this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
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It always staggers me when I remember that for roughly sixty million years during the Carboniferous Period, there were trees but no microorganisms capable of decomposing them.
Just sixty million years of branches falling off and trees falling down and... just sitting there on the ground, not rotting at all.
Now consider wild fires during that period.
Fire hadn't been invented yet.
they said "wild fires"
just like wild horses, wild fires existed long before they were domesticated.
You just ruined the song.
Was the world turning though?
Not the song I mean, but thanks for the ear worm.
they must have been wild
Note that although species can be described as tree-like, they didn't quite look like modern trees do. Also, much of the world was swamp, and much of the dead plant material sank into these bogs and decayed into peat.
The amount of CO2 trapped during this period caused the atmosphere to be around 35% oxygen. This allowed life with inefficient respiratory systems to grow much bigger in size without suffocating, mainly insects. Think woodlice 6 feet long, spiders the size of dogs, millipedes as big as cars, and dragonflies as big as eagles.
No, I don't think I will
I LOVE the thought of a world-covering swamp with pseudo-trees and giant fucking bugs. Such a stimulating thought. I'd love to explore and see it.
Have you been to Florida, friend?
Nope, but I was in Australia. Not quite as swampy.
It was a lot more fun to believe that coal was crushed dinosaurs.
We have oil for that
Sus: bacteria predate trees by like... a lot. There may not be many fossils of them:-), but surely they would eat whatever they could.