All was quiet within a huge blanket of back, but then suddenly a big explosion of a bright light appeared as dozens of bright lights appeared as then a a galaxy appeared.
This is our galaxy.
The Milky Way.
Our sun takes 225 million years to go around the galaxy once. The Dinosaur Era lasted 165 million years. So if 1 rotation of the galaxy is 1 hour, the Earth is 20 hours old, dinosaurs have lived for 48 minutes.
And us... 48 seconds.
A meteor soars through the vast ocean of outer space, with no way of slowing down or even stopping. But then a mountain of an object soared through it's way as soared closer until finally it crashed into it.
This... is a comet.
It's all ice and rock. It's 6 miles wide, it's as wide as Mt. Everest is high.
Vents of steam burst through the comet's surface as the Earth and moon was slowly appearing in it's way.
And it's heading for the Earth, fast.
Many miles away under the cover of night, Earth remains undisturbed for now unaware what's heading their way as a shooting star soared.
But this isn't the Earth that we know of.
Not really.
Not yet, at least.
This is 65 million years ago.
And in South America. Long before the Dawn of Man.
Then suddenly, a small 6 foot long dinosaur appeared.
At this time, the masters of the Earth are... dinosaurs.
Then the little dinosaur rushed off through the forest disappearing into the night.
But let's start from the beginning.
Planet Earth first appeared 4.6 billion years ago, for 0.2 billion years ago, it remained as a toxic ball of roasting rock.
With no hope of life.
Earth seemed destined to be lifeless.
Then everything changed.
Another planet, Thea, smashed into Earth, and the 2 planets fused, creating a brand new world.
Our world.
Even today, Thea lies right beneath our feet.
A smaller chuck of Thea became our moon. And slowly our oceans formed. Until life on Earth was ready to begin.
At 3.5 billion years ago, the first single-celled organisms appeared in the oceans.
But who would inherit this Blue Planet?
3 billion years have pass, and Earth was more alien compared to today. Nothing lives on land.
But in the ocean... is a different story.
In the shallow waters of bays and coastlines, soft-bodied creatures and some of the first Arthropods. Which in the future will lead to insects and spiders and other arachnids.
It was a time called Cambrian, 530 million years ago.
And it gave rise, to the Earth's 1st super-predator.
Anomalocaris, the original granddaddy of all super-predators.
A bizarre creature someone could think is from an alien planet, but this monster predator holds a monumental evolutionary landmark.
Eyes.
Anomalocaris was one of the first eyed creatures.
But living in the waters around them, was another evolutionary landmark.
Haikouichthys.
Though the size of our thumbnail, but it's an evolutionary giant. The first ever fish. Our earliest known ancestor. He's unique, because instead of having armor on the outside, he's tough inside.
They evolved a primitive backbone.
The very 1st Vertebrate.
Forerunner of all future backboned animals, from the dinosaur, to the elephant, to us.
It was an era called... the Paleozoic Era.
280 million years later
Nearly 300 million years have pass, and Earth has had an extraordinary story as it was a time of strange and savage creatures fought a ruthless battle to rule the Earth.
From the Cambrian, life has continued on as soon, the first Vertebrate creatures took their first steps onto dry land. And 60 million years later, came the Carboniferous, where it was filled with giant insects from the Oxygen-rich air which was higher than any other time in history.
But 50 million years later, everything changed for all life on Earth, forever.
On the supercontinent of Pangea, in an area that will 1 day become Siberia, the entire landscape was a volcanic wasteland.
Then emerging weakly from the smoke was a large predatory relative of Mammals.
Inostrancevia.
A Gorgonopsid that will be 1 day named after Russian geologist, Alexander Inostrantsev.
Like other relatives of it's kind, they are the first saber-toothed predator. These predators had evolved the first saber fangs, something predatory mammals will have.
The weak Inostrancevia sniffs around as it wanders through the landscape hoping to find something to eat. And soon it came across another Inostrancevia feeding on a carcass of a Scutosaurus.
The 2 roared at each other as they were both hungry, but the stand-off though didn't last long when suddenly a lava bomb hits the ground on top of the carcass.
When the smoke cleared, the 2 Inostrancevias ran for their lives to escape the fire bombardment.
As they ran, the 2nd Inostrancevia was struck by a lava bomb as it hits on top of him. And the 1st Inostrancevia runs up to higher ground on a hilltop to escape.
He quickly made it in time as a crack opens in the ground as lava spews out.
And the Inostrancevia weakly climbs up as he weakly got to a ledge overlooking the whole landscape now a volcanic wasteland that he once called home.
The Great Dying.
The Permian Extinction.
The Inostrancevia then roars out as then suddenly a crack opens up as lava erupts out and lands on the predator killing him.
The most catastrophic extinction event in the history of the planet.
95% of all life on Earth, vanished into extinction.
But's not just Siberia that was affected, the whole planet was a charred, burning world. So big, it can be seen to the moon.
Those that now die, usher in the birth of a new era. With a new cast of characters.
20 million years later
Millions of years have pass, and the Earth has long healed after the massive extinction. But life still carries on as they recover their numbers.
In a desert region that will become Argentina, a group of ancient reptiles that have survived the Permian Extinction lives on.
Nearby, as a large proto-mammal sleeps, appearing from the rocks came a small 2-legged reptile that has recently evolved.
It was Eoraptor.
The first dinosaur.
The Eoraptor looks around as a fly flew over him.
The large creature continues sleeping as it then woke up, and saw the Eoraptor picking and eating the flies on it's underside. It's a kind of symbiotic relationship, the creature gets a cleaning, and the Eoraptor gets a meal.
In the future, rhinos and oxpeckers in Africa will have a similar symbiotic relationship.
10 million years later
Millions of year more have pass, and dinosaurs were started to became successful.
The unique ability to stand upright, and the agility this allowed. Gives the early dinosaurs a competitive edge over our 4-legged Mammal like ancestors.
Repressed by these swift killers, our ancestors are reduced to small creatures hiding in the shadows.
In a burrow, a Cynodont turns to it's pup.
Their time will come.
But for the next 165 million years, the world belongs to the dinosaurs.
Author's Note:
This story, will involve Sue's 20th anniversary of her grand opening at the Field Museum of Chicago.
Which is today.