Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 60
Urantia DURING THE EARLY LAND-LIFE ERA
1. 150,000,000 years ago the early land‑life periods of the world's history began... Great troughs developed in North America, paralleling the Atlantic and Pacific coasts...Many of these North American troughs were later filled with erosion deposits…Later on, these filled land. depressions were greatly elevated by lava flows which occurred underground. The petrified forests of many regions belong to this epoch.
2. 140,000,000 years ago, suddenly and with only the hint of the two prereptilian ancestors that developed in Africa during the preceding epoch, the reptiles appeared in full‑fledged form. They developed rapidly, soon yielding crocodiles, scaled reptiles, and eventually both sea serpents and flying reptiles. Their transition ancestors speedily disappeared.
3. These rapidly evolving reptilian dinosaurs soon became the monarchs of this age. They were egg layers and are distinguished from all animals by their small brains, having brains weighing less than one pound to control bodies later weighing as much as forty tons. But earlier reptiles were smaller, carnivorous, and walked kangaroolike on their hind legs.
4. Several million years later the first mammals appeared. They were non‑placental and proved a speedy failure; none survived. This was an experimental effort to improve mammalian types, but it did not succeed on Urantia.
5. 130,000,000 years ago the seas had changed very little. Siberia and. North America were connected by the Bering Strait land bridge ...The life changes of this period were indeed. revolutionary notwithstanding that they were transitional and gradual. This period extended over twenty‑five million years and is known as the Triassic.
6. 120,000,000 years ago a new phase of the reptilian age began. The great event of this period was the evolution and decline of the dinosaurs ...The dinosaurs evolved in all sizes from a species less than two feet long up to the huge noncarnivorous dinosaurs, seventy‑five feet long, that have never since been equaled in bulk by any living creature.
7. 110,000,000 years ago the potentials of marine life were continuing to unfold. The sea urchin was one of the outstanding mutations of this epoch...Marked changes occurred in the fish family, a sturgeon type first appearing.
8. This continues to be, pre‑eminently, the age of the dinosaurs. They so overran the land that two species had taken to the water for sustenance during the preceding period of sea encroachment. These sea serpents represent a backward step in evolution. While some new species are progressing, certain strains remain stationary and others gravitate backward, reverting to a former state…two other types were driven to the air by the bitter competition of life on land. But these flying pterosaurs were not the ancestors of the true birds of subsequent ages...They represent the nonsurviving strains of bird ancestry.
9. One hundred million years ago the reptilian age was drawing to a close. The dinosaurs, for all their enormous mass, were all but brainless animals, lacking the intelligence to provide sufficient food to nourish such enormous bodies ... Henceforth, evolution will follow the growth of brains, not physical bulk, and the development of brains will characterize each succeeding epoch of animal evolution and planetary progress. This period ...is known as the Jurassic.
10. The great Cretaceous period derives its name from the predominance of the prolific chalk‑making foraminifers in the seas. This period brings Urantia to near the end of the long reptilian dominance and witnesses the appearance of flowering plants and bird life on land.. These are also the times of the termination of the westward and. southward drift of the continents, accompanied by tremendous crustal deformations and. concomitant widespread lava flows and great volcanic activities.
11. Near the close of the preceding geologic period much of the continental land was up above water, although as yet there were no mountain peaks. But as the continental land drift continued, it met with the first great obstruction on the deep floor of the Pacific. This contention of geologic forces gave impetus to the formation of the whole vast north and. south mountain range extending from Alaska down through Mexico to Cape Horn. This period thus becomes the modern mountain‑building stage of geologic history... 95,000,000 years ago the American and European land masses again began to sink... When this sea finally withdrew, it left the continent about as it now is.
12. 90,000,000 years ago the angiosperms emerged from these early Cretaceous seas and soon overran the continents. These land plants suddenly appeared along with fig trees, magnolias, and tulip trees. Soon after this time fig trees, breadfruit trees, and palms overspread Europe and the western plains of North America.
13. 75,000,000 years ago marks the end. of the continental drift. From Alaska to Cape Horn the long Pacific coast mountain ranges were completed, but there were as yet few peaks. The backthrust of the halted continental drift continued the elevation of the western plains of North America, while in the east the worn‑down Appalachian Mountains of the Atlantic coast region were projected straight up with little or no tilting.
14. 70,000,000 years ago the crustal distortions connected with the maximum elevation of the Rocky Mountain region took place. A large segment of rock was overthrust fifteen miles at the surface in British Columbia...On the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, near the Canadian border, there was another spectacular overthrust.
15. 65,000,000 years ago there occurred one of the greatest lava flows of all time. The deposition layers of these and. preceding lava flows are to be found all over the Americas, North and South Africa, Australia, and parts of Europe...North America was the great field of the land‑animal evolution of these times, most of Europe being under water.
16. Great plant‑life evolution was taking place. Among the land plants the angiosperms predominated, and many present‑day trees first appeared, including beech, birch, oak, walnut, sycamore, maple, and. modern palms. Fruits, grasses, and cereals were abundant ...Suddenly and without previous gradation, the great family of flowering plants mutated. And this new flora soon overspread the entire world.
17. 60,000,000 years ago, though the land reptiles were on the decline, the dinosaurs continued as monarchs of the land, the lead now being taken by the more agile and active types of the smaller leaping kangaroo varieties of the carnivorous dinosaurs... The land type of turtle, twenty feet across, appeared as did also the modern crocodile and true snakes of the modern type. Great changes were also occurring among the fishes and other forms of marine life.
18. 55,000,000 years ago the evolutionary march was marked by the sudden appearance of the first of the true birds, a small pigeonlike creature which was the ancestor of all bird life. This was the third type of flying creature to appear on earth...And so this becomes known as the age of birds as well as the declining age of reptiles.
19. The great Cretaceous period was drawing to a close, and its termination marks the end of the great sea invasions of the continents. Particularly is this true of North America, where there had been just twenty‑four great inundations...These alternate periods of land and sea dominance have occurred in million‑year cycles ...And these some rhythmical crustal. movements will continue from this time on throughout the earth's history but with diminishing frequency and extent.
20. The chief and underlying factor in determining the location of a mountain range is the pre‑existent lowland, or trough, which has become filled up with the comparatively lighter deposits of the land erosion ...when the crust is subjected to pressure from any cause, these lighter areas are the first to crumple up, fold, and rise upward.
21. The oldest mountains of the world are located in Asia, Greenland., and northern Europe among those of the older east‑west systems. The mid‑age mountains are in the circumpacific group and in the second European east‑west system ...The youngest mountains are in the Rocky Mountain system ...The present North American Rocky Mountain region is not the original elevation of land; that elevation had been long since leveled by erosion and then re‑elevated. The present front range of mountains is what is left of the remains of the original range which was re‑elevated.
22. Biologically as well as geologically this was an eventful and active age on land and under water ...On land the fern forests were largely replaced by pine and other modern trees, including the gigantic redwoods ...This, the Cretaceous age, covers fifty million years and brings to a close the premammalian era of land life, which extends over a period of one hundred million years and is known as the Mesozoic.
Discussion Questions
1. Was there a purpose for the dinosaur age or was it simply random life development?
2. What might be the reason that some animals regressed, some were stationary, and others progressed in evolutionary development?
3. If we were thoroughly familiar with the scientific knowledge of our early land-life era, do you think we would have more positive insights related to the Life Carrier descriptions or more disagreements?
4. What might have been the cause of the failure of the flying dinosaurs and the sudden appearance of true birds?
5. How will the knowledge of the continual rhythmical crustal movements of the earth help future generations make adjustments?
6. Will this description of the early land-life era result in a more in-depth study of geology in the future?
7. How will knowledge of the early geological and biological development of our world help our spiritual development?
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