indicates that, at the very least, average windspeeds about Kerguelen are much more sedate now than they will be around the 20th century AD. Less wind would spell less wind chill too, thereby raising the effective temperatures in the region at least a bit too, compared to the later 20th century.

But there's more. Since the trees populating Kerguelen now resemble those of South America circa 2000 AD, it would appear that the climate would have to be similar to that of 2000 AD South America too-- making Kerguelen a much warmer place than its island remnants will be millions of years from now.

Warmer temperatures and a wealth of vegetation would seem to make the continent hospitable for a plentitude of animal life as well.

The Kerguelen archipelago offers lots of bays and fjords along the coasts of its hundreds of islands. The region is very windy-- too windy for trees. Most of the modern ecosystem of the islands is dependent upon resources brought ashore by penguins. Seals and killer whales populate the waters of modern Kerguelen.

-- KERGUELEN ISLAND; Facts and Photos of Crozet, Kerguelen, & other sub-Antarctic Islands ["http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/penguins/subislands.html"], pictures by E. Fromentel. Worldwide Travelogs is also listed on this page

But where could such animal life come from, and/or how might it reach the continent in the first place?

Keep in mind Kerguelen has possibly been connected to virtually all the southern continents at one time or another, since its formation. Thus, various migrations of species from places like Antarctica, South America, Australia, and New Zealand could have richly populated Kerguelen with representatives long before it became a wholly separate land mass, with seas or oceans isolating it from the rest.

a - j m o o n e y h a m . c o m - o r i g i n a l

But other questions arise-- like how these species might evolve once Kerguelen did become permanently separated. Or did these species even get the chance to evolve? Might the regular killing sweeps of sea storms and tsunamis across the continent's vast lowlands have quickly reduced the continent to an eerily silent landscape, well stocked with trees and plant life most of the time, but virtually bereft of large land animals, for millions of years on end?

It appears small asteroids and comets capable of causing ocean tsunamis large enough to wipe out island and coastal civilizations over a wide region of the world may happen once every 1000 to 10,000 years. Assuming such strikes as these rarely affect more than 50% of the globe at once when they occur, this means these giant tsunamis on average threaten a given hemisphere only once every 2,000 to 20,000 years. Eliminate the fraction which strike land rather than sea, and you get one lethal strike per every 2,860 to 28,600 years. We could get a bit more accurate by calculating the risk differences relating to some hemispherical regions being closer to 0% or 100% sea covered, but the previous values should be suitable for our purposes here.

The impacts of asteroids and comets are not the only sources of tsunamis. Earthquakes, underwater landslides, and faraway volcanic eruptions can also spur tsunamis large enough to be disasterous to large low lying areas and coastines. Fortunately, these seem to occur with considerably less frequency than the cosmic impacts, like perhaps once every 100,000 years. So the single very large tsunami every 2,860 to 28,600 years remains the most frequent (and deadliest) event to worry over. The once per 100,000 year tsunamis likely are not nearly as damaging as the more frequent impact-spawned events.

Severe storm surges might also have effects similar to tsunamis on vulnerable lowlands and coastlines. But at this time I (JR) don't have a good frequency estimate for those.

-- Mass Extinction & Rise of Dinosaurs Tied to Cosmic Collision By Robert Roy Britt; 22 February 2001; SPACE.com

Well, we do know that in the much harsher climate of the Kerguelen remnants (islands) of the 20th century AD, animals like rabbits brought in by human beings will thrive against all odds there, even with considerable and somewhat advanced human efforts to eradicate them. It may be that the underground shelters of the burrowing mammals protect them from the worst aspects of the environment then-- and so it might also be for some animals in the Kerguelen past. Except for the periods of near continent-wide inundation, at least. When tsunamis sweep the immense lowlands of the whole continent perhaps every 3,000 to 29,000 years or so, many burrowing animals would surely drown. Of course, if the populations were large enough, enough might float or swim in the flood long enough to survive until the waters receded, within a few hours or so-- and then begin repopulating an empty continent once more.

The few higher altitude spots on the continent would likely serve as islands of life to re-seed the remainder of the lands, post-tsunami. At least wherever they possessed species which could easily switch between the different altitudes in terms of climate and vegetation. So versatility might soon become an embedded characteristic of what Kerguelen life survived many of the periodic drownings.

It appears small asteroids and comets capable of causing ocean tsunamis large enough to wipe out island and coastal civilizations over a wide region of the world may happen once every 1000 to 10,000 years. Assuming such strikes as these rarely affect more than 50% of the globe at once when they occur, this means these giant tsunamis on average threaten a given hemisphere only once every 2,000 to 20,000 years. Eliminate the fraction which strike land rather than sea, and you get one lethal strike per every 2,860 to 28,600 years. We could get a bit more accurate by calculating the risk differences relating to some hemispherical regions being closer to 0% or 100% sea covered, but the previous values should be suitable for our purposes here.

The impacts of asteroids and comets are not the only sources of tsunamis. Earthquakes, underwater landslides, and faraway volcanic eruptions can also spur tsunamis large enough to be disasterous to large low lying areas and coastines. Fortunately, these seem to occur with considerably less frequency than the cosmic impacts, like perhaps once every 100,000 years. So the single very large tsunami every 2,860 to 28,600 years remains the most frequent (and deadliest) event to worry over. The once per 100,000 year tsunamis likely are not nearly as damaging as the more frequent impact-spawned events.

Severe storm surges might also have effects similar to tsunamis on vulnerable lowlands and coastlines. But at this time I (JR) don't have a good frequency estimate for those.

-- Mass Extinction & Rise of Dinosaurs Tied to Cosmic Collision By Robert Roy Britt; 22 February 2001; SPACE.com

Dinosaurs burrowed to avoid winter's chill 13 July 2009 by Jeff Hecht

Other life which will be known to thrive around Kerguelen in the 20th century AD will be marine life: seals and penguins. Birds too will prosper on the islands. Whales are known to frequent the area. So it might be suspected that prehistoric Kerguelen boasted such life forms as well, although perhaps in far greater abundance and diversity.

Note that there is a sequence of enormous Kerguelen islands rising and sinking again through its history. The first and earliest may be separated from Antarctica by not much more than 500 km of open sea-- and in whatever millennia climate and winds combine to allow ice sheets to form in the straits between the continents, animal life may still walk from one to the other, even if only seasonally.

Eventually the first mega-island sinks, to be replaced by another to its immediate north (thereby perhaps doubling the distance to Antarctica). It remains unknown if an overlap between sinkings and risings occured to allow migration between the different Kerguelen islands-- but it may well be that it did. However, this increasing distance from Antarctica would definitely cut down an contribution to the new island's flora and fauna from Antarctica itself. With the sinking of the second island and rising of the third (still further north), the disconnect with Antractica must have become near complete (bit for marine life the two land masses might share).

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Approximately 65,000,000 BC: The Cretaceous mass extinction comes about, famous later for the decimation of the dinosaurs, but more importantly responsible for the end of about 76% of all life on Earth

Although the popular notion circa 1999 AD will be that an asteroid or other large body impact from space caused the mass extinctions, the truth is that far more was also going on at this time. For instance, a developing 'nuclear winter' type effect from massive volcanic eruptions in the vicinity of 20th century India had already been present for perhaps millions of years before the meteor strike took place. And many dinosaur species were also in decline before the impact, for other reasons.

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Approximately 55,500,000 BC: Huge amounts of methane are added to the atmosphere, setting off a period of extensive global warming

This global warming drives much deep sea life into extinction. This LPTM (latest Paleocene thermal maximum) lasts 10,000-20,000 years. Much new mammalian life appears around this time, including the predecessors to primates.

Ironically perhaps, this warming was itself triggered by a much more subtle long term warm up (over 4.5 million years). Now, that previous slow rise in temperature has apparently pushed the Earth past some critical point, thereby initiating a large release of gas (methane and carbon dioxide) from worldwide methane clathrates deposits in the sea floor.

Such gases are called 'greenhouse gases' because they help insulate the Earth from space and make it heat up.

-- Evidence for historic global warming published in Science, EurekAlert! ["http://www.eurekalert.org/"], University of California, Santa Barbara, 18 NOVEMBER 1999, Contact: Gail Brown, gbrown@instadv.ucsb.edu, 805-893-7220

Circa late 1999 AD, the Earth's hidden deposits of marine gas hydrates will be estimated at 14,000 gigatons.

-- Geologists pinpoint source of major global warming event more than 55 million years ago, National Science Foundation /EurekAlert! ["http://www.eurekalert.org/"], 19 NOVEMBER 1999, Contact: Cheryl Dybas cdybas@nsf.gov 703-306-1070

During the LPTM sea temperatures rise between 7 and 14 degrees Fahrenheit in just one thousand years.

-- Ocean Burp Caused Global Warming, Associated Press/Discovery Online News Brief, http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 11-19-99

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Approximately 50,000,000 BC: Antarctica is moving into the south polar position with which 20th century humanity will be familiar; Kerguelen must needs follow on its heels; Small dinosaurs may still roam Kerguelen

-- Around 50 million BC Antarctica moved into the area of the South Pole.

The climate at extreme northern and southern latitudes became steadily colder over time, and Antarctica slowly lost its wealth of life to the ice.

-- Land of the Dinosaurs ["http://www.e-spaces.com/TOSB/tosb/Discover/dinosaur.html"]

Kerguelen too must be suffering climatic changes like Antarctica-- though perhaps avoids the worst due to Kerguelen's relative location to the South Pole never matching that of Antarctica itself.

Some 20th century scientists will believe Kerguelen was still hosting its own living small dinosaurs around 50 million BC-- or at least offering an environment conducive to same-- 15 million years after the mass extinction event believed to have doomed the dinosaurs overall. Kerguelen of this time is thought to have been covered in vegetation like ferns and primitive trees, and been drenched with a humidity similar to that of the 20th century tropics. It may be a fertile and rich environment, offering numerous streams and swamps in which life may flourish.

-- Archaeology Underwater News - 2 ["http://www.crystalinks.com/underwaternews.html"], citing 'Lost Continent Discovered' JULY 1999 - BBC

Rapid Changes in Climate Don’t Slow Some Lizards November 26, 2012 | Ashley Yeager

Keep in mind that Kerguelen must have received many of its animal and plant species from Antarctica-- especially in its early years. And the dinosaurs of Antarctica and Australia seemed to buck the trend seen in South America and Africa. That is, the Antarctican and Australian beasts were similar to the dinosaurs of Eurasia and North America in terms of advanced development. And there do exist other exceptions to the general divergence between the northern and southern hemispheres-- perhaps due to periodic lowering of sea levels or various geologic events allowing animal populations to occasionally mix across continents in-between the long periods of isolation.

-- New Scientist: Here be monsters ["http://www.newscientist.com/features/features.jsp?id=ns225712"] by Graham Lawton, From New Scientist magazine, 23 September 2000

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Approximately 45,000,000 BC: Some of the earliest emerging non-Kerguelen primates (predecessors to humanity) are astonishingly tiny creatures

The Madagascar mouse lemur of the early 21st century will weigh one ounce and be the smallest known living primate (a fairly close relative to humanity) of that time. But the mouse lemur will be huge compared to the smallest primate of 45,000,000 BC, living in the vicinity someday to be called eastern China. This tiny animal weighs around a third of an ounce and could stand on a 21st century human's thumb.

The tiny creatures are denizens of a rain forest, feasting upon sap and insects. A slightly larger species (weighing in at half an ounce-- roughly 20th century shrew-size) living in the same time and place may be a closer relative to later human beings than the first. The animals are nocturnal. More than a dozen different types of tiny primates will be documented in the find cited below.

-- Fossils of Tiny Primates Found By DAVID KINNEY, Associated Press/Yahoo! Science Headlines, March 16 2000

Prior to the discovery described above, scientists believed primates didn't emerge until five million years later in Asia.

40,000,000 BC: At least one variant of early primate is roughly the size of a small 20th century squirrel, living on insects, and spending much of its time in trees.

-- Tiny Primate Could Rewrite Some History, Reuters; http://dailynews.yahoo.com; News Science Headlines, October 15 1999

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Approximately 40,000,000 BC: New Zealand begins growing in land area again, due to volcanism and plate tectonics

This seemingly ideal last refuge for dinosaurs did not bring them into anything near historic times. The reason seems to be that New Zealand suffered significant changes in land area and climate over the full span of its existence. Apparently New Zealand lost a great deal of its land area in the aftermath of its split from Gondwana, only growing again to its 20th century size after plate tectonics and volcanism began expanding its boundaries once more around 40 million BC. Sometime later the most recent Ice Age came along to affect things too-- with enormous ice sheets sweeping the islands almost clean of life, but for the northern end of North Island.

-- Back Lots of the Lost: The Implausibility of the Cliched 'Lost World' ["http://www.hpoo.com/science/lostworld.html"] by Paul T. Riddell, Revised February 28, 2000

Back in the Tertiary Kerguelen boasted substantial forests of tree species related to the modern trees of South America.

Kerguelen may have once served to connect the continents of South America and Australia, as well as New Zealand.

-- Kerguelen Island, South Indian Ocean ["http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/kerguelen/kerguelen_islands.html"] by Paul Carroll, January 2000

-- Kerguelen cabbage ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/5/0,5716,46205+1,00.html"], ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

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Approximately 40,000,000 BC: Glaciers may be gradually covering Antarctica's Lake Vostok now

Lake Vostok in Antarctica may have been first trapped under glaciers around 40,000,000 BC. This event began a decline of life in the lake to what is expected to consist mainly of microbes by 2000 AD.

-- Antarctic lake frozen in time; Antarctica - Part 2 ["http://www.crystalinks.com/antarctica2.html"], citing Discovery Online, October 6, 1999

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Approximately 35,000,000 BC or later: The northern-most portions of the Kerguelen island continent are now created via volcanic eruption

The northern Kerguelen plateau indicates volcanic action (possibly undersea) around 35 Ma (million years ago).

-- ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF A SUBMARINE LARGE IGNEOUS PROVINCE: THE KERGUELEN PLATEAU AND BROKEN RIDGE, SOUTHERN INDIAN OCEAN ["http://www.gl.rhbnc.ac.uk/news/abstracts/abs21.html"], F A Frey and K Nicolaysen (EAPS Dept, Mass Inst Tech, Cambridge, MA 02139; e-mail: fafrey@mit.edu); D Weis (Univ. Libre Bruxelles), M Coffin (Univ. Texas, Austin), P J Wallace (ODP, Texas A&M Univ) and the Leg 183 Shipboard Scientific Party; also 1999-06-09 Sunken Continent, The Learning Kingdom Cool Fact of the Day

Most of the more southern regions of the island continent appear to have sank back into the ocean by now.

These latter stages of Kerguelen creation appear to be similar to the generation of the Hawaiian islands with which mankind will someday be familiar-- that is, rather than being made in explosive eruptions, they are more gently created via effusive eruptions-- large lava flows but few if any large explosions.

Despite the absence of substantial explosive eruptions, the massive lava flows likely still triggered climate changes and mass extinctions. There appears to be a mass extinction in the fossil record coinciding with this time of Kerguelen-related eruptions.

Could the sinkings of older portions of Kerguelen have overlapped sufficiently with the creation of newer islands to permit migrations of higher Kerguelen life forms between the two, and thus a continuity of Kerguelen-specific evolution of plant and animal life unique to the island continent? That remains unknown as of early 2001 AD. However, even if such an overlap occured, we're still talking about immense effusive eruptions in very close proximity to existing and/or sinking islands. Though life on pre-existing islands might not be endangered by huge explosions in the latter two major Kerguelen eruption events, they would certainly suffer climate changes due to massive lava flows and heat generated so near to their native lands. They would also suffer the evolutionary challenges of migrating to the new lands from the old across significant water barriers. Granted, the time frame for the migrations may have large, as in millions of years. But the possibility also exists that they were minimal in span, as in mere millennia, centuries, or even just decades. If the overlap between sinkings and risings existed, it could have been catastrophically short, thereby making each successive major Kerguelen sinking/eruption event result in a native flora and fauna upon the newly risen isles drastically different from those which existed on the older islands. Such evolutionary cataclysms could also have spawned sprawling expansions in previously minor player species in the region, as their food sources either exploded in size, or their predators were reduced, or other factors came into play.

In short, great evolutionary boosts could have been enjoyed by certain Kerguelen species as they were forced to island-hop from one doomed land to another. And the sequence of submergences and risings also looks to have resulted in another intriguing possibility: that the Kerguelen island continent first took a healthy share of well developed Antarctic life, then in successive stages heavily modified the numbers and composition of that life, while at the same time isolating it ever further from the Antarctic mainland-- thereby helping insure that the most extreme changes affected on Kerguelen might not be ameloriated by further infusions from Antarctica.

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Approximately 34,000,000 BC+: Primitives of two different but both advanced pseudo-primate species exist in Kerguelen. They have evolved over 11 million years independently of the earlier Asian proto-primates

[Caution: Extreme speculation ahead; this section mostly created for "What If?" entertainment value]

Changes in climate and other matters, as well as intense competition with other species, forced the ancestors of both proto-primate species and other originally Antarctic animals to migrate to nearby Kerguelen in past eons, as Antarctica grew colder and less hospitable. The relatives left behind in Antarctica are doomed to extinction. A considerable portion of this period spent by species moving between continents involves time spent near coastlines, both on land and in the water, as well as within swamps and marshlands. Both pseudo-primate species lose much of their hair along the way, as well as undergo other changes. The environmental changes are accelerating evolution in the two species. Both species start out pretty small. But over coming millions of years they will both become considerably larger-- though one much more so than the other. Eventually one will reach a size similar to that of a short human being on average, while the other will usually become no larger than around one to one and half feet tall while standing upright. Neither species ever possesses a prehensile tail.

The increasingly isolated Kerguelen continent is developing its own unique lines of pseudo-primate forms, relative to the rest of the world. 21st century human observers would note several significant differences between the pseudo-primates of Kerguelen and the proto-primates of other continents.

As of early 2001 AD there were reasons to believe that the southern hemisphere mammals of 165 million BC were some 25 million years ahead of their northern hemisphere cousins in at least one crucial respect: the evolution of molar teeth, which allowed food grinding in addition to food cutting already present in simpler teeth, thereby greatly expanding the mammals' capabilities in terms of what types of food could sustain them.

Note that this evidence would seem to increase the plausibility of southern mammal-derived pseudo-primates eventually being 25 million years ahead of their northern versions too-- at least unless and until something occured to rob of them of their advantage.

It looks likely that molars developed separately among the two different hemispheric populations, since it seems unlikely that the southern populations could have crossed the oceans between continents to take the innovation to northern regions themselves.

Those Australian monotremes like the echidna and platypus which lay eggs seem most related to the advanced tooth design southern mammals of this time, while both placentals and marsupials seem more closely related to the northern mammals.

Since scientists have long considered these advanced tooth designs to be a significant evolutionary advantage for their early owners, the next question becomes what happened to all those advanced, possibly egg-laying southern mammal species, of which only a few samples like the echidna and platypus exist by the 21st century AD? As yet we possess too little information about all these early southern mammals to make a good guess. But at first glance it would appear that there may have been a major extinction event afflicting primarily the southern hemisphere, sometime after 165 million BC (A gamma burster from below the galactic plane perhaps? Note that even a month long gamma event from a suitably steep angle could enable much of the northern hemisphere's life to dodge its direct effects). Or maybe egg-laying proved inferior to placental and marsupial methods for virtually all species but reptiles, birds, and the handful of exceptions like echidna and platypus. Or perhaps the southern continents, which suffered more isolation from their kin compared to the northern continents, plus offered smaller land area overall, and fewer of the evolutionary advantages of the Jared Diamond effect ["Why Did Human History Unfold Differently On Different Continents For The Last 13,000 Years? A Talk By Jared Diamond", The Third Culture, found on or about 1-2-99 on the web], allowed the northern species to eventually race ahead of the southern to commandeer mainstream mammal life processes on the planet. Or maybe geological and climate changes which sank one southern continent under the sea and deep froze another (Antarctica) effectively robbed the south of its critical mass evolution-wise, thereby allowing the north to then catch up and surpass what had been their more advanced cousins to the south.

-- Cutting edge by Jeff Hecht, 3 January 2001, New Scientist ["http://www.newscientist.com/"]; Source: Nature vol 409, p 53

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Approximately 34,000,000 BC- 33,000,000 BC: Antarctica's massive ice sheets begin to form

-- Antarctica's icy origins, Sci/Tech, BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/, 7 December, 1999

Is much of the Antarctic environment today something like the tundra of 20th century Alaska, or still warmer and more lush than that? Antarctica boasted tropical rainforests during some periods-- is this one of them? Or perhaps Antarctica possesses some regions of temperate environment, including deciduous forests similar to those USAmerica will display during the 20th century? In any event, note that the ice sheets are beginning to form now-- they do not yet dominate the continent. And so perhaps much of Antarctica at this time resembles North America prior to the Ice Age glaciers moving in.

-- Chat with Sara Wheeler, Antarctic Travel Writer ["http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/travel/DailyNews/wheeler_chat981106.html"], ABCNEWS.com

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Approximately 33,000,000 BC- 28,000,000 BC: The possible reptile progenitors and provocatuers of Kerguelen could change the course of evolution on the continent

[Caution: Extreme speculation ahead; this section mostly created for "What If?" entertainment value]

Past events have led to the emergence of a unique species of reptile in the region. These reptiles enjoy chameleon-like natural camouflage, as well as shape-changing capabilities similar to a cobra's hood or bird's wings.

Keep in mind that Kerguelen must have originally received many of its animal and plant species from Antarctica. And the dinosaurs of Antarctica and Australia seemed to buck the trend seen in South America and Africa. That is, the Antarctican and Australian beasts were similar to the dinosaurs of Eurasia and North America in terms of advanced development. And there do exist other exceptions to the general divergence between the northern and southern hemispheres-- perhaps due to periodic lowering of sea levels or various geologic events allowing animal populations to occasionally mix across continents in-between the long periods of isolation.

In some cases dinosaurs isolated from the rest of the world continued to evolve faster than would be expected, as appears to be the case with Deltadromeus in Africa, which became a very fast moving and well coordinated predator.

-- New Scientist: Here be monsters ["http://www.newscientist.com/features/features.jsp?id=ns225712"] by Graham Lawton, From New Scientist magazine, 23 September 2000

Virtually all the Sauria possess some capacity to change skin colors, though some species are more accomplished in the matter than others.

-- "Squamata", page 1768, The McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1984, 1989

Indeed, they began as brothers to prototype birds, utilizing their crude wings as devices to increase running speed, allow longer jumps and falls without injury, and even glide short distances.

Their unique feathers, balancing tail, and physical technique make them among the fastest two-legged runners in the animal kingdom-- at least over short distances. They may cover longer distances in a loping, half-gliding practice, but at slower speeds. Somewhat flat and open terrain offers the running reptiles their best speeds-- which makes much of the Kerguelen continent ideal for them.

The reptiles may travel on all fours but often stand erect, on two legs, with a balancing tail. This frees up their forward limbs for uses similar to later human hands and arms, and over time their forelimbs develop in such a manner.

Most 20th century Sauria move about on four feet, but a few are bipedal in extremis (and perhaps other times), such as the American Jesus Cristo lizard.

The earliest upright biped wasn't a mammal, or even a dinosaur, but a still older reptile. In Germany circa 290 million BC, a foot long lizard (Eudibamus cursoris, a bolosaur) was running erect-- on two legs.

Eudibamus cursoris was a plant eater/herbivore, and likely the fastest animal on the planet at the time (when running). It had a long tail which might have helped it manuever, as well as balance while erect. Eudibamus cursoris doesn't seem to be directly related to either of the reptiles or dinosaurs which appeared later on.

Bolosaurs (and so possibly Eudibamus cursoris as well) were distributed across Asia, Europe, and North America around 290 million BC and after.

-- Ancient Two-Legged Lizard Intrigues Scientists By Maggie Fox, Reuters/Yahoo! Science Headlines, November 2 2000

The bolosaurid Eudibamus cursoris lived during a period between 290 million BC to 250 million BC. The group is thought to have died out around the end of the Permian, during one of the largest extinction events ever witnessed by the Earth.

-- Newly Found Bipedal Reptile Fossil Predates Dinosaurs By More Than 60 Million Years ["http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/11/001102150002.htm"], 11/3/2000, University Of Toronto (http://www.utoronto.ca); Contact: Janet Wong; (416) 978-6974; jf.wong@utoronto.ca

Eudibamus was a member of the Parareptilia group of reptiles. Its legs and feet show similarities to human limbs. For instance, the foot is unusually long for a reptile of this size, in order to enable its upright bipedalism. Its arms are also shorter than its legs, as in humans.

290 million BC to 268 million BC is given in the article cited as the relevant span of Eudibamus.

-- Ancient reptile walked on two legs ["http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1003000/1003886.stm"] By Dr David Whitehouse, 2 November, 2000, BBC News Online

Eudibamus may have generally ran in a posture similar to human beings. It is believed that during slow travel it may have moved quadrupedally. During its fastest sprints it may have ran on its toes.

-- Ancient running reptile was bipedal, say Science researchers ["http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/aaas-arr102700.html"] 2 NOVEMBER 2000, EurekAlert!, US Contact: Ginger Pinholster gpinhols@aaas.org 202-326-6421 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Fossils of Eudibamus cursoris so far found indicate an animal weighing about a pound or less. It sported extra long middle toes on its longer than usual feet. Eudibamus would have been awkward in quadrupedal motion. On two legs, it was very fast. Likely capable of sprinting at 15 mph, compared to only 13 mph spurts for modern (21st century) bipedal lizards.

It's a mystery as to how Eudibamus could have gone extinct, considering its significant advantages over its competitors of the time.

-- Lizard may have been first biped The Associated Press, November 2, 2000, http://www.nandotimes.com

295 million BC to 250 million BC is given by the article cited below as the likely span of the Eudibamus.

-- Newly found bipedal reptile fossil predates dinosaurs by more than 60 million years ["http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/utor-nfb103000.html"] (possibly by Diane Scott, University of Toronto at Mississauga), EurekAlert! , 2 NOVEMBER 2000 Contact: Janet Wong jf.wong@utoronto.ca 416-978-6974 University of Toronto

The likely stride of Eudibamus was similar to that of the modern Jesus Christ lizard of South America, which can run bipedally across water fast enough to avoid sinking. However, Eudibamus looks to have been even faster. It survived at least 30 million years.

-- Two-Legged Sprinter, Reptile With Unusually Fast Locomotion ["http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/runningreptile001102.html"] By Amanda Onion, ABC News, 11-2-2000

-- "Squamata", page 1768, The McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1984, 1989

But as birds travel the road into the sky, these reptiles go the other way-- into the ground. At least in daytime. Their tendency to seek refuge underground stems from the evolutionary advantage such habits bring in surviving the periodic tsumanis suffered by their great island, and the maintenance of their long-time nocturnal hunting and scavenging practices. The animals are larger and heavier than most successful flight-worthy birds will ever be. Though their greater size robs them of future flight capabilities, it also allows them a bigger brain than their future bird relatives.

They maintain their natural geomagnetic navigational sense from earlier migratory movements, as well as the avian ultra-violet visual perception. Both these help them become masters of subterranean places.

Their nocturnal nature also allows them to roam and prey upon the surface during the night.

They are omnivorous, capable of feeding on plants or fungi and mushrooms in a pinch, but preferring large insects, fish, or small animals.

The reptiles may spit irritants, which causes a burning sensation on exposed flesh, and can temporarily blind and disorient prey, making capture and kills easier.

They somewhat resemble Komodo dragons with longer, more slender tails and hind legs, standing erect, with feathery folds draping their arms or forelimbs, and trimming their tail. Two striking differences with 21st century Komodos however will be their frequent erect two legged walking stance, and their more bird-like in appearance head and neck, as opposed to reptilian look. Their eyes are also proportionately larger to their face than a Komodo's, and their brain case considerably larger. Large dual ridges or crests run down the upper sides of their heads and necks. These features are larger in males than females, and thus perhaps partly sexual decoration. But they also help enhance the animal's hearing and sense of smell, both directionally and distance-wise (in an unusual design, these reptiles have two sets of scent detection nerves in their skulls; the largest branches off their ear canals, while the smaller pair operates in the more expected region of the head-- the 'nose').

Erect, these creatures stand four to six feet tall through their youth. If they get beyond the age of 15-16 years, they may grow much larger. However, competition prevents most of the reptiles from getting that old.

The reptiles grow ever smarter as they get older, but they also grow larger and slower, and often become so large they become stuck in their underground hiding places, and either starve to death, to be eaten by other lucky reptiles who find their carcass (sometimes this is their own young), or become sufficiently weak from hunger in their trap that they may be easily killed and consumed by other, smaller reptiles.

The reptiles can swim, but it is not their preferred mode of travel in their early days.

These smart reptiles are not social beasts, but highly individualistic, which limits how far any related society might advance. It also puts restrictions on reproduction.

One of the reptile's favorite foods is fresh pseudo-primate meat. Something with a taste and smell somewhat similar to that of later human beings.

The relationship between the reptiles and Kerguelen pseudo-primates first begins with the pseudo-primates being a natural prey animal. In their early history in Antarctica, the pseudo-primates rarely grew larger than an average 20th century housecat-- but such a size range made them offer almost ideal-sized meals for the reptiles. Over time however the primary Kerguelen pseudo-primates grew bigger and stronger and smarter, making it harder for the young reptiles to catch them (older and bigger reptiles could outsmart and trap them on occasion, but were too slow to capture them via speed). As this struggle between the reptiles and pseudo-primates escalated, the intelligence and capacities of both appreciated in response-- eventually leading to semi-sentience in both species.

The older, smarter reptiles gradually began to maintain their own trapped families of pseudo-monkeys near or within their den, breeding them as foodstock. This was much easier than tracking and capturing them in the wild, as well as reduced the need to compete directly with other reptiles. Female reptiles especially liked a snack of pseudo-primates meat before sex, too.

Scientists were surprised in 2003 to uncover evidence of a most unusual, four-winged dinosaur.

-- Chinese fossil clue to evolution of flight by James Meek, January 23, 2003, The Guardian

Note that even ants possess the capacity to domesticate other lifeforms such as aphids and fungi for purposes of long term food production not unlike how humans will one day domesticate cattle and other animals.

Some of the older, smarter reptiles eventually begin to realize they may lengthen their own lives and increase their sexual success through judicious use of domesticated pseudo-primates. The pseudo-primates can act as sentinals against attacks from other reptiles, gather fungi and plant food, and act upon the surface in daylight when the reptiles prefer not. They may also help maintain and gradually enlarge the reptile's burrow to prevent entrapment, and seek out new and larger burrows if necessary. They can be bait to trap other reptiles, and even help kill other reptiles at times. Plus, they offer a ready supply of meat too, as desired. Suitably trained pseudo-primates will actually help capture and deliver one of their own to feed their reptile master. To the reptile, this training is simply discipline; to the monkeys, it becomes something akin to a crude religious offering or sacrificial ritual.

Eventually the wisest and most powerful reptiles have amassed small armies of personal pseudo-primate slaves. These slaves tend to harass and watch the slaves of other reptiles, often orchestrating assaults upon same, leading to the capture of enemy pseudo-primates. Some of the captured pseudo-primates are eaten by the master reptile. But many become slaves of the reptile's own pseudo-primates, thereby setting up a multiple level hierarchy in the burrow and surrounding lands. In some cases the pseudo-primates eat their slaves, in emulation of their master reptile. However, such cannibalism is usually only ritualistic, as the pseudo-primates prefer certain forms of vegetation as food.

The health and obedience of the pseudo-primates in the burrows is partly maintained by weaker, less promising monkeys (or injured, sick, or less obedient ones) being eaten by the master reptile on a regular basis.

The great master reptiles take little notice when a new, tiny pseudo-primate species begins to interact with the reptile's near human-sized pseudo-primate servants. The servants are delighted with the creatures, quickly adopting them as pseudo-children, and giving them preferential treatment much beyond that offered the captured slaves of their own species.

The master reptile can barely detect the presence of the tiny pseudo-primates, and has no interest in them as food-- they are too small, with far too much bone for what little meat they provide.

The playful, experimental nature of the servants' interaction with the tiny psuedo-primates, plus the real functional complements the tiny beings offer to the servants' own abilities, as well as the increasing complexity of the society developing inside and around the reptile burrows over centuries, then millennia, then longer, eventually lead to breakthroughs in the servant pseudo-primates' understanding of the world and themselves.

Which does not bode well for the master reptiles.

The reptiles and pseudo-primate people go their separate ways

Eventually the pseudo-primate servants become smart enough to cast off their masters, killing many of them in their burrows, before they (the pseudo-primates) leave the burrows behind forever. However, the feudal system impressed upon them by their master reptiles sticks, forming the basis for the pseudo-primates' own new society-- one of a few elite families, each commanding hordes of slaves. The pseudo-primates have effectively been genetically engineered to feel comfortable with such a social hierarchy during the time spent in thrall to the reptiles. The tiny, secondary pseudo-primate companions which helped trigger this new evolutionary stage also stay with the larger pseudo-primates, spreading throughout both the elite and slave populations.

As for the reptiles, their populations tended to expand somewhat at the height of their pseudo-primate enslavement era, but in the aftermath of the pseudo-primates gaining their liberty as well as slaughtering many of their former masters, the reptile population suffers a substantial decline.

The reptiles split into two separate species

After this debacle, the reptile species tends to split into two, differentiated mainly by number, size, lifespan, and potential intelligence. The first and most numerous consist of smaller reptiles (two to six foot standing erect), retaining their great running speed, gliding abilities, and enhanced jump and fall capacities. These small reptiles also retain their feathery trim. But they lose much of their previous potential for intelligence, now plateauing at roughly that of a 20th century adult chimpanzee-- or slightly better. They also lose much of their previous lifespan potential, with the new small species eventually rarely living longer than 20-30 years.

Brainy lizards rival birds in intelligence Jeremy Hance mongabay.com July 13, 2011

Komodo dragons can kill animals the size of buffalo and outrun deer.

-- This is how a scientist named George came to believe in dragons ["http://www.stlnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/ByDocID/D66A1D69DFFBEF0A8625693100421CF4"] By George Johnson; George Johnson On Science; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 4, 2000

-- Bacterium Can Alter Evolution Of Another Species By Jonathan Sherwood, 08-Feb-2001, UniSci Daily, unisci.com

The process initiating possible new species emergence can occur within only 9 and 13 generations in fruit flies and fish, respectively (maybe less). This is much faster than scientists previously believed to be possible. "Reproductive isolation" of populations appears to be one important factor in such rapid changes.

The flies in the study utilized pheromonal changes as part of the process.

One mystery related to the discovery is, if the groundwork for establishment of new species may be laid down so quickly, why isn't there an even greater diversity of species on Earth than so far estimated by science? Perhaps the same environmental conditions which nurture such changes in a species may also kill off changed organisms just as rapidly. Maybe a species on the verge of splitting will often get to a certain point and recombine the diverging lines once again. Or perhaps some other, as yet unrecognized factor poses a big enough obstacle to successful speciation as to balance the rapidity with which a species can diverge into two, under most circumstances-- usually leaving only one to survive.

Hmmm. Perhaps what often happens is that one of the newly emerging variants of a particular species remains sufficiently close in form and function to the original so that eventually both directly or indirectly come into competition with one another, leading to one ultimately replacing the other entirely-- or perhaps each driving the other into extinction simultaneously, in an evolutionary armageddon. As every known species of animal on Earth requires a certain critical mass of population to remain viable, it wouldn't be that difficult for two relatively small populations of the same species in the thros of possible divergence to drive one another's populations down to levels too small to support either.

These last couple of possibilities could help a lot to keep the total number of new species on the planet down to roughly the present level, despite a prodigious rate of new speciation.

-- Fish and flies caught in the act of speciation, Science researchers report, EurekAlert!, 19 OCTOBER 2000, US Contact: Ginger Pinholster gpinhols@aaas.org 202-326-6421 American Association for the Advancement of Science, and other sources

Salmon have exhibited reproductive isolation and significant evolutionary adaptations in only some 60 to 70 years of observed development-- ten times faster than the most rapid rate previously believed possible.

-- New species arise more quickly than previously believed, UMass researcher finds, EurekAlert!, 19 OCTOBER 2000, Contact: Elizabeth Luciano luciano@journ.umass.edu 413-545-2989 University of Massachusetts at Amherst, http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/archive/2000/salmon.html is a related URL

The second variant retains the longer potential lifespan and greater ultimate size, still transitioning from small, fast, and dumb to large, slow, and smart. But it loses most of its plummage as it ages. Its numbers also decline drastically, to not much above that necessary to retain breeding viability in the population. Elders among the second variant eventually learn to abandon their underground burrows before they outgrow them, and take to the water to avoid the direct light of day. Their unusual hearing mechanism also begins to adapt to a more marine existence. Mounting pressures from inland and subterranean killings of the reptiles by the monkey people accelerate this process. The newly aquatic reptiles prefer fresh water in the beginning, but over the eons some evolve a tolerance of salt water as well. Again, the long term inland killing campaign by the ever more efficient pseudo-primates encourages the adaption to the sea, as inland freshwater ways eventually become too dangerous for the large, slow-to-reproduce reptiles to inhabit.

The extra folds of skin which once combined with feathery trim to allow faster ground running for younger, smaller beasts, now gradually evolves into a form conducive to high speed manuevers underwater instead.

The beasts remain air breathers, and so must surface periodically like whales or dolphins. However, they retain their preference for subterranean spaces, and so usually seek out underwater caverns and passages in or about their favorite bodies of water which also offer suitable breathing opportunities for them.

Both species retain their camouflage capabilities. Both expand upon their nocturnal ways, and maintain subterranean preferences of one sort or another.

In the case of the larger, increasingly aquatic and sea-going reptiles, these powers of skin camouflage, night-vision and ultra-violet vision, geo-magnetic navigation sense, and tendency to exploit subterranean spaces both above and below water, combine with their considerable swimming speed and manueverability, strength, unusual scent and sound detection arrangement, and eerie intelligence and near human functionality hands to make them super sea predators, superior in some ways even to great white sharks, killer whales, and deep sea squid.

Even in their less than brilliant youth these sea-going reptiles can make and use crude tools much in the manner of 20th century wild chimpanzees. The longer they live, the smarter they tend to become. And they were strongly conditioned in their earliest days of splintering speciation to be tremendously cautious when encountering anything which looked, sounded, or smelled like primates-- whether such humanoids hailed from their native Kerguelen or elsewhere.

Their great caution around humanoids and their works, together with their intelligence, speed, stealth, and highly honed senses, would serve this new species well not only in protecting them from the Kerguelen primates, but later humanity too.

Both species of Kerguelen reptile may be very difficult to kill, for a variety of reasons. First of all, there's the problems involved in finding and trapping or capturing them. They are very fast and elusive, and it's easy to underestimate their intelligence.

Secondly, even a badly wounded reptile of either type will rarely become incapacitated as rapidly as is the case with many other animals. Instead, it may still escape and be lost to its attackers in short order. Its ability to blend into its surroundings, exploit both dry and wet environments, above and below ground, move at great speed and even glide under some circumstances, and often out-smart its pursuers gives the reptiles many advantages in a chase.

The reptiles may or may not also possess prodigious healing powers: it's difficult to be sure, as reptiles are killed or caught so rarely throughout history as to leave little definitive knowledge as to their healing prowess. Instead, we are left with merely the anecdotal evidence and widespread belief that they must be supreme healers, as they tend to live long enough after severe wounding to escape their captors for good.

Virtually all the Sauria possess some capacity to change skin colors, though some species are more accomplished in the matter than others.

-- "Squamata", page 1768, The McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1984, 1989

-- This is how a scientist named George came to believe in dragons ["http://www.stlnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/ByDocID/D66A1D69DFFBEF0A8625693100421CF4"] By George Johnson; George Johnson On Science; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 4, 2000

Over time the numbers of the large reptiles dwindle still further, and each member becomes ever more isolated in the world. However, various environmental and genetic coincidences serve to allow many of those remaining to explore the furthest reaches of their lifespan potential. That potential appears roughly equivalent to 120 to 150 years, perhaps longer. And the greater the age, the greater the size. Sixty to ninety feet in length is not unusual for a male over the age of 60 or 70. The water's buoyancy allows the creatures to become larger and live longer than they ever could on land.

Male bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) which frequent the Bering Sea apparently can live longer than 200 years. Some other types of whales may do likewise.

-- Cetacean Seniors ["http://www.sciencenews.org/20001014/bob2.asp"] By Janet Raloff From Science News, Vol. 158, No. 16, Oct. 14, 2000, p. 254

A story of an encounter with a 10 meter long crocodile in a north Queensland river of Australia has persisted for over a century. But others believe the biggest crocodile known to modern man was found in the Pioneer River instead, sometime late in the 1800s. An old photo has been found which seems to lend credibility to the latter claim.

-- Is this The Monster of myth? by NIKKI VOSS, 27oct00, THE SUNDAY MAIL

Another lucky break for them is a quirk of genetics that allows the two ever more diverging species to still successfully mate, at least when the larger species member is still young and small. Their progeny sometimes turn out to be of the small species, sometimes the large. This exotic circumstance sometimes makes for a total extinction of the large species in certain regions of the world, for centuries at a time-- but then eventually a new representative appears, seemingly out of nowhere.

In 1975 two cryptozoogists found the rare King Cheetah, a cat larger than the standard cheetah, and sporting a different pattern of stripes and spots in its fur. They learned that the reason for the difficulty in locating one of the animals was that King Cheetahs are created only when a recessive gene for the form is present in both the cheetah's parents-- otherwise normal cheetahs are the consequence of reproduction. One result of this is that King Cheetahs may be completely absent from a given area for years, then suddenly reappear from a suitable mating involving the recessive genes.

-- The Unnatural Museum - Cryptozoological Alumni ["http://www.unmuseum.org/found.htm"] by Lee Krystek, 1996

For the most part, the older a larger species member gets, the smarter it becomes. However, as there is little or no social interaction between large reptilian members, and progeny are abandoned at or near birth to make it on their own, each individual must start from scratch learning about the world. Thus accumulated knowledge is repeatedly lost with every new generation. This means even a genius reptile is severely limited in its effect upon the world, or what it may do for itself.

Virtually the only social interaction between adults occurs between sexual mates, and this only perhaps once every several years, at most. Some interaction occurs between parent and child too of course; but it is relatively brief. Some isolated members may go without socializing with others of their species for decades.

A few attempts are made by some elder reptiles from time to time to domesticate various sea life such as seals or penguins to act as new servants and domesticated fodder, similar to the role played by the Kerguelen pseudo-primates previously (no, no elder reptiles are aware of the monkey episode by this date; they are all coming up with this idea on their own). Unfortunately for the reptiles, no success comes from the effort.

Both the larger and smaller editions of these reptiles were originally native to the Antarctic and Kerguelen continents and coastlines. They managed to spread beyond those borders however by the time both Antarctia and Kerguelen were no longer habitable.

The Kerguelen pseudo-primates successfully wiped out the large reptiles on Kerguelen long before the exodus to space-- though not in the surrounding sea. Plus, the smaller version was much more difficult to eradicate. But the sinking of the continent almost did the trick for the smaller species, as few members were capable of the swimming feat required to reach the nearest habitable dry land from the doomed continent. However, as the giant reptiles easily roamed the world, and occasionally reproduced themselves as the smaller species, that's largely how the smaller reptile species managed to survive the sinking of Kerguelen to eventually reach and populate every remaining continent on Earth but possibly for their iced-over original homeland of Antarctica.

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Approximately 28,000,000 BC- 21,000,000 BC: An advanced symbiont civilization arises on Kerguelen

To see the possible history of this civilization please refer to A Lost Civilization on the Kerguelen continent, Circa 21 million BC?

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Approximately 25,000,000 BC: Massive volcanic eruptions may be occuring in the region of Antarctica's Ross Sea-- perhaps even affecting global climate; Kerguelen climate is surely changed somewhat by the event

Samplings of the Ross seabed off Antarctica indicate massive volcanic eruptions in the vicinity around 25 million BC-- eruptions large enough to affect global climate. At least a portion of the eruption seems to have been comparable to that of Krakatau in 1883-- but the exact location of the volcano involved here is as yet unknown. It was likely nearby, however.

-- Huge Antarctic eruptions 25 million years ago likely changed climate, drillings indicate; Antarctica - Part 3 ["http://www.crystalinks.com/antarctica3.html"], citing Wellington (?); November 6, 1998 (this is an incomplete citation: I expect it originally came from Reuters or AP)

It appears that the climatic effects of eruptions in this region will more strongly affect areas in or near the same latitudes as opposed to others. Thus, despite being almost on the other side of the world from the eruptions, Kerguelen is likely affected.

a - j m o o n e y h a m . c o m - o r i g i n a l

Note that catastrophic climate changes which fall short of driving a given species into utter extinction may actually accelerate the process of evolution in regards to that species. At least this will seem to be the case with humanity and other species later. Is it possible that certain Antarctic/Kerguelen species are now being accelerated evolution-wise via such a mechanism?

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Approximately 25,500,000 BC - 20,000,000 BC: Milankovitch cycles in Earth's orbit help bring about worldwide climatic fluctuations during this period

-- Earth Orbit Variations Linked To Global Climate Change By Tim Stephens, 13-Apr-2001, unisci.com

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Approximately 23,000,000 BC: For roughly 200,000 years now the entire Earth experiences a 'toning down' of its seasons; extremes of heat and cold are reduced worldwide

Under these conditions Antarctica likely experiences substantial growth in the area and thickness of its ice sheet.

-- Earth Orbit Variations Linked To Global Climate Change By Tim Stephens, 13-Apr-2001, unisci.com

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Approximately 22,000,000 BC: A veritable explosion in the numbers of primitive ape species inhabiting Earth takes place

-- "Scientists Find 15-Mln-Year-Old Pre-Human In Kenya" By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent Reuters; http://dailynews.yahoo.com; News Top Stories Headlines, August 26 1999

Could the same factors promoting such a flourishing of human primate predecessors at this time also be aiding in the evolution of the Kerguelen pseudo-primates?

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Approximately 20,000,000 BC: The last remnants of the Kerguelen island continent in the southern Indian Ocean slowly sinks to the bottom of the sea

Twenty million years from now it will be known to submariners as part of the "Kerguelen Plateau", and lie two kilometers deep. But for millions of years previous to the present sinking it was a large piece of dry land on Earth.

-- "'Lost continent' discovered" By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse, BBC News Online: Sci/Tech, 5-27-99, BBC Homepage ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/"]

Note that the previous boom in ape species two million years earlier means apes existed simultaneously with the last couple of million years of a dry Kerguelen continent. It seems that at the very least Kerguelen offered its animal residents an evolutionary environment similar to Australia/New Zealand of the same period, with perhaps some intriguing marsupial and flightless bird species and other exotic evolutionary niches all its own. Kerguelen may even have been an evolutionary paradise in some respects.

One caveat about higher life forms and evolution on the Kerguelen continent however was its mostly low altitude and featureless plains. There was little in the way of terrain features to protect Kerguelen life from raging sea storms or tidal waves spawned by earthquake, volcano, or large meteor strikes during the land mass' dry span. Thus, the continent may not have offered a level of bio-diversity comparable to New Zealand, Australia, Madagascar, or better, after all-- or, alternatively, the periodic widescale destruction may have served to accelerate evolution on the continent (it's a toss up).

-- Illustrated Transcript of The Future Eaters, Illustrated transcript of episode 2, Nomads of the Wind, Presented and Narrated by Dr Tim Flannery, Author of the Future Eaters, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. email: science@your.abc.net.au, http://www2.abc.net.au/, found on or about 9-12-99

It seems there would be a chance that some early forerunners of primates developed on or otherwise found their way to the lost continent, since Kerguelen enjoyed land links of one kind or another to virtually all the other southern continents at various times over the millions of years it existed as dry land.

NGDC/WDC A for MGG - Marine Geology & Geophysics Images ["http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/images.html"] may be helpful in visualizing the size and location of this continent that Earth loses now to the sea.

-- Archaeology Underwater News - 2 ["http://www.crystalinks.com/underwaternews.html"], citing 'Lost Continent Discovered' JULY 1999 - BBC

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Approximately 15,000,000 BC: Suddenly most competing ape lines on Earth go extinct, leaving only a handful of survivors

-- "Scientists Find 15-Mln-Year-Old Pre-Human In Kenya" By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent Reuters; http://dailynews.yahoo.com/; News Top Stories Headlines, August 26 1999

Why the sudden extinctions of many ape lines at this time? That remains a mystery. But if it was due to harsh changes in world climate and/or geology, or to cosmic impacts or dust/gas clouds in space blocking Earth's sunlight, then perhaps the Kerguelen elite were pretty shrewd after all to order the exodus.

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Approximately 14,000,000 BC: Antarctica enjoys a warm, ice-free period?

-- Oronteus Fineaus Map ["http://www.intersurf.com/~heinrich/FOG4.html"] By Paul V. Heinrich March 9, 1997 Version 1.5 (a rebuke of various speculative literature which used questionable evidence to describe an ice-free Antarctica and various events thereon sometime in recent history or prehistory; Mr. Heinrich offers an impressive list of citations to support his conclusions)

How long does this period last? Is the Antarctic environment today something like the tundra of 20th century Alaska, or still warmer and more lush than that? Antarctica boasted tropical rainforests in the far past-- does it manage even a brief return to such conditions now?

-- Chat with Sara Wheeler, Antarctic Travel Writer ["http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/travel/DailyNews/wheeler_chat981106.html"], ABCNEWS.com

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Approximately 13,000,000 BC: A 'mini-extinction' event may be afflicting life on Earth

-- "Nearby supernova may have caused mini-extinction", SciNews-MedNews, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 31-Jul-99, Contact: James E. Kloeppel, Physical Sciences Editor (217) 244-1073; kloeppel@uiuc.edu

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Approximately 2,300,000 BC: A Stone Age "tool factory" is in operation in Kenya, and a possible 0.5+ km asteroid impact in the deep southeast Pacific Ocean may increase atmospheric water vapor sufficiently to eventually bring about the next Ice Age

-- "Researchers Amazed to Find Tools More Than 2 Million Years Old" Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II , May 6, 1999, Los Angeles Times, Science in Brief

-- DID AN ASTEROID IMPACT TRIGGER THE ICE AGES? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #59, SEP-OCT 1988 by William R. Corliss, citing Frant T. Kyte, et al; "New Evidence on the Size and Possible Effects of a Late Pliocene Oceanic Asteroid Impact," Science, 241:63, 1988

Around 2,200,000 BC the approximately one km in diameter asteroid Eltanin impacts the Earth in the Bellingshausen Sea between South America and Antarctica, creating tsunamis 1 km tall, which themselves strike parts of South America and Australia. Severe changes to the Earth's climate follow.

-- TWO CATASTROPHE SCENARIOS From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #117, MAY-JUN 1998 by William R. Corliss, citing Jeff Hecht; "A Bigger Splash," New Scientist, p. 11, November 1, 1997, and Anonymous; "The Splash Felt 'round the World," Earth, 7:12, April 1998

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Approximately 2,000,000 BC- 6000 BC: The Pleistocene Epoch, or Ice Age runs its course

There are possibly ten separate cycles of cooling and rewarming during this period, during which the glaciers advance then retreat again. Sea levels may also decline and rise again in these cycles.

Four of the cycles are exceptionally harsh in the cooling stage. The most recent cooling stage may have begin around 56,000 BC- 48,000 BC.

During the cooling stages of the Pleistocene, the North American west is wetter than it will be circa 2000 AD.

-- GLG 111, Chapter 12: Glaciers and Glaciation ["http://www.muohio.edu/~schafesd/glg111-outlines/glg111-ch12-glaciers.htmlx"] GLG 111, The Dynamic Earth, Steven D. Schafersman in the Department of Geology at Miami University, August 27, 1998, schafesd@muohio.edu

Life diversity in New Zealand suffers greatly from the Ice Age.

Enormous ice sheets repeatedly sweep the islands almost clean of life, but for the northern end of North Island.

-- Back Lots of the Lost: The Implausibility of the Cliched 'Lost World' ["http://www.hpoo.com/science/lostworld.html"] by Paul T. Riddell, Revised February 28, 2000

The main island of Kerguelen has suffered nearly complete coverage by ice, then volcanic lava, in relatively recent times. This activity destroyed much of Kerguelen's native flora. Back in the Tertiary Kerguelen boasted substantial forests of tree species related to the modern trees of South America.

Kerguelen may have once served to connect the continents of South America and Australia, as well as New Zealand.

-- Kerguelen Island, South Indian Ocean ["http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/kerguelen/kerguelen_islands.html"] by Paul Carroll, January 2000

-- Kerguelen cabbage ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/5/0,5716,46205+1,00.html"], ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

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Approximately 18,000 BC- 12,000 BC: Earth is bombarded five times by heavier than usual cosmic dust concentrations from space

Earth's climate may well be effected. Some of this same dust traveling through the solar system may be spawning a new dust ring between Mars and Jupiter.

-- OF DUST CLOUDS AND ICE AGES, From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #44, MAR-APR 1986 by William R. Corliss citing Paul A. LaViolette; "Evidence of High Cosmic Dust Concentrations in Late Pleistocene Polar Ice (20,000-14,000 Years BP)," Meteoritics, 20:545, 1985

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Approximately 8,000 BC+: Total world population may be somewhere between 5 and 10 million; Humanity is driving many large animal species to extinction

A booming human population worldwide is driving many other large animal species extinct-- including some variants of humanity itself.

-- "A positive perspective on population growth" by Mitzi Perdue, Scripps Howard News Service, Nando Media, http://www.nandotimes.com, September 28, 1999

-- A much lower estimate of 5 million people in 8000 BC comes from How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth? ["http://www.spiritone.com/~orsierra/rogue/popco/data/everlivd.htm"] By Carl Haub, found on or about 5-31-2000

-- Paleoanthropology (revised 16 December 1999) by Francis F. Steen, Department of English, University of California at Santa Barbara, http://cogweb.english.ucsb.edu/EP/Paleoanthropology.html

The expanding sphere of human influence and interaction is inevitably impinging upon regions and animals here-to-fore secure from human contact. Though virtually all the known large beasts will lose the expanding conflict/competition with man, the contest will often be fatal and terrifying for the people involved as well, leading eventually to folk tales and legends of the great struggles with often all-too-real monsters which ensued.

Perhaps more terrifying to peoples of the time however will be those large beasts smart enough to avoid direct or large scale conflicts with humanity-- and which also seem to enjoy refuges for the most part impervious to effective or long term incursions by man. Beasts with seemingly magical abilities to disappear from sight and elude capture, or change size and shape as desired. Many cultures will describe such animals in a multitude of ways. But from an informed 21st century perspective it seems obvious as to what general type of creature(s) many of the old tales refer.

Both the Kerguelen reptile species (if they exist) could have evolved and survived into the time of humanity-- but as they would live by different schedules and inhabit different regions, as well as possess sufficient intelligence and physical abilities to avoid or minimize unnecessary encounters, they might have little recorded interaction with human beings over the millennia

An elder female reptile however could one day happen upon a religious ceremony by land dwelling apes, whereby a member enters or is thrown into the water. The reptile snaps up this handy morsel, and finds its taste interesting (she doesn't know her ancestors relished pseudo-primate meat). The land dwellers seem very excited by her presence. She leaves, but plans to return again periodically to check for more interesting morsels. Several return trips result in no meal, but the dwellers notice her presence. Eventually more morsels become available upon her return. It appears the land dwellers have decided to feed her regularly. Therefore she decides to make this place a regular haunt.

In the centuries to come her few children and theirs will enjoy frequent human sacrifices made to them in this place. Eventually the sacrifices stop, but the new generations don't discontinue their regular passage through the area as it has become a part of their multi-generational routine.

There is a handful of places worldwide where such events eventually create perhaps the only spots on Earth where the intelligent and elusive elder reptiles might be purposely observed or possibly captured.

European history includes many legends of exotic beasts possibly roaming the countryside, sea, or lakes, with Scotland's Loch Ness monster being only the most well known worldwide. Others include "Selma" of a lake in Norway, first reported in 1750, with claimed sightings continuing on into modern times.

-- CNN.com - Monster mysteries continue to baffle Europe ["http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/08/02/monster.mysteries/index.html"], August 2, 2000

The smaller reptile species largely sticks to underground burrows and caverns on land-- though over the millennia they have come more often to ply inland and subterranean waterways too, somewhat similarly to their greater cousins. These too are highly individualistic and territorial-- though not quite as anti-social as their larger relatives. They'll never become as intelligent as their larger cousins, but still they can act with the slyness of a mammalian fox or coyote-- sometimes better. Their greater social tolerance amongst themselves also allows them a more prodigious reproduction rate than the larger species, as well as occasionally produces some cooperative behavior between two or more of the beasts, unrelated to sex.

Local legends in portions of West Virgina USA near the Monongahela River describe an amphibious creature called the Ogua (or alternatively Agua or Agou), which supposedly frequents underwater caves or hides under bridges during daytime, but strides dry land at night. It is claimed to be 20 feet long (of which much may be took up by a long tail and long neck (the neck significantly longer than a horse's)) and 500 pounds in size. It is thought to prey upon deer which venture too near the water, much like a crocodile might. The legends are thought to have originated among native-Americans prior to the arrival of europeans. Letters from early european colonists in the Americas to English relatives speak of encounters and killings of these beasts. The gist of the myths indicate sometimes people ate Ogua specimens, and they were tasty.

-- BEWARE THE OGUA ["http://lincolnjournal.com/bo0719.shtml"], The Lincoln Journal Online - Bo McComas, found on or about 12-3-2000

Although many human beings and other animals enter various caverns in the Earth over millions of years to ultimately become lost and die of thirst, hunger, or injury there, remarkably few remains will ever be found by later explorers. The reason for the scarce remains could be a small subterranean reptile species, such as described here. Likely around 95% or so of all remains could be eaten or at least moved or dispersed by the reptiles, for a variety of reasons.

This same eating or scattering of remains might also be done by the reptiles on remnants of their own species, thereby leaving scant evidence of their existence but possibly for footprints in caves.

Cave explorer Bonnie Crystal and companions discovered unidentified animal tracks on mud islands of an underground lake located deep within a rarely visited cave named Cueva del Arroyo in Mexico (the date seems to have been early 1999).

Whatever left the tracks had passed into and out of the water, on its way across the islands. The animal seemed to be walking bipedally-- there were no signs of forelimbs, tail, or body touching the mud. There was also little sign of claws in the tracks. They could not discern how the animal had entered or exited the cave unless it had done so the same way they themselves had.

Judging from the tracks, the animal was amphibious, small, no heavier than 18 pounds, used a straddling walk, and had short legs.

So what left the tracks? If it was a rat, it was huge. It apparently wasn't a bird, according to an expert in the field. The tracks seemed too narrow for typical lizard feet. Alternative opinions suggested either a raccoon or turtle. But the bipedal appearance of the tracks, plus no sign of marks from tail or body dragging seems to contradict several of these possibilities.

Crystal suspects these were the tracks of an unknown troglodite, or primitive cave living animal. She also suspects it was a bipedal lizard.

-- High Strangeness: Mystery Tracks ["http://www.anomalist.com/reports/tracks.html"] by Patrick Huyghe, The Anomalist

The mystery beast lives in total darkness. The tracks seemed fresh, only hours old when discovered.There are blind cave fish living in the underground lake. The place seems to be frequented by the mystery beast, as a trail has been worn over time.

[NOTE FROM J.R.: Living in darkness indicates a nocturnal nature. The cave found by Crystal could be one of the rare pathways used by the reptiles to on occassion travel from its caverns to the surface and back again. END NOTE]

-- The World Time Forgot ["http://www.telegen.com/timefor.html"]; The Underground World of Bonnie Crystal, Executive Vice President and CTO of Telegen Corporation

As the small reptiles rarely venture onto the surface but after dark, and they are very fast, daylight observations are virtually non-existent, while nighttime observations will typically be rare, brief, and uncertain. Keep in mind the animal's natural camouflage, shape changing capacity, and innate intelligence will also help render observations few in number and low in quality. Being as large as a small adult human being makes it one of the largest predator/scavengers around as of the early 21st century, when humanity has wiped out virtually all else of this type and scale on the planet. Its great speed, leaping, and gliding abilities add to its formidable nature.

The beast also boasts a fatal bite similar to the Komodo dragon or various poisonous snakes-- so of those people who might get close enough to get a good look, practically none will survive. Indeed, many will simply disappear for unknown reasons in the wilderness or caverns, being bitten and then dying within hours afterwards, then consumed and any leftovers possibly dispersed over the countryside or related subterranean passages.

Fortunately for human beings, the reptiles do not usually hunt in packs, and typically avoid human beings, even of child size-- especially if there is more than one person. But they are not above snatching an unattended infant for a tasty snack.

If startled, these reptiles often will freeze completely still and remain that way for up to 20-30 minutes. They will be depending heavily upon their camouflage and stillness to shield them. It is very possible a human being of average vision could look directly at a four foot long camouflaged beast against a row of bushes, in reasonably good security lighting outside a house at night, from as close as four to five feet, and not see it.

If a person happens to move too near to such a camouflaged and unmoving beast, at some point it will spring into lightning motion (these things are fast remember), inflicting a bite upon the intruder then disappearing into the brush, to wait for the victim to become immobile from the toxins.

In some cases the victim may undergo a paralysis before death, in which circumstance they may suffer the experience of being eaten alive.

The victim literally wouldn't know what hit them. One second everything would seem fine and normal, and the next something would have hit them out of nowhere-- and that something would then be nowhere to be seen. The victim might recall no image whatsoever of what attacked them.

With their speed, cunning, camouflage, and nocturnal nature, these beasts would be very difficult targets or prey for human hunters.

As their natural environment is subterranean, and the smell of pseudo-primates or people means food and/or home to them (recall that their ancestors kept pseudo-primates in their dens as a food source for possibly a million years or more), these animals are attracted to underground places harboring the odor of people or other primates. However, being cautious (due to the genetic pruning inflicted by the Kerguelen once they evolved to a certain point), they tend to invade and take over only such places which have been abandoned by primates. This may be one reason for the myth of dragons living amidst treasures in underground vaults, as these beasts will often locate ancient underground tombs or temples or other structures, and make of them their den. At least, wherever such construction is not adequately sealed off to prevent their entry.

This tendency of the smart, near man-size, erect bipedal reptiles to inhabit ancient man-made structures underground may also have contributed to the various human tales of lizard people living in various locales about the world. Keep in mind that often ancient peoples over centuries will have forgotten the true builders of many abandoned structures, and so might even assume the lizards built them themselves.

Some modern speculative writers have suggested that lost civilizations and other wonders may have populated Antarctica in the distant past. For instance, one source describes a reptilian humanoid race being driven underground or off-world by another lost civilization, in the prehistoric past.

-- White continent, dark secrets ["http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.asa.org/AntSun/2000_0206/conspiracy.html+prehistoric+Antarctica&hl=en"] By Rep. T. Lloyd, Special to the Sun, February 6, 2000 (from Google's cache of www.asa.org/AntSun/2000_0206/conspiracy.html as retrieved on Wed, 29 Mar 2000)

Another factor to consider here: Recall the dim or negligible night-time lighting in human homes for most of history and pre-history. Imagine being a peasant in such a home, and walking into a dim bedroom where a dark figure appears to be bent over the baby's bed. Under these circumstances, you would expect that figure to be a family member or neighbor-- or at worst a criminal out to do you and yours harm. Standing on two legs, about the size of a person, in the dark, you most certainly expect the figure to be human, and so perceive it as such.

Then you come too near, or speak, and the awful truth is revealed to you: it's a hideous monster, that's taking your child. In a flash the beast is gone, and with it your child-- to parts unknown.

To the witness, it would seem a human being suddenly transformed before their eyes into a deformed monster. They will have witnessed a shape-changer. A baby thief. Over time grief-stricken parents may have inserted the hope about stolen babies being raised by the thieves as their own (rather than eaten), into some of the fables.

Myths and legends of 'little people' of various sorts, some of them dark and foreboding, including details of baby-snatching, shape-changing, taking flight, and startling appearances and disappearances, could all be explained by chance observations and memories of events involving these two to six foot tall, erect standing, nocturnal reptiles.

Of course, encounters or sightings of one or more of the smaller humanoid-shaped pseudo-primate symbiont companions of the Kerguelen themselves could confuse and complicate human myths and legends relating to little people around the world. Add in the youngest of the small Kerguelen reptiles (ranging from one to three feet tall when very young) and occasional dwarfs born naturally to human beings themselves, and the mix of uncertainty, curiosity, fear, prejudice, superstition, and wonder exhibited by human beings towards the idea of such entities over millennia becomes perhaps understandable...

The reptiles may spit irritants, which causes a burning sensation on exposed flesh, and can temporarily blind and disorient prey, making capture and kills easier.

Perhaps this characteristic leads human survivors of encounters with these beasts to liken their breath to "fire".

Combine rare sightings of the larger forms with the wing-like folds of skin adorning forelimbs of all forms of these reptiles, and acidic spittle of the smaller reptiles that people are more likely to encounter, and it's easy to see the myths of dragons take form, if human beings ever suffered significant encounters with such animals.

The smaller, man-sized reptiles, walking erect and sometimes seeming like some horribly distorted version of a man (especially from only a glimpse or obscured view), would also readily lend itself to visions of gargoyles, such as will adorn many human structures in millennia to come.

-- This is how a scientist named George came to believe in dragons ["http://www.stlnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/ByDocID/D66A1D69DFFBEF0A8625693100421CF4"] By George Johnson; George Johnson On Science; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 4, 2000

A brief summary of world-wide dragon (firedrake/wyrm/wurm/worm) myths and legends (dragons are also referred to as winged serpents in some circles):

Dragons are one of the relatively few mythological beasts to have become embedded virtually worldwide in almost all the legends and folk tales of humanity. This ubiquity is remarkable, and would seem to suggest either some deep and profound global human fascination with serpents and reptiles, and/or wide ranging contact with large and formidable lizard-like beasts of some sort during prehistoric times (there is circumstantial evidence for some such contacts in places like Australia, if not elsewhere).

The behavior of mythological dragons runs pretty much the same gamut as human beings-- from playful and mischievious to deeply malevolent. Dragon myths indeed are some of the most complex to be found in the human library. Though a plentitude of mundane detail is often offered about the creatures in stories, it is also usually taken for granted that the beasts are at least somewhat supernatural (read: unbelieveable(?)) in their existence or capabilities.

The earliest dragon myths seem to paint the beasts in a beneficial and idealistic light. Related symbolism tied the dragon to divinity, emperors, and kings. Eventually a split developed between western and oriental dragon mythologies, with the western beliefs more often coming to portray dragons as evil and a source of chaos and uncertainty, while the oriental myths continued to see the beast as basically good. But prior to this divergence in beliefs, even in Europe dragon icons were often used as symbols of good and/or supreme power.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The tendency of oriental humanity and western humanity seeing dragons in different ways offers some interesting parallels to the speculation put forth in this document. Namely, the strongly hierarchial or caste-type society imposed upon the Kerguelen pseudo-primates early on by the reptiles would appeal to oriental humanity's mainstream social behavior beliefs, while conflicting with the strong individuality perspective in western cultures. Hence, the differing views on dragon morality. But this brings up another implication: that human civilization had sufficient first-hand knowledge or experience with dragon manipulations or consequences of those manipulations to directly connect them with the monsters in some fashion. END NOTE.

In the mythical role of monstrous adversaries, dragons appear as indigenous entities tied to particular local lands or treasures, which must be vanquished before man may take command of their wealth. In many tales dragons are the great enemy of the local hero, and sometimes of all mankind itself.

Hebrew beliefs regarding dragons appear to have become a part of later Christianity, with the devil becoming one and the same with the 'serpent'. The Old Testament links dragons with the waters of the deep and the shadow of death.

Chinese myth also associates dragons with the waters of the deep, even describing them as possessing palaces there. Chinese beliefs see dragons as shapeshifters, capable of turning invisible at will. Some dragons are guardians of hidden treasures. The three-clawed dragon, or Japanese dragon, lives in the sea, lacks horns, and symbolizes the scholar. Cbiao is a mountain or land dragon, and symbolizes the statesman (Diplomacy? Subterfuge? Manipulation?)

The physical forms of dragons are somewhat fluid in related stories, but all share a basically giant lizard appearance and shape, usually bigger than an elephant. Two horned and equipped with lengthy fangs are other common elements. American and European tales add bat wings to the creatures, enabling flight. Oriental dragons rarely sport wings, but still fly somehow. Orientals also look less like giant lizards and more like giant snakes with four legs. Scaly skin, sometimes leathery, and colors ranging from black and green to red and gold, completes the picture.

Some oriental depictions of dragons suggest demonic eyes, a camel-like head, ears like a cow, horns of a stag, a snake-like neck, a belly like a clam-shell, scales like a fish, and arms like an eagle (?). The soles of the feet are said to be like that of a tiger (I suppose because of how quietly the dragon may tread).

Chinese and Japanese myths describe dragons with the power to transform into birds. Japanese dragons are said to inhabit the depths of springs and lakes.

Most dragons of myth do not eat meat-- or at least not very often. Instead they seem to prefer items such as mushrooms, eggs, berries, and nuts-- of which they must intake large quantities to survive. Lake dragons may eat fish and squid, however. Dragons tend to feed at night, and avoid brightly lit areas. Dragons may be color-blind, and in any case do not see well in bright light. They may have a light-sensitive spot on their forehead resembling a gem which alerts them to excessive brightness. Dragons have large brains and excellent memories, and represent the most intelligent reptiles on the planet.

Flying dragons live in Northern America and Northern Asia. Lake dragons live worldwide, but most of them in North America (There is some dispute as to whether lake dragons are true dragons). Flightless dragons apparently dominate the populations in Europe.

All dragons may produce misty clouds consisting of a mix of water vapor and flammable gas. But only European flightless dragons can ignite the mixture.

The enemies of dragons include people, elephants, and big cats like lions. Perhaps the animosity towards elephants is why dragons mostly live in the northern and temperate zones, where elephants no longer dwell (the most recent incarnation of elephants in those regions were as mammoths during the Ice Age). Oriental dragons are said to fear centipedes and iron. Oriental beliefs see dragons and elephants as well matched in combat, with both likely to die as a result of any confrontation.

Near the dawn of recorded history dragons and crocodiles may have been considered one and same by many peoples.

-- Beastiary ["http://members.nbci.com/Digital_Elf/elfwrld/beastiary.html"] and other sources

In Celtic myths a dragon's breath may be poisonous instead of fiery. Dragons are very difficult to kill. Dragons may seek out treasure and/or young women, especially of royal blood. The tails could sting. A dragon might eat cows, trees, or children.

The term "dragon" might be used for any large reptile of the time.

Dragons could be perceived as beautiful under some circumstances, with parts of them shimmering with rainbow-like colors, and their entire bodies sometimes sparkling as they moved. In some locales it is said farmers killed dragons for reason of protecting their livestock from predation.

Dragons usually seem to exhibit wings and ears.

Dragons were considered very intelligent, with very good vision, and a capacity to anticipate or foretell the future.

-- Celtic Dragon History; http://www.ealaghol.demon.co.uk/celtenc/celt_d3.htm; relevant reference information here seems to include the name L. Savage; date 11-05-99, and the classification Archive file# h110599a; David Icke and www.davidicke.com are also cited by the source.

Dragons have been a part of Oriental folklore since the beginning of writing itself. There, dragons can represent wealth and an extended life.

A dragon's sex is said to be determined by what it holds in its tail-- a club or a fan. If we were to translate this to more secular elements, it might mean a male dragon has a knob at tail's end he can batter foes with, while a female has a fantail something like the end of a whale or other aquatic mammalian.

-- Dragons, dragons and more dragons by Bruce McGee; relevant reference information here includes the URL http://www.bigwave.ca/~bmcgee/dragons.htm, the date 02-09-00, the classification Archive file# r020900a, and the name James Vandale; David Icke and www.davidicke.com are also cited by the source

In some myths, a dragon's blood could be as harmful as its breath. In England the legend of Saint George is said to have inspired a massive killing spree of dragons by Christian knights, eventually leading to the extinction or near extinction of the species.

A dragon's belly was sometimes said to be much more vulnerable to weapons than its back. In some tales dragons possessed magical healing powers-- even being cut in two, or having a head cut off would not necessarily kill the beast. In such cases an immortal head might have to be simply buried, and/or the body hacked into many tiny bits to assure its end.

In some stories there is a cosmic dragon or dragon force which constantly tries to bring about the end of the universe.

-- DRAGONS OF HISTORY AROUND THE WORLD; relevant reference info here includes the date10-31-99, the classification Archive file# h103199c, the name James Vandale, and the URL http://www.draconian.com/whatis/history/; David Icke and www.davidicke.com are also cited by the source

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Approximately 6,000 BC - 1 AD: Sometime during this period the Earth, along with the rest of the Solar System, enters a vast cloud of interstellar gas

The cloud may be the residue of a super nova explosion in Scorpius-Centaurus around 250,000 years ago. Various effects upon the Earth could include climate and geomagnetic field changes around the time of entry.

-- THE EARTH HAS RECENTLY BEEN SWALLOWED BY A CLOUD OF INTER-STELLAR GAS From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #98, MAR-APR 1995 by William R. Corliss, citing Priscella C. Frisch; "Morphology and Ionization of the Interstellar Cloud Surrounding the Solar System," Science, 265:1423, 1994, and I. Peterson; "Finding a Place for the Sun in a Cloud," Science News, 146:148, 1994

Seemingly excessive quantities of relatively short half-life aluminum-26 in interstellar space may indicate the solar system is moving through the debris cloud of a super nova explosion no older than 10,000 to a million years in age. Such a nearby explosion may have affected life on Earth when the blast first reached our vicinity, as well as the rest of the solar system (planetary interaction with the debris could be significant too).

-- THE MESSAGE OF ALUMINUM-26 From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #39, MAY-JUN 1985 by William R. Corliss, citing "Are We inside a Supernova Remnant?" Sky and Telescope, 69:13, 1985

The solar system entered an expanding shell of gas several thousand years ago originating from the Scorpius-Centaurus Association. The density of material in this region could fluctuate greatly as we move through it. We might at some point find ourselves enshrouded in gas and dust thick enough to reduce the sunlight reaching the Earth-- perhaps to catastrophic levels. There's little indication of when we might encounter such conditions, or how long they might last when we did. But the possibility of such a dimming will exist for at least another 50,000 years beyond 1996.

-- "NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER" From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #107, SEP-OCT 1996 by William R. Corliss, citing Ray Jayawardhana; "Earth Menaced by Superbubble," New Scientist, p. 15, June 22, 1996

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Approximately 4,000 BC: The Egyptians and certain other human cultures fear and loathe gecko lizards

Ancient Egyptians harbor an unfathomable hatred and fear of gecko lizards, believing them to be responsible for a range of skin diseases, spread by poisoning of drinking water. In tomb encryptions underworld demons brandish geckos in their hands. The belief seems to spread into other cultures as well. Islamic writings describe geckos as companions to Satan.

However, no known Egyptian gecko species are poisonous in any way.

-- Poisonous Geckos? Ancient Beliefs Handed Down to Modern Egypt ["http://www.egyptrevealed.com/051200-geckos.shtml"] by Lisa Parks, Egypt Revealed

It may be that Geckos became linked to the subterranean Kerguelen reptiles in the minds of ancient humanity, due to their similarities in many respects to the more dangerous beasts. Geckos may have been considered to be young versions of the Kerguelen beasts, or perhaps servants of same. Geckos' uncanny ability to crawl up walls and even across ceilings, plus in some regions seem to fly from tree to tree, would definitely put them into the same ballpark of fearful phenomena as the Kerguelen reptiles themselves.

As for the skin diseases, it may be that the injuries due to the burning spit of the beasts, as well as the awful complications of bites, would give ancient peoples a strong impression of related disease.

There are roughly 300 species of geckos worldwide. They are small lizards, usually nocturnal and prefering to live in trees. Their natural environment is the warm regions of the world. Many have adhesive pads on their toes allowing them to climb almost anywhere. Geckos usually eat small animals such as insects.

The flying geckos possess folds of skin they may use to aid in long jumping and gliding between trees.

The largest geckos of the 20th century lived in Southeast Asia.

Geckos are members of the Squamata order of reptiles.

-- "Gecko", page 839, The McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1984, 1989

Squamata is the main order of modern living reptiles of the 20th century, which includes snakes and lizards. Squamata first appeared in the Jurassic. During the 20th century representatives of the order could be found everywhere on Earth but the very coldest of places. Most species are land-based, but others have adapted to tree-living, burrowing, and aquatic environments. In the 20th century there is some 2200 known lizard species of the sub-order Sauria.

Most Sauria eat insects, but some eat plants, and larger species may eat larger animals such as mammals and birds. The Komodo dragon was the largest known living Sauria in the 20th century.

Most Sauria move about on four feet, but a few are bipedal in extremis, and perhaps other times, such as the American Jesus Cristo lizard.

Virtually all the Sauria possess some capacity to change skin colors, though some species are more accomplished than others in the matter.

-- "Squamata", page 1768, The McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1984, 1989

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect is the ancient Egyptian belief that some form of reptiles is capable of consciously or unconsciously poisoning the drinking water of human beings.

Note that such a purposeful act on the part of the small reptiles would indicate a level of consciousness and forethought perhaps above that of a chimpanzee or gorilla. And be a pretty convenient means of ridding the reptiles of human populations in areas they wanted for themselves-- since being subterranean, the reptiles could reach and foul many underground water sources people depended upon without ever exposing themselves topside.

At least, such a scheme would seem to work well where the reptiles knew of underground routes to the water supplies in question, and prior to the point where human technology for filtering impurities from ground water came online.

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1997 AD: Mysterious sounds from an unknown giant beast are detected in the ocean depths

The sounds are determined to come from a very large, living animal-- something not a whale and actually larger than such mammals. The mystery beast will remain unidentifiable at least up to June 2002. Besides whales, the only other deep sea creature known to reach such a scale in size would be a giant squid. But experts believe the squids incapable of making the sounds recorded. So the question remains: what is it?

-- Tuning in to a deep sea monster - June 13, 2002 ["http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/06/13/bloop/index.html"]; CNN; found on or about 6-13-02

-- Beware the Bloop - theage.com.au ["http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/06/13/1023864318809.html"] By John von Radowitz; June 13 2002

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1999 AD: Humanity is realizing that the undersea Kerguelen plateau was once a dryland island continent....while they are also nearing the levels of wealth and technology necessary to explore the undersea mass...

...but all indications are that those with the means are far more interested in other locations, nowhere near the sunken Kerguelen continent. Thus, it could be centuries or even millennia before humanity discovers the secrets drowned there.

-- "'Lost continent' discovered" By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse, BBC News Online: Sci/Tech, 5-27-99, BBC Homepage ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/"]

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2000 milestone: The status of Kerguelen

Since the last major island of the Kerguelen island continent sank some 20 million years ago, further volcanic activity has created new islands in the chain.

The new islands however are little more than the tips of new undersea mountains poking above the waves; nothing as massive and vast as the original three Kerguelen bodies.

These mountain tops and other associated lands today form an island group, comprised of some 7000 square km of archipelago (roughly 300 islands and reefs) and lying situated in the South Indian Ocean. The largest island of the bunch is called Kerguelen. The entire group is legally considered a French possession.

In recent history the modern island of Kerguelen has seen both ice and considerable volcanic activity (Kerguelen possesses plenty of volcanoes). The above sea level remnants of Kerguelen suffer a frigid climate due to the convergence of Antarctic and Indian Ocean currents in the vicinity, and often strong winds which contribute to the chill. The winds also contribute to high waves in the area-- with 15 m heights being considered not unusual. This heavy wave action may contribute to the year-round ice-free nature of the seas around the islands. The skies of modern Kerguelen spend much of their time overcast.

Virtually the only native plant which has survived in the region from ancient times is the Kerguelen cabbage (rabbits brought in by foreigners destroyed practically all other lowland vegetation which had managed to survive the previous icy and volcanic periods).

Today a scientific research station of considerable size exists in the area, housing up to 100 scientists at a time.

-- About Kerguelen ["http://www.kerguelen.org/kerguelen.html"] by Jaap Boender, September 12, 2000

Kerguelen receives plenty of rain. Melt run off from the glaciers on the island, plus the rain, makes for a wealth of inland lakes and streams. The island is heavily laced with high ridges and valleys. There is little fluctuation in the Kerguelen climate year round. Besides the Poa cookii tussock grass and Kerguelen cabbage, Azorella selago and Acaena adscendens mosses also number among the plant life species on the island(s). There are at least two dozen species of birds inhabiting or regularly visiting the modern Kerguelen archipeglio.

-- Kerguelen Archipelago ["http://www.crozet.demon.co.uk/kerg.htm"] found on or about 9-16-2000

Kerguelen cabbage (species Pringlea antiscorbutica; family Brassicaceae) is a rich source of vitamin C. The plant has adapted to the lack of winged insects on Kerguelen by evolving for wind pollination rather than the insect pollination its relatives elsewhere invite.

-- Kerguelen cabbage ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/5/0,5716,46205+1,00.html"], ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA and Kerguelen cabbage ["http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/kerguelen/kerguelen_cabbage.html"] by Paul Carroll, found on or about 9-16-2000

The Kerguelen Cabbage is the only noteworthy native plant of modern Kerguelen surviving today, and is readily edible. Marine mammals and birds thrive on and about modern Kerguelen.

The main island of Kerguelen has suffered nearly complete coverage by ice, then volcanic lava, in relatively recent times. This activity destroyed much of Kerguelen's native flora. Back in the Tertiary Kerguelen boasted substantial forests of tree species related to the modern trees of South America.

Prior to much destruction wrought by modern human incursions, Kerguelen may have possessed at least 19 other plant species unique to the region, as documented by the crews of the Discovery and Resolution, led by English captain James Cook in 1776.

Kerguelen may have once served to connect the continents of South America and Australia, as well as New Zealand. The sunken Kerguelen Plateau of modern times lies largely about 1000 feet deep undersea.

From the 18th through the early 20th centuries commercial sealers did their best to wipe out the native seal populations of the island(s) via over harvesting.

The rabbits brought to Kerguelen by humans in 1874 destroyed virtually all Kerguelen's native plant life, but for tussock grasses and Kerguelen cabbage. Rats and cats also introduced by people have taken a toll on various native bird life. Sheep, reindeer, ponies, cattle, pigs, mules, mink, and dogs have all been brought to the island too by people, although perhaps not all the species have survived the harsh conditions.

Modern Kerguelen enjoys only 125 sunny days a year, and typical temperatures are frigid, with a strong wind chill often making them deadly. Winds surpass 60 kph for most of the year, and 90 kph for roughly a third of the year. The high winds make for regular rough seas of 12 to 15 meter high waves. The wave action does prevent the Kerguelen waters from freezing over, however.

The Port aux Francais scientific research and satellite tracking base is a major human settlement and station of modern Kerguelen.

-- Kerguelen Island, South Indian Ocean ["http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/kerguelen/kerguelen_islands.html"] by Paul Carroll, January 2000, and Kerguelen cabbage ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/5/0,5716,46205+1,00.html"], ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

The Kerguelen archipelago offers lots of bays and fjords along the coasts of its hundreds of islands. The region is very windy-- too windy for trees. Most of the modern ecosystem of the islands is dependent upon resources brought ashore by penguins. Seals and killer whales populate the waters of modern Kerguelen.

-- KERGUELEN ISLAND; Facts and Photos of Crozet, Kerguelen, & other sub-Antarctic Islands ["http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/penguins/subislands.html"], pictures by E. Fromentel; Worldwide Travelogs

The 300 Kerguelen islands are of volcanic origin. The western third of the main island circa 2000 AD is covered by Cook Glacier. Peat marshes and lakes are also present on the main island.

-- KERGUELEN. The Columbia Encyclopedia: Sixth Edition. 2000 ["http://www.bartleby.com/65/ke/Kerguele.html"], Columbia University Press/Bartleby.com

Dinosaurs, Dragons, Loch Ness, and Reptile People Contents


2000 AD: By now humanity has explored something less than 2% of the deep oceans-- and less than 10% of the oceans overall

-- National Geographic launching new exploration effort ["http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/04/04112000/explorers_11892.asp"]; April 12, 2000; The Associated Press

-- Explorers-in-Residence See Gloom and Gleam in the Future By David Braun, National Geographic News; http://www.ngnews.com/, 4-11-2000

50% of the surface of the Earth exists beneath 3000 to 6000 meters of ocean depth. Life in the deep ocean is at least as diverse as that in rainforests.

Final frontier by Paul Tyler, From New Scientist magazine, 12 February 2000: review of book The Eternal Darkness by Robert Ballard with Will Hively, Princeton University Press, £18·95/$29·95, ISBN 0691027404

In 2000 AD new species by the hundreds are discovered living in the vicinity of extinct volcanoes under the Tasman Sea. Some of the species come from a group previously believed extinct since the time of the dinosaurs. The find implies other groups of 'lost' or new species may be inhabiting other undersea mountains around the world (seamounts total perhaps 30,000 worldwide)-- thereby greatly increasing the diversity of life in the sea over previous estimates. Maybe only five of these undersea mountains have been scientifically sampled for native species so far.

The new ecologies are all the more remarkable because they are confined to a single locale, and therefore would seem far more vulnerable to extinction than more widely spread species. And yet, here they are, some obviously surviving there for tens of millions of years.

-- Tasman home to ancient creatures ["http://onenews.nzoom.com/world/2000/06/22/00027522.htm"], ONE NEWS sourced from TVNZ, RNZ, Reuters; AAP, June 22, 2000

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1900 AD through the present: Isolated encounters with large unidentified reptile species worldwide continue

A strange looking and behaving creature has been spotted in the sea off Great Britain, somewhat bird-like in appearance but with a "snake-like head and neck" at the same time. This head and neck appeared to extend vertically about three feet up out of the sea.

-- Nessie spotted' in Cornwall ["http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_2070000/2070000.stm"] 27 June, 2002; BBC News

Between 1942-1987 AD, people repeatedly disappeared into the waters of Cass Lake, their bodies never to be found.

-- Cass Lake deaths cloaked in mystery - 06-26-02 ["http://www.detnews.com/2002/oakland/0206/26/c04-523771.htm"] By Mike Martindale; The Detroit News June 26, 2002

There are reports, both modern and ancient, of "a giant creature" in Martin Mere lake. People mutilated by unknown causes, and dragons, are both included in stories related to the lake.

-- thisisExeter : CITY'S STRANGE PHENOMENA TEAM ARE TO GO IN SEARCH OF THE 'MONSTER OF THE MERE' ["http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=99926&command=displayContent&sourceNode=99835&contentPK=2200415"] BY PAUL MATTHEWS; 24 July 2002

Tianchi Lake in Jilin Province of Northeast China sports its own monster tales. The beast there is said to have a head somewhat resembling that of a horse.

-- Lake 'monster' jumps back to sight ["http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2002-07-31/80110.html"]; China Daily news; 07/31/2002

A hissing green-black sea creature with a white underside, some 15 feet in length, with a "basketball" sized head and four inch long teeth, was witnessed by several people swimming around and terrorizing one of their own off Teddy's Beach, Portsmouth Rhode Island, around July 30, 2002.

-- Sea creature spooks swimmers ["http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4918095&BRD=1710&PAG=461&dept_id=99784&rfi=6"] by GREGG M. MILIOTE, The Herald News; August 01, 2002

Since 1982 there have been stories of "river dinosaurs" in the Southwest US. "Elusive lizard-like creature[s]" which walk erect and stand about three feet tall. Their upper limbs look like arms rather than forelegs. The animals are fast, and usually seen near water. Their appearance resembles an odd mix of dinosaur and bird, including a long neck, long tail, and bird-like movements and lower limbs (in terms of slenderness), but no feathers.

-- Mystery reptile loose in county? ["http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/news020730_3.htm"] By Katharhynn Heidelberg the Cortez Journal; July 30, 2002

"...a three-metre tall, grey creature with a head like a dog and a tail like a crocodile which was as fat as a 900-litre water tank"...living in a marsh.

-- Hunt for 'dinosaur' on volcanic island ["http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/12/1078594554726.html"]; March 12, 2004; AAP; smh.com.au

-- Kokopo villagers, police search for dinosaur-like creature ["http://www.thenational.com.pg/0312/nation28.htm"] By Veronica Manuk; thenational.com.pg; accessible online April 18, 2004

-- PNG hunts giant mystery creature. 12-03-2004. ABC News Online ["http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1064948.htm"]; abc.net.au; March 12, 2004; AFP

Nez Perce legends say a giant serpent lives in Wallowa Lake. Modern eyewitness claims put its length between 16 and 50 feet, its color dark, and a head similar in size to a buffalo's.

-- Where's Wally, now that he's needed? ["http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1079182944140830.xml?oregonian?edc"] by Douglas W. Larson; 03/14/04; oregonlive.com

-- Legend of sea serpent in Virginia still credible? ["http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031773600701&path=!news!columnists&s=1045855935174"] by LARRY HALL Feb 11, 2004; timesdispatch.com

Dinosaurs, Dragons, Loch Ness, and Reptile People Contents


Miscellaneous links under consideration for addition to this page:

Move Over Dinosaurs — Here come the Mosasaurs Amateur Finds Prehistoric Lizard That Returned to the Sea ["http://www.smu.edu/smunews/dallasaurus/"] Netherlands Journal of Geosciences; found on or about 11-17-05; Contact: Meredith Dickenson mmdicken@smu.edu 214-768-7650 Southern Methodist University; SMU, 6425 Boaz Lane, Dallas TX 75205, 214-768-2000

Dinosaur Ancestor's Vision Possibly Nocturnal; Researchers Recreate 240-Million Year Old Protein In Te ["http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/09/020904073603.htm"]

ostrich study confirms bird 'hands' unlike those of dinosaurs ["http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-08/uonc-sso081402.php"]

The lore and lure of Dragons ["http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/Entertainment/Fun%20and%20Games/D0A26B0B332730C086256C040038181E?OpenDocument&Headline=The%20lore%20and%20lure%20of%20Dragons"]

Birds Share 'Language' Gene with Humans ["http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000C79B4-EA89-1069-AA8983414B7F0000"]


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