Virtual Biological Eco System
Welcome to the Triassic 230 mya
This eco system is a virtual Triassic terrain dotted with vegetable food points that replenish themselves every minute or so. These provide food for the herbivore creatures which in turn provide food for the carnivorous creatures. Spawn creatures where ever you like on the terrain and observe their behaviour. A record of your spawned creatures and how long they live for is stored in the 'Stats table'.
Launch ApplicationControls
Spawn Creature : Ctrl Left
Settings Panel : Ctrl Right
Movement : ADWS / Cursor Keys
Look : Mouse
Jump : Space
Change Camera : Z
Stats Table Toggle : X
Joystick controls are available on some browsers aswell as onscreen buttons.
The Fauna
There are 2 types of fauna in this application.
Desmatosuchus
This was a an early form of crocodilian. It had blunt slightly curved teeth and a boney shovel like snout suggesting that it fed mainly on shrubs and vegetation by uprooting them with its snout. Desmatosuchus had heavy armour on its back with formidable spikes to protect it from predators. Fossils have been found in the Tecovas formation in modern day Texas.
Herrerasaurus
This was a kind of Therapod and one of the earliest dinosaurs. Fossils were found in the Ischigualasto Formation in Argentina. Its teeth suggest it was carnivorous and from its skeletal structure was probably quite a swift runner. Although Herrerasaurus shared the body shape of large carnivorous dinosaurs, it lived during a time when dinosaurs were small and insignificant. It was the time of non-dinosaurian reptiles, not dinosaurs, and a major turning point in the Earth ecology
The Flora
There are 4 types of plant featured in this environment that were thought to exist in the Triassic period of Earths history according to the fossil record.
Dicroidium
Didcroidium was an early seed fern. Like modern seed ferns the forked leaves were thick and had substantial cuticals. Distributed over Gondwana during the Triassic. Fossils have been found in Antartica, South America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Leptocycas
A Cycad palm like tree with a long woody trunk that lived in warm climates. It is a gymnosperm (naked seed) with long divided leaves and produced large seed cones.
Araucarioxylon
A conifer, one of the Oldest types of tree found on the planet Earth. It is a 'Gymnospern' which means naked seed. Massive petrified specimins have been found in the Chinle Formation in northern Arizona and the Chemnitz petrified forest in Germany where specimins were believed to grow to as high as 60 metres.
Equisetopsida (Horsetails)
These are primitive vascular plants that grow low to the terrain and are thought to have been grazed upon extensively by herbivores. Some members of this group of horsetails have been traced back as far as 416 to 359 mya.