Kosmo writes “Throughout its long history our Earth has been inhabited by life forms totally different from each other. Some of them looked like fantasy creatures incarnate, while others would appear more or less usual to us. Dinosaurs were undoubtedly the most well-known and impressive creatures of the past, of course. They dominated the Earth’s biosphere for as long as 145 mln years, giving rise to countless species and forms.
However, about 66 mln years ago our planet changed its inhabitants yet again. As a result of a global disaster, whose details are still quite obscure now, practically all animals weighing over 25 kg were wiped off the face of the Earth within an extremely short period by geological standards. The vacated expanses were promptly taken over by new dwellers – mammals.
In the course of the incessant struggle for survival there evolved more and more new species until a unique creature appeared on the scene. Instead of adapting to relentless nature, it decided to rather adapt nature to its needs. This wasn’t the biggest, strongest or fastest creature, either. But how come it became the king of all nature?”
Around the 10:39 mark the video describes an Australopithecus. What Is Australopithecus? The genus Australopithecus is a collection of hominin species that span the time period from 4.18 to about 2 million years ago. Australopiths were terrestrial bipedal ape-like animals that had large chewing teeth with thick enamel caps, but whose brains were only very slightly larger than those of great apes. They are the closest known relatives of our genus Homo, and we most likely evolved from a species that was part of this adaptive radiation. They are similar to the group of animals referred to as Paranthropus by some authors, or “robust” australopiths by others (see Constantino’s article), but have less extreme adaptations for powerful chewing.
