HISTORY OF LIFE

1. The Origin of Life
   
2. Earth's Earliest Life
   
3. Sex and Nuclei: Eukaryotes
   
4. The Evolution of Animals
   
5. Life in a Changing World
   
6. Extinction
   
7. The Early Vertebrates
   
8. Leaving the Water
   
9. Amphibians and Reptiles
   
10. Reptiles and Thermoregulation
    
11. Triassic Takeover
    
12. Dinosaurs
    
13. Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs?
    
14. The Evolution of Flight
    
15. The Origin of Mammals
    
16. Marine Reptiles
    
17. Why Flowers are Beautiful
    
18. The End of the Dinosaurs
    
19. Cenozoic Mammals
    
20. Geography and Evolution
    
21. Primates
    
22. Evolving Toward Humans
    
23. The Ice Age
    
24. Humans and the Ice Age
    

Marine Reptiles

Turtles

• UC Berkeley's Introduction to the Turtles and Their Kin
• Overview of Anapsid Fossil Diversity
• Comparison of Anapsid Skulls
• The Oldest Known Anapsid Reptile: Acleistorhinus (ah-kles-toe-RYE-nuss) from the Oklahoma Lower Permian (270 Mya)
• An Example of an Early Anapsid Group Related to Turtles: Pareiasauria
• Other Anapsid Group Related to Turtles: Procolophonoids (PRO-col-oh-phon-oids)
• The Oldest Known Sea Turtle (110 Mya) from Brazil (Plus a Slide Show of Extinct Marine Reptiles!)
• University of Michigan's Species Accounts for Testudines (Turtles)
• Note that Cowen's "Phylogram" of Reptiles (p. 173) Places Turtles within Diapsida (= Sauria), Whereas Most Authorities Place Turtles as Sister Taxon of Diapsida (= Sauria)
• Cowen May Have Been Impressed by Recent, Still Controversial, Claims Based on Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Comparisons Supporting a Turtle-Archosaur Sister Taxon Relationship
• Seaworld's Overview of Sea Turtles
• The EuroTurtle Introduction to Sea Turtles
• Turtle Web Links
• Charles Darwin's Description of the Galapagos Tortoises
• California Turtle and Tortoise Club Website
  
  Featured Image at: Tree of Life Website

Featured Image at The Visible Alligator Skull

Crocodiles

• Crocodile Web Links
• Chris Bochu's Website on Crocodile Systematics
• Hear Crocodiles Talk
• Dan Varner's Painting of a Middle to Late Jurassic 'Fish-like' Crocodile Geosaurus Unrelated but Convergent to Ichthyosaurs

Ichthyosaurs

• Introduction to the Ichthyosaurs
• Some of the Best Preserved Ichthyosaurs are from the Saurian Expedition of 1905 to West Humboldt Range in Nevada
• The Jurassic Ichthyosaur Stenopterygius

Sauropterygians (Including Plesiosaurs)

• Oliver Rieppel's Home Page
• Kid's Guide to "Nothosaurs" and Plesiosaurs
• Year 1 of Digging Up a Plesiosaur in South Dakota and Year 2
• Good Overview of Plesiosaurs
• On Mosasaurs and Plesiosaurs
• "Plesiosaur Carcass" Netted in 1977 was More Likely a Basking Shark

Mosasaurs

• On Mosasaurs and Plesiosaurs
• Mosasaurs from New Mexico
• Excellent Cretaceous Marine Reptiles Page by Karen Carr and Mike Everhart
• Short Paleo-Fiction by Mike Everhart, One Day in the Life of a Mosasaur
• Mosasaur Skeletons Mounted at South Dakota School of Mines
• See How Large Various Mosasaurs Were at the Virtual Mosasaur Museum
• The Recent Book Ancient Marine Reptiles.

Air Breathers at Sea

• Prof. Cowen's Online Article on How Marine Reptiles Breathed