abcnovels
Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Sorry the chapters a bit late, but please enjoy!
On that day, an enormous meteorite spanning ten kilometres in diameter, together with a sound that was like several hundred lightning bolts striking the earth, pierced the ground, forming a huge crater and sending up a correspondingly large amount of earth and sand into the atmosphere. The shock wave circled several laps around the Earth, blasting completely through the eardrums of the elves with their good hearing, causing them to faint.
Compared to the super huge meteorite collision that happened about 4.5 billion years ago that led to the creation of the moon, and the age in which meteorites fell like rain, it was like a mere toy, but even so it was enough to wipe out the dinosaurs.
The earth and sand that had been blown up hid the sun for several years, and the sharp decrease in sunlight ushered in the cold.
The plants withered, the forests and grasslands disappeared, and the herbivorous dinosaurs starved to death in a blink of an eye. The carnivorous dinosaurs that fed on the herbivorous dinosaurs died one after the other. The poikilothermic dinosaurs slowed down due to the chill, slowing their ability to escape to more adaptable environments and better lands.
Even the vegetation in the ocean went extinct, and together with it, the plankton, as well as the fish that fed on the plankton, and the dinosaurs that fed on the fish went extinct at a fervent rate, with several species dying out each day.
Whether it be in the ocean or on the land, the basic food chain crumbled, leading to devastating chain extinctions.
The dinosaurs that had flourished for over a hundred million years quickly perished over the course of but a few years.
Strictly speaking, it was likely that turtles and lizards, and organisms that would eventually diverge to evolve into birds managed to survive. While this very small portion of species still remained, it could be said that dinosaurs themselves had ceased to exist.
Vegetation also vanished. Only a few plants that could still grow with the cold climate and dimmed sunlight spread their leaves weakly and passed on the baton of life.
Having gone through several ages of destruction, as expected our Mt. Dragonends sect did not receive much of a shock from it.
Were already used to mass extinctions and sudden changes in the environment. Weve already done evacuation drills and disaster prevention practices, and weve prepared sufficient shelters to accommodate refugees.
After several tens of years, the atmosphere cleared up. After several hundreds of years the greenery returned. When several thousands of years passed and the number of animals started to increase, the rulers of the Earth were no longer dinosaurs.
At last the age of mammals had arrivedis what I had thought.
The rulers of Earth after the dinosaurs were not mammals, but birds.
From amongst the dinosaurs, the ones that possessed short builds and beaks managed to adapt and survive the cold climate by evolving soft scales that resembled down, and then they grew. Those then became birds, and they became the rules of Earth.
Da heck. I feel so embarrassed for saying after the dinosaurs will be the age of the mammals that it feels like my real face is gonna burn with shame (a volcanic eruption).
Because I dont remember all of Earths historical events. There are times whenMt. Dragonends is wrong too
It could be that history had changed. The effects of the five races activities could have led to the mammals that shouldve become humanitys ancestors to go and die, leading to the prominence of birds. Or it could be that I just didnt remember properly and that the mammalian age will come soon after the end of the bird agehmm.
Even if humans dont appear, I have five races that are sorta like humans, so I feel like it doesnt really matter if there isnt a Homo sapien-kun. But if they dont appear Ill feel like I did something terrible. I dont know.
When I speak of birds, it brings to mind the image of little birdies that chirp and caw, pecking at fruits and insects from my 21st century intuition. Or perhaps youd think of migratory birds that fly in the skies in formations, vividly coloured parrots or parakeets, or domesticated chickens.
However, the birds that did as they pleased on Earth about 500 years after the extinction of the dinosaurs werent such cute and mild birdies, but were huge, ferocious birds about the size of a tank.
They had a body that was like an ostrichs as a base, with the head changed to that of a shoebills, with a beak that was more fat, sturdy, and sharp. Their body easily exceeded 2 metres in length, and they attacked small animals by stabbing at them with their beaks and ripping them apart before consuming them. They also chased around medium-sized herbivorous birds that were smaller than them and tried to eat them at times. How powerful.
The only place that stood out in having a mammal possessing the greatest might was on the Eurasia continent, where there were no large-sized birds, and a hyena-like animal flourished. Their way of living was truly like that of a hyenas, as they were nocturnal, hunted in groups, and would snatch the spoils from other animals.
For the time being, the monkeys and squirrels that could be humankinds ancestors were mammals about the size of the palm of a hand and lived in trees. While they werent a particular powerhouse, several species laid waste to the elves orchards, and at least one of those species had been smoked out.
At any rate, enormous bird species ruled the land above, doing as they pleased to the point where I even thought that if things continued like this, it wouldnt be mammals, but birds that would end up evolving.
Though even if something did happen to make the birds decline, the mammal that would lead the mammalian rise to prominence wouldnt be monkeys, but those animals that resembled hyenas
Even as my heart fluttered in suspense, I would simply continue to watch over history like always.
Since I = Mt. Dragonends and have existed as such, while I did not know all of Earths history, I am certain that the general flow of things remains in my memory.
Thanks to the harpies flying all around the Earth making aerial sketches of the land, the movement of the continents was made apparent. Lately, it was becoming clear that the arrangement of the continents was approaching that nostalgic form from the human era that was in my memories.
Through the aerial paintings, it appears that I was located in the centre of Antartica.
In my previous life, there were no mountains exceeding an elevation of 10,000 metres on the Antarctic continent. I dont know what effect my existence will have on the environment. Though its a bit too late to say that, considering the presence of dwarves and harpies.
What ended the reign of the birds was climate change and the continental migration. The Eurasia continent, where the hyena-like mammals were, became connected to the other continents, leading to the influx of hyena-like mammals onto the other continents, and likewise, the enormous birds advancing onto the Eurasia continent.
And then, in a mere 5000 years, the enormous birds went extinct.
The hyena-like animals hunted them to extinction.
The large bird species possessed sharp and heavy, high powered beaks, and were four times the size of the hyena-like animals.
However, they did not form flocks.
The hyena-like animals formed packs of about 5~10 of them, and targeted the solitary large bird species, and pretty much one-sidedly hunted them down.
Lions in savannas hunted in packs and could take down animals that were far bigger than them, like zebras and water buffalos. [Numbers and cooperation] these elements overturned the difference in strength.
Like this, the reign of the mammals began.
The hyena-like animals reigned at the top of the food chain, and became huge. Their fangs that tore apart their prey especially developed. It was the entrance of the huge beast of prey that I also knew of, the sabre-toothed tiger.
As though the sabre-toothed tiger was leading them onwards, the other mammals also started to increase in size. Mammoths advanced in the cold, northern regions. Gigantic cave bears that would hibernate in caves during the winter.
The monkeys that were originally the size of a palm also grew in size, and eventually a portion of them started to descend onto the ground.
While the forest was vast, there were limits to the amount of sprouts, fruits, and edible leaves up in the trees. In order to avoid competition against the other animals that lived in the treetops, the monkeys descended to the ground in search of food.
Their desperate struggle for existence in the plentiful forest was broken as the monkeys were driven out onto the plains, forcing them to dig up roots or fish around for the leftovers from other animals for food. Thus, they evolved into omnivores. If they did not eat whatever they could, they would not have been able to survive.
The monkeys were weak. The plains were ruled by large carnivores, with the sabre-toothed tiger being at the top of that list. They ran around in escape and somehow managed to maintain their tribes. There were times when long spells of rain or droughts caused all of the tribes in a single area to die out.
The impetus to their jump in development was a truly small action.
As a matter of fact, sabre-toothed tigers and cave bears occasionally did walk on two legs. If they stood on their hind legs, theyd make themselves look bigger and could intimidate others by shuffling forward.
The monkeys on the plains also had this trait. When up against animals that were about the same size or smaller than them, theyd stand on their hind legs to intimidate them.
Intimidation gradually changed into vigilance. They did not stand up to intimidate enemies when they came, but would often stand up in order to quickly observe whether or not enemies were coming, and lifted their heads in order to be able to survey distant areas from a higher position.
When the dwarves rode the Dragosaurus in order to sightsee the rumored mammals recommended by Mt. Dragonends, the monkeys that had gained the peculiarity of standing on guard would run away in all directions like baby spiders.
This vigilant peculiarity was normalized, turned into a habit, then instinct, and then a natural disposition.
The monkeys on the African continent were the first to complete the evolution from quadrupedal to bipedal walking.
Once they became bipedal, within a few hundred thousand years their cranium rapidly grew in size. When standing on two legs, the head had to be supported vertically from below. Even if the head became bigger and heavier, as long as it was supported directly beneath it, itd be fine. Between trying to carry something heavy by extending your arms out horizontally or raising your hands above your head to carry it, it is easy to tell which is easy by trying it yourself.
When they became bipedal, their forelegs became arms. While they initially had been striking nuts with stones to obtain the edible flesh inside, they became even more skillful. Theyd throw stones at their enemies, and also utilized sharp fragments of stone to slice off hard bits of meat stuck on bone.
Carrying around sticks and stones that they found suitable for themselves, they lived in nests in caves or underneath large trees built with a complex combination of stones, sticks, and leaves.
They mourned when their fellows died, and would cover the corpse with a large leaf.
Eventually they started to cover it with dirt instead of leaves, and it transformed into a burial.
Monkeys did not suddenly become humans. Small changes accumulated, and monkeys slowly started to approach humans bit by bit.
Around the time when the placement of the Earths continents became that which I knew of, the monkeys were no longer monkeys, but humans.
At last, intellectual beings that were not from Mt. Dragonends had appeared on this Earth.