Editing Prehistory (section)

==The Appeal of Prehistory==
In short, it's quite amazing what life-forms that we've discovered in the geological record. Dinosaurs may be the most famous, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. In  the last few decades our understanding of this time period has exploded and we've developed a remarkably complete picture of the history of life on earth. From the strange early animals of the Ediacaran and Cambrian to monster sea creatures to early tetrapods, swift land crocodiles and huge hairy beasts there is an amazing diversity of creatures to be inspired by. 

Similarly, having an understanding of life's history from simple replicators to Us is a useful asset in crafting the biology of your own world. The relationships between predators and prey, mass extinctions leading to a sudden contraction of biodiversity to be repopulated elsewhere and the pressures which lead simple tree shrews to develop big brains, dexterous hands, walk the earth and eventually tame it is a good tool if you want to design an alien race or biosphere which is both exotic and believable.

Another source of inspiration is that of speculative evolution. Imagine if the Asteroid that wiped out the Dinosaurs never happened, What would the Earth look like today? A wilder speculation would be about lost civilizations of Dinosaurs and similar in earth's geological past.