Prehistory
First Land Plants: How Plants Colonised the Land
Plants evolved from freshwater green algae, colonised the land and began to create soils, alter the atmosphere and form the basis of land ecosystems.
Region
Worldwide
Prehistory
Eurypterids: The Giant Sea Scorpions of the Paleozoic Era
Eurypterids flourished for more than 200 million years, produced the largest known arthropods, and died out in the end-Permian extinction.
Prehistory
Late Ordovician Mass Extinction: The First of the Big Five
An estimated 85% of marine species died out in two pulses, but the main Paleozoic groups survived and recovered in the Silurian.
Prehistory
Late Devonian Extinction: The Kellwasser and Hangenberg Events
Roughly three-quarters of marine species disappeared in several pulses; the great Devonian reef systems collapsed and the armoured placoderm fishes died out.
Prehistory
Carboniferous Coal Forests: How the World's Coal Was Formed
Buried peat from swamp forests turned into thick coal seams that later fuelled the Industrial Revolution.
Prehistory
Pangaea: The Supercontinent That United All of Earth's Land
All major continents were joined for over 100 million years before rifting apart in the Jurassic to form the Atlantic Ocean and today's continents.
Prehistory
Glossopteris: The Fossil Plant That Helped Reveal Gondwana
Glossopteris fossils on all the southern continents became one of the strongest early arguments that they had once formed a single landmass.
Prehistory
Helicoprion: The Permian Fish With a Spiral Buzzsaw Tooth Whorl
CT scans in 2013 showed the tooth whorl sat inside the lower jaw and that Helicoprion was related to ratfishes rather than true sharks.
Prehistory
Permian-Triassic Extinction: Earth's Worst Mass Extinction
An estimated 80 to 90 percent or more of marine species and around two-thirds or more of land vertebrate species died out, ending the Paleozoic Era and reshaping life for the Mesozoic.
Prehistory
Triassic-Jurassic Extinction: Volcanism and the Rise of Dinosaurs
Roughly three-quarters of marine species and many land reptile groups died out, leaving dinosaurs as the dominant large land animals of the Jurassic.
Prehistory
Breakup of Pangaea: How the Atlantic Ocean Was Born
Pangaea split into the northern landmass Laurasia and the southern landmass Gondwana, the Central Atlantic Ocean opened, and the continents began moving towards their modern positions.
Prehistory
Chicxulub Asteroid Impact: How the Dinosaurs Were Wiped Out
A global mass extinction wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs and around three-quarters of plant and animal species, ending the Cretaceous Period.