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Discuss the themes of apocalyptic literature
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Cicadapocalypse (excerpt)
Our story begins in the late cretaceous period, the last of the mesozoic era. Dinosaurs are roaming about, minding their own business. A iguanodon here, a pack of velociraptors stalking them nearby. A dreadnoughts there and some triceratops grazing not to far away. However those creatures are not relevant to this tale. No, the focal point of our story falls upon a much more frightening creature a cicada in fact, one of the large prehistoric variety. This insect lived among the dinosaurs and even preyed upon some, it was about the size of a motorcycle, and had many more...points than most other prehistoric insects. The violent beasts had killed then devoured thousands of sauropods, as it was mating season and they were
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however one herd member was still fighting, it swung its tail killing swaths of cicadas. But the cicadas retaliated, charging the doomed dino in even larger numbers. Once again the dinosaur swung its tail killing many of the insects. However some of the beasts swerved and went for the eyes. They swarmed the sauropods head, landing and biting. The dinosaur bellows a cry of agony as its eyes and neck are shredded, then after one final swing of its tail the massive creature falls to the ground with a THOOM and a swarm of cicadas covers it like a blanket. Meanwhile on the other side of pangea most of the cicadas have already laid their eggs in the earth and lay on the ground dying. Fortune was in their favor that day, for in the sky was a second sun. A meteor that surmounted any modern structure even a behemoth such as Mount Everest. Hurdling towards the earth was the embodiment of devastation itself, a messenger of death, and not a creature on earth knew what was happening. However in this case, blissful ignorance is preferable to knowledge of an impending and unavoidable doom. Because the space rock was growing near. The earth began to shake, the sky became red, and for one beautiful moment the
Ceratopsians and Pachycephalosaurs are closely related in their characteristics. Ceratopsians processed a saddle-shaped boney frill that extended from the skull to the neck and typically had horns over the nose and eyes. The most popular was the triceratops, which could reach over 26 feet and weigh in excess of twelve metric tons. Their frills served as two major functions. It protected the vulnerable neck from being harmed. The second major function that the frill provided was due to the fact that the frill contained a network of blood vessels on its underside, which were used as a means to get rid of excess heat. The Pachycephalosaurs were considered to be bipedal. They were also found to have thick skulls, flattened bodies, and tail that were covered in an array of body rods. Pachycephalosaurs were thought to have been more than fifteen feet long and processed a skull that was surrounded by a rounded dome of solid bone. It was thought that they used their heads in combat or mating contests, but that was disproved fairly recently, which I will discuss later in the paper. Both Ceratopsians and Pachycephalosaurs were “bird-hipped” and both of these suborders contained a backwards pubic bone. Both were Marginocephilia, or “fringed heads”, which is one of three clads under the Orinthiscia order. They were also herbivore dinosaurs that inherited their fringe at the back of the skull from earlier ancestors.(2) Their classi...
Majungatholus atopus roamed the plains of northwestern Madagascar about 70 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous (Perkins, 2003; Rogers et al, 2003). The discovery of 21 tooth-marked elements originating from two Majungatholus atopus individuals suggests evidence that the dinosaur supplemented its diet by feeding on its own dead or hunting them (Rogers et al, 2003). It cannot be confirmed whether they were purely scavengers, hunters, or both. Scientists are certain that the marks are not the doing of any other predator because the teeth marks are not consistent with any other known species that lived in the area. Only one other theropod that inhabited the area during the time Majungatholus atopus did, Masiakasaurus knopfleri, had teeth and bite marks too small to have caused these markings. Two large crocodile species also shared the same ecosystem but their teeth were “too blunt and too irregularly spaced to have produced the narrow grooves found on the Majungatholus bones”(Perkins, 2003). The tooth marks on at least nine Majungatholus elements attest to intertooth spacing in the perpetrators jaw and denticle drag patterns consistent enough to make a compelling case for Majungatholus feeding on other Majungatholus (Rogers et al, 2003).
The Permian-Triassic Extinction is a mass extinction that occurred between the Permian and Triassic geologic time periods approximately 250 million years ago; it is the deadliest of all extinctions that have occurred on Earth. In addition, during the Permian-Triassic extinction the continents of today existed as one supercontinent known as Pangaea. This was the first time in history where continental or land mass exceeded that of the ocean. This was also before dinosaurs of the Triassic period roamed Earth, during this time animals such as the therapsids, and Synapsids such as the Pelycosaurs, insects and amphibians also occupied Earth. Fauna that existed during the Permian period includes Gymnosperms, or seed producing plants such as the Conifers. Other animals that existed during this time include marine life such as brachiopods (clams), bryozoans (coral-like skeletons), bony fish and sharks, as well as crinoids (sea urchin like creatures). According to National Geographic, about 90 percent of all the animals and fauna of this period perished, the marine life was hit the hardest wi...
Now here is some background information on the dinosaur that is causing this stir because of its heart. The dinosaur is a Thescelosaurus, which means wonderful lizard. The average length of the Thescelosaurus is three to four meters, nine to twelve feet, long with an average weight of three-hundred kilograms, or about six hundred and sixty two pounds. They lived from the Campanian age to Maastrichtian age which are the later stages of the Cretaceous period. Another distinguishing physical feature of Willo is the bird-hips that the dinosaur has instead of the lizard hip. They have primarily been found in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming. As far as their remains are concerned there is one complete skeleton, eight partial skeletons, elements, and teeth (Dinosauricon).
“66 Million–Year–Old Dino With A Heart.” Media Kit 17 April 2000. North Carolina University. 2000 <http://www.dinoheart.org/mediakit/index.html>.
While the man was dangling to his death “the crowd gathered in the street, silent” (Olds 3), and while this silence may represent calmness, it actually represents calamity because the reason they are silent is because of the potential of a death. This understanding can alter the viewpoint of those who are engaged in this poetic suicide, the same way understanding this gargantuan gravity of a neutron star despite its small size can change the viewpoint of the astronomers observing and engaging this mass, when you understand how the details of the star work the way you view the physical properties around it changes
So what killed the dinosaurs? Without having any background education in science it is hard for the general public to comprehend such matters and they rely on the knowledge of the scientists in this field. Although there has been much research on the subject nobody has come up with a conclusive answer. And we are left to read the countless articles, all having their own opinions as to the mass extinction. One such theory is that a shift in the solar system could have caused the mass destruction. According to an article published in Nature magazine,
“we thought we had them under control, but we were wrong, and now they want revenge”. The greed of the scientists was too high that it blinded them and didn’t let them see what could result from such an experience. The Scientists wanted to bring back what god got rid of million years ago, and they wanted to beat god’s powers with their technology. They were successful at first which increased their ago, but then when the dinosaurs got out of control, the scientists realized that they had messed up trying to beat god. This reflects and supports the theme of the movie which is, the hubris of men using technology to try to play god will lead to their downfall, and indeed it did as we saw with the
We use dinosaurs to represent the changes in nature that have occurred throughout time. Studies found that although the “oldest rock did not show evidence of life, the progression of plant and animal life that changed in recognizable intervals, from ancient life, age of reptiles to the age of mammals” (Dino Nature Metaphor, slide 6), measured the age of the earth. When we think of dinosaurs in relation to nature, we think of that very powerful force that controls the cycle of life. Nature was able to yield such magnificent ferocious creatures that walked the earth and then take them back when they served nature’s purpose. Dinosaurs fit perfectly in nature’s constant
Until recently, scientists believed the chances of finding a fossilized dinosaur heart were extremely slim. The heart belonged to a 66 million year old dinosaur found in Harding County in Northwestern South Dakota. The dinosaur, found in 1993, weighed over 650 pounds and was 13 feet long. The dinosaur was in fairly good condition with the exception of the left side of the skeleton. The small, plant-eating Thescelosaurus, nicknamed ‘Willo’ has been acquired by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Thescelosaurus was an ornithischian, or "bird-hipped," dinosaur that lived in the latter stage of the Cretaceous period. This was approximately 1 million years before the end of the dinosaur era. Native to North America, its range extended from the northern United States up into Canada. Since using the 3-D software to reveal Willo's heart, scientists have also used it to create 3-D images of the fossil's skull, and of remains from other dinosaurs in the museum's collection. (Fisher, Paul)
The Triceratops was living in the late Cretaceous Era. It lived about 68 to 65 million years ago. The Triceratops were said to live in the Wyoming, Colorado, and Canadian area, where they have cold winters. The Tyrannosaurs dominated all of their prey in North America at that time. Also giant penguin-like marine animals called Polycotylid Plesiosaurs appeared in the oceans towards the south. The Earth was still dominated by dinosaurs at that time. During the late Cretaceous Era, North America was slowly moving westwards, whic...
Among the species that perished were the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, belemnoids, many species of plants, except ferns and seed-producing plants, ammonoids, marine reptiles and rudist bivalves. Severely affected organisms included planktic foraminifera, calcareous nannnoplankton, diatoms, dinoflagellates, brachiopods, mollusca, echinoids and fish. Mammals, birds, turtles, crocodiles, lizards, snakes and amphibians fared much better and were mostly unaffected by the End-Cretaceous mass extinction (“The End-cretaceous (K-T) Extinction”, accessed 2000...
The Jurassic period is known as one of the most interesting periods of time in earth’s history, mainly for the awe-inspiring creatures many of which have gone extinct, the most remarkable being the dinosaurs. Life in the ocean during this time was also extremely diversified and amazing for the creatures it beheld. The Jurassic occurred from 199.6 to 145.5 million years ago, following the Triassic Period and preceding the Cretaceous Period within the Mesozoic Era. The supercontinent of Pangea began to drift apart during this time. Right before the Jurassic period began, a major extinction event occurred wiping out much of the life on earth. The events that unfolded afterwards gave life to a new planet.
...k. Scared and moving back a little more, the shark was in a freeze position no flipping or wobbling, the only thing that was making a move was his gills. Wanting to know more I asked what kind of shark it is and was told that it’s a Caribbean Reef Shark. After the adult left all the children there, we start to poke it with a stick and was touching it with our hands and feet to feel the skin, which felt rough like I was touching sandpaper. When the kids were poking the reef with the stick I thought it would react in a very aggressive way but that wasn’t the case, it was still calm until they start getting aggressive their self. I sacred cause that’s when the reef begun to start snapping at every movement that was making. It was getting too much for me to take especially since it was going out of control, so I left and have no clue as to what happen to the Reef Shark.
The most popular theory of dinosaur extinction, the asteroid theory, says that dinosaurs died out because of a single, giant asteroid. They say that the asteroid that struck the earth near the Gulf of Mexico went 43,000 mph and spanned six miles wide (Erdman). When it hit the Earth the asteroid it left an enormous crater that measured 24 miles deep and 125 miles wide (Erdman). Just the impact of the asteroid destroyed the forests and landscape of the majority of North America due to its massive shock wave (Erdman). Many species went extinct when the asteroid hit, these species include dinosaurs, ammonites (certain ocean dwelling creatures), pterosaurs, and some plant groups dinosaurs, ammonites (mollusks related to the octopus and the chambered nautilus), pterosaurs, and certain plant groups. Although devastating, the asteroid did not wipe out all of the animals on Earth, it didn’t exterminate fish, frogs, turtles, birds, mammals and croco...