Had a volcano-driven mass extinction not occurred at the end of the Triassic 201 million years ago, we likely would have had something closer to an Age of Crocodiles than the Age of Dinosaurs that actually followed. Dinosaurs were volutionary copycats of these long-lost look-alikes.
Earliest Triassic Ichthyosaur Fossils Unearthed on Spitsbergen
500,000-Year-Old Signs of Extinct Human Species Found in Poland Cave