• ANCIENT HISTORY  www.witiger.com/hobbies/history1.htm
• Druids, Vikings, Romans
• ARCHEOLOGY www.witiger.com/hobbies/history2.htm
• Egypt, Mesoamerica, Aztecs, Inca, Mayans, Toltecs
• PALEONTOLOGYwww.witiger.com/hobbies/history3.htm
• Pleistocene Megafauna, ie.
• cave bears,  www.witiger.com/hobbies/cavebear.htm
• mammoths
• wooly rhinos (Coelodonta antiquitatis)
• Saber tooth tiger (Smilodon)
• Giant Ground Sloth (Eremotherium laurillardi)
• giant birds and flying reptiles
• Neanderthal Man  www.witiger.com/hobbies/history3homonoids.htm
• ASTRONOMY www.witiger.com/hobbies/history4.htm
iridium

- Micropaleontology: Study of generally microscopic fossils, regardless of the group to which they belong.
- Paleobotany: Study of fossil plants; traditionally includes the study of fossil algae and fungi in addition to land plants.
- Palynology: Study of pollen and spores, both living and fossil, produced by land plants and protists.
- Invertebrate Paleontology: Study of invertebrate animal fossils, such as mollusks, echinoderms, and others.
- Vertebrate Paleontology: Study of vertebrate fossils, from primitive fishes to mammals.
- Human Paleontology (Paleoanthropology):The study of prehistoric human and proto-human fossils.
- Taphonomy: Study of the processes of decay, preservation, and the formation of fossils in general.
- Ichnology: Study of fossil tracks, trails, and footprints.
- Paleoecology: Study of the ecology and climate of the past, as revealed both by fossils and by other methods.

This page contains links A simple reference table to help yourt to use - table made by Tim , combining several other tables of Paleontologists
 

ERA	PERIOD	ONSET	features.
Paleozoic	Cambrian	600 mya	.
	Ordovician	500 mya	first jawless fishes, animal diversification
	Silurian	440 mya	first bony fishes, colonization of land
	Devonian	400 mya	first insects and amphibians, fish diversify
	Carboniferous	345 mya	extensive forests, first reptiles, insects radiate
	Permian	290 mya	continents aggregate into Pangaea, reptiles radiate, insects are diverse
Mesozoic	Triassic	245 mya	.
	Jurassic	195 mya	continents drifting, first birds, diverse dinosaurs
	Cretaceous	138 mya	most continents widely separated, flowering plants and mammals diversity, dinosaurs continue diversification
Cenozoic	Tertiary	Palaeocene  65 mya	.Mass extinction: dinosaurs,
		Eocene          55 mya	.
		Oligocene     34 mya	.
		Miocene       24 mya	.
		Pliocene       5 mya	.
	Quaternary	Pleistocene 1.8 mya repeated glaciations, humans evolve, extinctions of large mammals	The Pleistocene Epoch began about 1.6 million years ago and ended 10,000 years ago. It was characterised by a  series of ice ages - the last peaking about 18,000 years  ago. The large, extinct animals of this time are therefore  termed Pleistocene or Ice age mammals, although the term 'Megafauna' is also sometimes used
		Holocene     10,000 years ago	End of Ice Age

 http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Earth_Sciences/Paleontology/Prehistoric_Animals/Pleistocene_Megafauna/
under this heading in Yahoo are all kinds of interesting links about ancient large animals
 

Celtic animals	Animal symbolism in Celtic Mythology  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lars/rel375.html
Saber Tooth Tiger Smilodon Fatalis	Smilodon Fatalis  http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/ Earth_Sciences/Paleontology/Prehistoric_Animals/ Pleistocene_Megafauna/Saber_Toothed_Cats/ Smilodon lived from about 1.6 million years ago to about 11,000 years ago.  http://www.lam.mus.ca.us/cats/encyclo/smilodon/index.htm
see also  Cave Lion - Panthera Leo Spelea	."Skeletons indicate this animal could be almost twice the size of a modern African lion"  www.tigress.com/furry_lair/faq_bigcats.htm
Liger  - offspring of a Male Lion and tigress	"Ligers have a lion father and a tigress mother, and male ligers in particular seem  to tap a hidden heritage which makes them literally the biggest cat in the world: almost twice the size and weight of a full-grown lion. I've seen  photos of these incredible but very gentle creatures, which can weigh up to half a tonne and measure more than three metres from nose to tail. Perhaps something in the tigress's recessive genes allow the lion father's genes to express that long-dormant requirement of size. "  www.tigress.com/furry_lair/faq_bigcats.htm  www.sierrasafarizoo.com/animals/liger.htm Reno, Nevada
Tigon - Male Tiger and a lioness	http://www.lairweb.org.nz/tiger/tigons.html
	Cave Bear - Ursus Spelaeus lived between 400.000 - 100.000 years ago in Europe - shoulder height 3.5 m (11 feet) - about 30% bigger than the grizzly bear of North America. - became extinct in the Würm Ice Age, about 10.000 years ago.   www.showcaves.com/english/explain/Index/Bear.html "In one Austrian cave, called Drachenhöhle ( = Dragon Cave), the remains of more than 30,000 cave bears indicate repeated use of the cave"  www.pma.edmonton.ab.ca/events/timetrav/v/_cavebr.htm "The longest war ever fought by humans was .. against another species - the Cave Bear. For several hundred thousand years our stone age ancestors fought pitched and bloody battles  with these denizens of the most precious commodity on earth -- habitable caves.  Without these shelters homo sapiens would have had little chance of surviving the   Ice Ages, the winter storms, and the myriad of predators that lurked in the dark. " www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/cavebears/
Nemoylodon listai, or "Lista's new Mylodon." a type of Megatherium	In the 1890's an Argentinean explorer, geographer and adventurer, Ramon Lista, was hunting in a portion of his country known as Patagonia when a large, unknown creature covered with long hair, trotted past the party. To Lista the creature looked like a gigantic armadillo. The party shot at  the beast, but the bullets seemed to have no effect.http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/sloth.htm
	Giant Ground Sloth (Megatherium americanum) also Eremotherium laurillardi These plant-eating creatures rivaled elephants in size! They stood 6 m (20 ft) tall and weighed several tons. Ground sloths originated in South America and spread northward by drifting on trees and debris to the West Indies and by migrating over the Central American land bridge to North America. http://www.mnh.si.edu/museum/VirtualTour/Tour/First/IceAge/ice1.html
	Woolly Rhinos  Coelodonta antiquitatis and Elasmotherium sibiricum  http://www.prehistory.com/coelo.htm about 11 feet (3.5 metres) long - 6 feet at the shoulder - unlike the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros did not migrate across the Bering Strait into North America  www.priweb.org/ed/ICTHOL/ICTHOL02_peer_review_papers/42.html , woolly rhinos became extinct -  10,000 years ago,  toward the end of the last Ice Age  http://illustrissimus.virtualave.net/19rhino.html -  woolly rhinoceros can be seen in the cave paintings of early humans "Coelodonta antiquitatis, the only recognized species, first appeared during the Riss glaciation, about  430,000 years ago, and nearly survived to modernity in northern Eurasia. " - other species of woolly rhino  was the gigantic, elephant-sized, Elasmotherium, - specimens are extremely rare.  Coelodonta antiquitatis - two horns - size of modern rhino Elasmotherium - one horn - size of an elephant
Indricotheres	"Indricotheres were the largest land mammals ever to live"  http://www.paleontology.esmartstudent.com/mammals.html weighed about 15 tonnes, and were 4.5 metres tall. - related to the Rhinoceros
Giant Cheetah Acinonyx Pardinensis (modern cheetah - Acinonyx Jubatus)	.
Megafauna	Megafauna and the attenuated gravity of the antique system. An essay suggesting reasons why prehistoric mammals and dinosaurs were so huge, and modern animals are smaller. Extremely interesting - though difficult to believe.  http://www.bearfabrique.org/sauropods/biganims.html

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.	Pterosaurs took to the air about 225 million years ago, preceding birds and bats.They were proficient fliers and as a group existed for about 140 million years.   www.nurseminerva.co.uk/adapt/pterosau.htm
	Flying reptiles which lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. - the biggest, Quetzalcoatlus Northropi An azhdarchid pterosaur, it is the largest and last known pterosaur which survived to the end of the Cretaceous. With a wing span of 11-12 m (36-39 ft), it was the size of a modern, light, single engine plane. Its estimated weight was probably 170 - 190 lbs  www.tyrrellmuseum.com/tour/quetzalcoatlus.html
.	Giant birds The South American teratoron ( Argentavis magnificens),  which existed 6-8 million years ago, had an estimated wingspan of 25 feet.(some sites say it was only 20 feet) //www.grisda.org/origins/07087.htm Osteodotornis Orri, the gigantic marine bird from the Miocene of California.(smaller than A Magnificens)  http://sped2work.tripod.com/evidence.html

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 http://www.genesispark.com/genpark/earthdis/earthdis.htm
 

This is a link to a page featuring the Nepal mountain called Machhapuchhare. It is rather famous for many credible Yeti sightings, and, coincidentally, is the only mountain the Nepalese government will not allow foreigners access to - citing religious reasons. Check out the novel Esau by Philip Kerr.  http://www.nfm.com.au/himalaya/machha.htm

 
 
 
 

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