18. Fish

Meanwhile,

A new, bigger revolution was brewing.

Under the tempestuous ocean

The little squirts were evolving too.

They evolved fins and tails

Eventually eyes.

They became fish.

But they needed something new.

Something more.

They looked to their designers for something.

They set to work.

They looked at themselves

Found that something was missing.

They took their gills and modified them.

Then they filled them with teeth

The jaw was invented.

With their jaws

They moved up the natural ladder.

They were no longer the slow bottom feeders

Sucking things up from the mud.

They could go out and take charge of their destiny.

They were hydro-dynamically sound

Sports cars of the marine world.

Instead of shells and exoskeletons,

Which would only hold them back,

They had bones and armor.

Fish dominated in the Devonian and Silurian.

Fighting their way like soldiers

Moving up the ranks to become top predators.

Dunkleosteus

The terror of the deep.

The first Jaws

The Tyrannosaurus of the fish world.

Terrorized the sharks.

He became too powerful for his own good.

He would never lead the new invasion,

But he helped the real invaders,

Chased by the likes of Dunkleosteus

The lobe-fins needed a new place to live.

They were tired of being terrorized by the bigger fish.

So they planned to take the land