Background
359 Mya (million years ago) is often beyond people's knowledge of ancient Earth . The extent of most people's knowledge ends with dinosaurs. And why wouldn't it? Dinosaurs are incredibly interesting and unique creatures. However, dinosaurs are not the only interesting animals of prehistoric Earth. During the Carboniferous era bugs and reptiles ruled the land.
Temperature and Climate
During the start of the Carboniferous the average global temperature was 68 degrees Fahrenheit. For comparison today it is on average 57 degrees. Most of the planet was humid, there were no seasons, and most of the land was swamps. The most unique thing about this time period however was the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. During the late Carboniferous, oxygen made up 35% of the atmosphere, which is 15% greater than today.
Plant life
The plant life of this period were very similar to modern-day palm trees and ferns. Imagine a rain forest but instead of the trees that we see today it is packed full of fern-like trees and plants. Some close relatives of the plants from this time period are still around today as well (pictured below). The massive increase in plant life in this era lead to an excess of oxygen in the atmosphere. The thing is we still have trees today but less oxygen. Well the difference is decomposers. Today we have bacteria and other organisms that decompose trees which decreases the oxygen in the atmosphere. During the Carboniferous this niche was not yet filled.
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| Lycopodiales (club moss) |
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| Fern |
Arthropods
The animals that ruled these swamps were arthropods. Arthropods were HUGE compared to what they are today with many reaching over a foot in size. Considering the fact that the bugs today aren't terribly different from what they were during he Carboniferous is mind blowing to me. An example is the dragonfly relative known as the Meganeura, which was the size of present day pigeons. There is also Pulmonoscorpius which was a scorpion that reached 2 feet 4 inches. This Scorpion most likely relied on its venom to take down prey considering the size of its pincers. The biggest of them all however was the Arthopluera. This massive millipede reached 8.5 feet long and was 1.5 feet wide. Despite this crazy size however the millipede was actually a herbivore and had very few if any predators. It was made up of around 30 armored segments and is fairly similar to modern-day millipedes. How did bugs reach this size is what you may be asking yourself now. Well previously I mentioned how the oxygen levels in the atmosphere during this time period were greater. Due to way arthropods' breathe they could grow bigger. Arthropods breathe through spiracles which diffuse oxygen across the body. If the insect grew too big it would not be able to diffuse enough oxygen. But due to the increased oxygen the limit to their size was much harder to reach. A scientist by the name of John VandenBrooks wanted to see if this still applied today. He did a study on dragonflies in an oxygen enriched chamber to see if their size increased. Sure enough the dragonflies increased in size by 15%. This study is incredibly interesting to me because it shows a connection between the organisms that remained even after 300 Mya.
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| Respiration system of insects |
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| Arthopluera and other Arthropods from the era |
This time period is only 20 million years after Tiktaalik first walked on land. The majority of land animals were amphibians and had to go back to the water to lay their eggs. Reptiles however evolved an Amniote egg. As a result reptiles could move as far inland as they wanted and did not need to stay close to ponds, lakes, and rivers. This began a mass colonization and led to reptiles dominating the landscape. This adaptation was incredibly advantageous and prospered throughout natural history from dinosaurs to modern day birds and turtles.
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| Hylonomus (above) is what we recognize as the first sauropsid reptile |
Despite this era being over 300 MYA I still find myself captivated by what Earth was like. From the plant life to the animals I love them all and strive to know as much about them as I can. It saddens me to think that these organisms will never roam earth again but that doesn't mean they should be forgotten and I'll make sure that others can learn about them as well. I hope that this blog sated some of your curiosity or maybe even sparked some more interest.
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