THE BEGINNING OF LIFE & WHEN FISH BECOME LAND-DWELLERS

BEGINNING OF LIFE ON LAND
   

Plants were the first living things on our planet that began with very simple plants like algae. So developed mosses and liverworts followed by ferns and other larger plants. Animals did not leave the sea until the plants were fully established, otherwise, there would be no food for them.
    Next were relatives of spiders and scorpions, which were probably the first creatures to leave the sea and actually colour on land. Later, they developed into larger and more complex forms of life. Amphibians multiplied rapidly and the word actually means 'live on land and in the water'

INFO: The first mammals lived alongside the dinosaurs, but in comparison with reptiles, they were tiny and insignificant like the Glyptodon.

HOW DID SOME FISH BECOME LAND-DWELLERS?
   Around 400 million years ago fish began to creep out of the water onto land. The main reasons for an animal to change its habits would be to obtain fresh food supplies and to escape from its predators. Many fish were able to just wriggle along on land, but in order to lift their body clear of the ground ordinary fins were not strong enough/ One of these fish is the coelacanth, a large fish up to 1m long with strange leg-like fins. It was found to contain bones that were very like those of land-living vertebrate animals. Relatives of the coelacanth had leg-like fins reinforced with bones, which allowed them to slither along like a modern crocodile. Much ancient fish developed simple lungs which they used instead of their gills when they were out of the water.

INFO: Baryonix is the only known fish-eating dinosaur, and uniquely it had huge claws on its front limbs.