Earth's History on a 24-Hour Clock, Part 3: Out of the Water

For almost four billion years, the land was empty. Then plants crept out of the water, millipedes followed, fish grew legs, forests became coal, insects grew huge, the Great Dying nearly wiped out everything, and the dinosaurs rose to rule the planet. Until a rock about 10 km wide came for them. On our 24-hour clock of Earth's history, this episode runs from 21:10 to 23:39. Episode 3 of "From Dust to Us". Previous: Life Gets Complicated · Next: The Age of Mammals CHAPTERS 0:00 First steps 0:24 Back on the clock 0:43 Plants go first 1:21 The first land animals 1:45 Extinction #1 2:08 Jaws 2:36 Fish with legs 3:26 Forests 3:49 The coal forests 4:28 The egg 4:50 The Great Dying 5:43 Enter the dinosaurs 6:15 The age of giants 7:06 Next time SOURCES Earliest land plants (~470 Ma) and early plant–fungus partnerships (Rhynie chert, ~407 Ma) Pneumodesmus newmani, early air-breathing land animal (~425 Ma, Scotland) The "Big Five" mass extinctions: ~445, ~372, ~252, ~201 and 66 Ma Tiktaalik roseae (~375 Ma): Daeschler, Shubin & Jenkins, Nature (2006) Carboniferous oxygen levels and Meganeura Siberian Traps volcanism and the end-Permian extinction Archaeopteryx (~150 Ma); birds as living dinosaurs Early flowering plants (~130 Ma)