When Plants Ruled the World

The Late Great Carboniferous Era

“Giant dragon flies, millipedes, and plants. Oh my!” Thats right I’m speaking of the Carboniferous era where insects ruled and plants towered as high as skyscrapers. This era started about three-hundred-sixty million years ago and lasted for sixty million years, therefore ending at around three-hundred million years ago. Deadly bugs roamed the earth conquering anything in their path. Enormous dragonflies with wingspans of seventy cms flew throughout the world while two meter long millipedes crawled through the dense forests with their thirty pairs of legs. It all started when plants began adapting to earth’s hot climate and growing to exponential sizes such as ferns and oaks who grew up to a hundred feet in height. This gave off huge amounts of oxygen raising global levels to a staggering 35%, in comparison to todays mere 24%. These copious amount of oxygen led to the ability of creatures to adapt and grow into previously unknown sizes.

Reptiles also began to develop at this time. Descendants of amphibians, who began appearing around the devonian era. They were not huge but were adapting to the ever changing world. They had leathery skin and a thin covering for their eggs to keep them dry, which ended up killing many reptiles when the eggs dried out. Just like reptiles, sharks and bony fish began their debut taking the place of the late cladded fish, placoderms, who were victims of the devonian extinction.

Now you may be wondering, of where modern day oil and coal comes from. Well, you have the Carboniferous era to thank for your cars and your planes. During this time when the enormous trees fell, they fell into water which did not have enough bacteria to decompose it. Instead of being decomposed these trees turned into peat beds which layered on top of each other until eventually they turned into modern day coal. Sadly, all great things must end, including the great Carboniferous era. When climate changes at the poles decreased national temperature, a mass extinction took place killing a large percent of the earths creatures. Thus, effectively ending the late great Carboniferous era.

References:

Waggoner, B. M. (1996, July 2). The carboniferous era. Retrieved June 30, 2011,
           from http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/carboniferous/carboniferous.php

Evolution. (n.d.). Retrieved from Evolution Time Line website:
           http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/

Plants cover the earth, carboniferous era. (2005). Retrieved 2013, from
           http://www.fossils-facts-and-finds.com/carboniferous_period.html