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In Doctor Who Series 5 Episode 8, "The Hungry Earth", the Doctor says that the Silurians are ancient inhabitants of Earth, not aliens:

DOCTOR: They're not aliens. They're Earth-liens. Once known as the Silurian race, or, some would argue, Eocenes, or Homo Reptilia. Not monsters, not evil. Well, only as evil as you are. The previous owners of the planet, that's all. Look, from their point of view, you're the invaders.

But in Series 7 Episode 2, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", he sends Amy and Rory a postcard from 'Siluria':

postcard

But if the Silurians are from Earth, then what and where is Siluria?

Are they really originally from Earth, or did they come from this Siluria and just colonise Earth before humans came along?

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    They are from Earth. They went underground when an asteroid nearly hit and then there wake up equipment failed giving humans time to colonise. I believe Silurian is unconnected. The nameSilurian is from the (incorrect) view that they were from the Silurian period. I think they are actually from the Eocene.
    – Bellerophon
    Oct 27, 2016 at 18:14
  • Right, that's what it says in The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood. But then where's Siluria?
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Oct 27, 2016 at 18:14
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    Siluria is a time period, not a place. Think Cretaceous.
    – Valorum
    Oct 27, 2016 at 18:15
  • It is the time period that the Brigadier thought the Silurians came from when he named them. It is mentioned in The Sea Devils.
    – Bellerophon
    Oct 27, 2016 at 18:17
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    It could also be that they've retconned "Siluria" to be the name the Silurians used for the Earth in their time, which judging from the Ankylosaurus and Triceratops in that picture would be during the Cretaceous period (not sure what dino the predator is meant to be, it has 3 fingers so not a T. rex). Or the Doctor could have just put that sign up, or the TARDIS could have translated whatever actual name Silurians give to the planet in their own language as "Siluria", because that was the name Earthlings had given to their species (and the name Amy and Rory knew from Hungry Earth/Cold Blood).
    – Hypnosifl
    Oct 27, 2016 at 20:01

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But if the Silurians are from Earth, then what and where is Siluria?

The Silurians are indeed from Earth. They evolved here in the same way humans did, just 200 million years earlier. With the changing of environmental conditions on the surface, many hid away below ground, while others left the planet.

In Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, the spaceship in question is a Silurian vessel that left earth and took some of the wildlife with it, in order to safeguard against extinction. Unfortunately the ship was hijacked while the Silurians were hibernating, and the Silurians themselves ejected.

After defeating the bad guy, the Doctor takes the ship to a remote uninhabited planet, which he chooses to name "Siluria". He deposits the dinosaurs there, and leaves evolution to take its course.

From the Tardis Data Core:

Siluria was a planet chosen by the Eleventh Doctor for the dinosaurs on the Silurian Ark to live on, after saving them from crashing to Earth in 2367. Brian Williams visited Siluria and sent back a postcard to Rory and Amy.

TL;DR: The Silurians evolved on earth. Some of them took dinos into space to avoid extinction. The spaceship was hijacked, Silurians killed. The Doctor save the remaining animals and took them to a new planet.

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