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Sharks are older than trees. They were swimming in the oceans more than 400 million years ago, before the first trees grew on land.

Paleontology

Science

The story behind the card

Possible shark scales date back about 450 million years, and the oldest undisputed shark fossils are more than 420 million years old. The earliest known trees, tall woody plants such as Archaeopteris, appeared only about 385 million years ago, in the Devonian period. Since then sharks have come through several mass extinctions, including the one at the end of the Permian period about 252 million years ago, which wiped out most species in the sea. Whole groups that evolved much later, among them the non-bird dinosaurs, appeared and vanished in the meantime.

Türkçe oku
Köpekbalıkları ağaçlardan daha eskidir. 400 milyon yılı aşkın süredir denizlerde yüzüyorlar; karada ilk ağaçlar boy verdiğinde çoktan oradaydılar.

Köpekbalığına ait olabilecek en eski pullar yaklaşık 450 milyon yıllıktır; tartışmasız en eski köpekbalığı fosilleri ise 420 milyon yıldan eskidir. Archaeopteris gibi uzun boylu, odunsu gövdeli ilk ağaçlar ancak yaklaşık 385 milyon yıl önce, Devoniyen döneminde ortaya çıktı. Köpekbalıkları o zamandan beri birçok kitlesel yok oluşu atlattı. Bunların en büyüğü, yaklaşık 252 milyon yıl önce Permiyen döneminin sonunda denizlerdeki türlerin çoğunu silip süpüren yok oluştu. Bu arada çok daha sonra evrimleşen koca canlı grupları, kuşlar dışındaki dinozorlar da dâhil, doğup yok oldu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Shark
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