Of course, many deadends evolved, but a very selected few made it through the period to lay the genetic foundations for many modern phyla. Some of the creatures that we’ve found from this part of Earth’s history are so strange that you’d be forgiven for thinking they might be the work of some insane surrealist artist.

Marking the beginning of the Palaeozoic Era (542 to 250 million years ago), this is one of the most interesting and least understood periods in natural history. While many different body forms were put through the wringer during this time, the most successful modern phyla (such as the chordates, which include vertebrates) were actually rare at the time.

Investigadores de la Universidad de Tel Aviv han podido reconstruir la dieta de los humanos prehistóricos y han encontrado que fue la extinción de la megafauna en varias partes del mundo y la disminución de las fuentes de alimentos animales hacia el final de la edad de piedra lo que llevó a nuestros antepasados a aumentar gradualmente el consumo de vegetales hasta que finalmente no tuvieron más remedio que domesticar plantas y animales y convertirse en agricultores.