The Ancient Amazon Rainforest: 100 Million Years Back in Time
Infoxtechpedia - Imagine this: a world filled with dinosaurs; thick clouds of moisture hanging in the air and sunlight rarely surfacing as it struggles to disperse through an overhanging canopy. Face it. 100000000 BC — this is the relatively small patch of jungle that covers most of what we know as Amazon Rainforest today, but was completely different in those days... Join us on a trip to the dawn of time to investigate an ancient land that has captured the imaginations of scientists and explorers, were talking about prehistory.
A World Dominated by Giants
The Dinosaurs Did You Know First things first, the dinosaurs. The Amazon Rainforest hosts a whole range of these majestic animals. Picture gigantic sauropods like Austroposeidon magnificus, with necks craned up to the tree tops, eating prehistoric ferns and cycads. By contrast, the ancient Amazon did not have today's closed canopy rainforest – instead it was a much more open forest with large distances between trees along sides of rivers or within particular groups if fronts then later as super-tree communities.
But they were not the only land masters. Carnivorous dinosaurs, a distant cousin of the T-Rex called Oxalaia quilombensis hunted among these primeval forests. This creature was an apex predator, which sat near the top of its respective food chain; with the assistance of a dense underbrush that gave these predators the ability to hide and jump out at prey.
Backbone of the Ecosystem: Ancient Flora
Now the plant life back there was—wow. Cycads, ferns and proto-angiosperms (primitive flowering plants) comprised the more ancient forest of the Amazonian past; a few present species are likely descendants from cereals taxed by Pollock et al including maize. The forest was largely gymnosperm-bearing — that is, it bore plants without flowering seeds such as conifers. They were not the trees of today's forested landscape, but they supplied important shelter and food for the ecosystem.
Picture the humus forest floor, not today with its crunchy mat of dead leaves but then: so duff and spongy underfoot it feels squishy to walk over—fawns slipping out from behind jackpines like a magician's trick; knee-high ferns already massing in fronds susceptible only to waxwings. Calamites, the giant horsetail plants that also date to this Carboniferous are HUGE, at 30 ft- and they too contribute to our coal beds. At a time when plant life was all but obliterated these ancient plants were critical components in the carbon cycle, which involved absorbing atmospheric CO2 and played an important role in climate regulation -- much as does modern Amazon Rgf.
A Thriving Aquatic World
Remember, there was also great life in the rivers and mangroves of the Amazon. The apex predators of these waters were ancient ancestors to today's crocodiles, such as Sarcosuchus imperator, a supersized 40-foot crocodile. Just think in terms of a canoe through a primordial river… bumping along and happening upon one of these gigantic mud turtles basking on the bank!
The rivers were well-populated with different types of prehistoric fish, some of which had thick scaly skin to protect themselves from larger predators. The waterways were the rainforest's blood, conveying nutrients to every corner of this living mosaic.
A Precarious Climatic Balance
An interesting thing about the ancient Amazon that had changed with the climate. At that time, the globe was a very hot planet without ice at its poles and our sea levels were hundreds of feet higher. The Amazon was one of the largest pieces in a global lowland wet tropical belt that used to span much of the planet, so its loss would have vast adverse consequences for Earth's oscillating climate system.
The temperate, tropical environment of the prehistoric Amazon favored life but was also geologically responsive. so sensitive that even small changes can have large effects and this may explain why during a visit 20 million years after its colonization by Caenophidian serpent they might find little evidence for it other than fossils from flooded basins buried beneath thousands of meters rocks miltion year later (BELOW ?) Volcanoes could erupt and form, tectonic plates shift to create whole new continents and anything else naturally occurring. As a specific example, when the South American continent started drifting to the west or left it created an Andes mountain range which eventually led to this generation's Amazon River and its accompanying ecosystem.
First Mammals and Other Occupants
Dinosaurs were the king of kings but had co-residents in the ancient Amazon Tiny and nocturnal, early mammals scurried about the forest floor as they dodged giant reptiles. They were the predecessors to what would eventually become mammals, and by extension us. They may have been small but, with an excellent sense of smell and good hearing they survived in the shadow of dinosaurs.
Giant insects gorged this foliage, too. Nothing like today scavenging ants and wasps; these were real behemoths insect wise!). Nature seems far more wild in the time of megafauna — picture dragonflies a foot and half across flitting through the warm, moist water, or enormous beetles moving about on every surface. Fossils reveal plants from the age of squamates with plenty of small holes munched through them by insects; exactly what you'd expect, because even then grumbles didn't change much at all (c)... and pollinators were just as polyphagous.
Lessons from the Past
Which begs the question: Why would we care about remnants of a 100-million-year-old Amazon Rainforest? This ancient ecosystem holds valuable information on how forests cope with changing climates and is like a time machine that responds to the Earth's atmosphere. It also underscores the need to protect today's Amazon, often called "the lungs of the planet" because it sucks up carbon dioxide and spews out oxygen.
The more we study these ancient remains and their environment, the better we understand how life developed here on Earth and also realize what a delicate balance it is. The Amazon Rainforest of the past, with its towering dinosaurs and humid forests filled to the brim with life, was a world apart: a refuge where today's incredible biodiversity first began.
A Call to Preserve
As we all stand in awe of the ancient Amazon, so too shall we be reminded to protect our rainforest. Outright losing the Amazon due to threats such as deforestation and climate change would have devastating implications for global biodiversity and the planet's climate. Understanding our past, we can also begin to understand how important it is for this essential ecosystem to be preserved in the generations that follow.
Thus, the next time you think of this purportedly # priceless rainforest known as Amazon (غربة) — consider that it was 100 million years ago a lively, living world and accordingly remember our responsibility to uphold heritage.