(Translate this site) Search this site Search the bookstore One minute site tour

Dinosaurs, Dragons, Loch Ness, and Reptile People; Where does fact end and fiction begin? By around 110 million BC the first portions of the Kerguelen island continent had appeared. Large sections of the island continent would remain dry land for millions of years, after which they would all eventually submerge to become one with the sea floor again (with the last disappearing from the surface around 20 million BC). This article lists some developments possibly relevant to the Kerguelen island continent, and certain higher lifeforms which may have arisen or taken refuge there. Sponsor this page This page last updated on or about 6-10-07 a - j m o o n e y h a m . c o m - o r i g i n a l

Site map Latest site updates Site web log(s) Site author

BACK to the timeline: A lost civilization on the Kerguelen continent, circa 21 million BC?

Millions of years of fierce competition between the smart Antarctic reptile predators and their pseudo-primate prey boosted the intelligence and physical capacities of both. Subsequent migration to the Kerguelen island(s) continent as Antarctica iced over also accelerated evolution of the species, though perhaps the pseudo-primates more so than the reptiles, as the repeated intervening aquatic environment/stage(s) were more alien to the pseudo-primates, and required more adaptation on their part. Once commited to Kerguelen, both the reptiles and pseudo-primates found themselves pressed even harder in evolutionary terms, as Kerguelen was subject to relatively frequent wholesale cataclysms: vast land sweeping tsunamis stemming from underwater landslides and faraway volcanic eruptions and cosmic impacts in the oceans, with the worst occuring on average every 3,000 to 320,000 years or so, and somewhat less damaging events happening every 100,000 years. Added to this was occasional disasterous volcanic activity in Kerguelen itself, as well as ongoing climate changes. All this would combine to drive all large animal life extinct on Kerguelen, or else mercilessly push its evolution to heights 20th century man will never suspect.

Dinosaurs, Dragons, Loch Ness, and Reptile People Table of Contents

The Premise

Sometime between 295,000,000 BC and 250,000,000 BC: A foot long lizard which lives in Europe, Asia, and North America is running upright, on two legs, like a human being; it may be the fastest animal alive today

Sometime between 250,000,000 BC and 245,000,000 BC the Permian mass extinction apparently does away with 77-96% of all animal species on Earth...

Approximately 220,000,000 BC: Longisquama, a small bird-like reptile with feathers, is gliding between trees today like the flying squirrels of the 20th century will later

Approximately 213,000,000 BC- 144,000,000 BC: High sea levels of this time claim and destroy most potential fossil-producing remains. This will make the animal life of this period (including mammals) very difficult for later 21st century human scientists to reconstruct or understand

Approximately 193,000,000 BC- 136,000,000 BC: The Jurassic Period: The reptile order Squamata makes its debut

Approximately 165,000,000 BC: The mammals of Earth's southern hemisphere may be 25 million years ahead of their northern counterparts now

Approximately 150,000,000 BC- 50,000,000 BC: Gondwanaland splinters into all the southern continents of Earth, including the southernmost Antarctica

Approximately 110,000,000 BC: The first portions of what will be a long-lived island continent on Earth (in piece meal fashion) over millions of years to come is created in the southern hemisphere by immense, climate-changing volcanic eruptions

Approximately 100,000,000 BC: There seem to be bipedal dinosaur predators in South America now which will remain undiscovered and unknown to early 21st century human science

Approximately 96,000,000 BC: Australia and Antarctica split apart

Approximately 95,000,000 BC- 85,000,000 BC: Much of the original southernmost portions of the Kerguelen island continent have sunk by now, while entirely new regions are now arising north of them, to create what will ultimately be the center of the island continent's mass

Approximately 90,000,000 BC: It appears portions of the Kerguelen island continent are definitely dry land at this time

Approximately 80,000,000 BC- 75,000,000 BC: Antarctica may be sufficiently close or connected to South America to allow dinosaur migrations between the continents

Approximately 76,000,000 BC: Australia and New Zealand split apart

Approximately 70,000,000 BC- 45,000,000 BC: Antarctica begins the period somewhat dry, but gradually becomes warmer and wetter; similar conditions or better may encompass Kerguelen

Approximately 66,500,000 BC- 20,000,000 BC: Kerguelen boasts forests similar to those which will be seen in circa 2000 AD South America

Approximately 65,000,000 BC: The Cretaceous mass extinction comes about, famous later for the decimation of the dinosaurs, but more importantly responsible for the end of about 76% of all life on Earth

Approximately 55,500,000 BC: Huge amounts of methane are added to the atmosphere, setting off a period of extensive global warming

Approximately 50,000,000 BC: Antarctica is moving into the south polar position with which 20th century humanity will be familiar; Kerguelen must needs follow on its heels; Small dinosaurs may still roam Kerguelen

Approximately 45,000,000 BC: Some of the earliest emerging non-Kerguelen primates (predecessors to humanity) are astonishingly tiny creatures

Approximately 40,000,000 BC: New Zealand begins growing in land area again, due to volcanism and plate tectonics

Approximately 40,000,000 BC: Glaciers may be gradually covering Antarctica's Lake Vostok now

Approximately 35,000,000 BC: The northern part of the Kerguelen continent is created via volcanic eruption

Approximately 34,000,000 BC+: Primitives of two separate but advanced pseudo-primate species exist in Antarctica. They have evolved over 11 million years independently of the earlier Asian proto-primates

Approximately 34,000,000 BC- 33,000,000 BC: Antarctica's massive ice sheets begin to form

Approximately 33,000,000 BC- 28,000,000 BC: The reptile progenitors and provocatuers of Kerguelen change the course of evolution on the continent

Approximately 28,000,000 BC- 21,000,000 BC: An advanced symbiont civilization arises on Kerguelen

Approximately 25,000,000 BC: Massive volcanic eruptions may be occuring in the region of Antarctica's Ross Sea-- perhaps even affecting global climate; Kerguelen climate is surely changed somewhat by the event

Approximately 25,500,000 BC - 20,000,000 BC: Milankovitch cycles in Earth's orbit help bring about worldwide climatic fluctuations during this period

Approximately 23,000,000 BC: For roughly 200,000 years now the entire Earth experiences a 'toning down' of its seasons; extremes of heat and cold are reduced worldwide

Approximately 22,000,000 BC: A veritable explosion in the numbers of primitive ape species inhabiting Earth takes place

Approximately 20,000,000 BC: The last remnants of the Kerguelen island continent in the southern Indian Ocean slowly sinks to the bottom of the sea

Approximately 15,000,000 BC: Suddenly most competing ape lines go extinct, leaving only a handful of survivors

Approximately 14,000,000 BC: Antarctica enjoys a warm, ice-free period?

Approximately 13,000,000 BC: A 'mini-extinction' event may be afflicting life on Earth

Approximately 2,300,000 BC: A Stone Age "tool factory" is in operation in Kenya, and a possible 0.5+ km asteroid impact in the deep southeast Pacific Ocean may increase atmospheric water vapor sufficiently to eventually bring about the next Ice Age

Approximately 2,000,000 BC- 6000 BC: The Pleistocene Epoch, or Ice Age runs its course

Approximately 18,000 BC- 12,000 BC: Earth is bombarded five times by heavier than usual cosmic dust concentrations from space

Approximately 8,000 BC+: Total world population may be somewhere between 5 and 10 million; Humanity is driving many large animal species to extinction

Approximately 6,000 BC - 1 AD: Sometime during this period the Earth, along with the rest of the Solar System, enters a vast cloud of interstellar gas

Approximately 4,000 BC: The Egyptians and certain other human cultures fear and loathe gecko lizards

1997 AD: Mysterious sounds from an unknown giant beast are detected in the ocean depths

1999 AD: Humanity is realizing that the undersea Kerguelen plateau was once a dryland continent....while they are also nearing the levels of wealth and technology necessary to explore the undersea mass...

2000 AD: The status of Kerguelen

2000 AD: By now humanity has explored something less than 2% of the deep oceans-- and less than 10% of the oceans overall

1900 AD through the present: Isolated encounters with large unidentified reptile species worldwide continue

CLICK HERE to delve deeper into Dinosaurs, dragons, and more...