Question

When did animals begin inhabiting land? What were they like?

a) Silurian period, early animals with exoskeletons
b) Jurassic period, large dinosaurs
c) Cambrian period, small invertebrates
d) Cretaceous period, marine reptiles

Answer 1

The colonization of land by animals began in the Devonian period, not the Cretaceous period. The Cretaceous was the peak of dinosaur diversity and size, which included the now-famous Tyrannosaurus Rex. Dinosaurs were not the first land dwellers, as amphibious creatures made that transition around 370 million years ago.

Step-by-step explanation:

Animals began inhabiting land well before the Cretaceous period, which was around 145-65 million years ago. The first land-dwelling vertebrates emerged from their aquatic habitats in the late Devonian period, around 370 million years ago. These early land animals were amphibians, which evolved from lobe-finned fish. The Cretaceous period, however, marked the peak of dinosaur size and distribution.

Dinosaurs, such as the massive Tyrannosaurus Rex, dominated land, while marine reptiles patrolled the oceans. It was not until after the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction that mammals began to take over niches left by the dinosaurs. During the Mesozoic Era, known as the "Age of Reptiles," dinosaurs evolved from earlier reptiles to fill ecological niches on land, in the water, and in the air, but they were not the first animals to inhabit land.