From the Cambrian Explosion to the Great Dying

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Published 2018-02-20
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The first era of our current eon, the Paleozoic Era, is probably the most deceptively fascinating time in Earth’s history. With near-constant revolutions in life, punctuated by catastrophic extinctions, it is also one of the most chaotic.

Correction! At 9:19, we erroneously refer to Dimetrodon as an herbivore. It was definitely a carnivore. We even made a whole video about Dimetrodon and their carnivorous ways in a previous episode:    • Dimetrodon: Our Most Unlikely Ancestor   Thanks to everyone who pointed out our error!

Thanks to Studio 252mya for their illustrations. You can find more of their work here: 252mya.com/licensing

Produced for PBS Digital Studios.

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All Comments (21)
  • @eons
    Correction! At 9:19, we erroneously refer to Dimetrodon as an herbivore. It was definitely a carnivore. We even made a whole video about Dimetrodon and their carnivorous ways in a previous episode: https://youtu.be/SR3OOP9mImI Thanks to everyone who pointed out our error!
  • @johnbiever4204
    You know a mass extinction is gonna be especially bad when it’s called “The Great Dying.”
  • @koopakape
    "This Dude" is without a doubt my favorite ancient animal
  • Imagine being 360,000,000 years old and eventually referred to as, "this dude in Russia". ;-P
  • @unclvinny
    I’d like to sign up for that “eat whatever drifts past you” lifestyle, please.
  • @SaltySteff
    "It was the closest life came to just...failing" idk why but that gave me chills
  • @Qlipphoth
    "Carnivorous sea scorpions" that sounds so metal.
  • @davidhand9721
    Ordovician is my favorite. Everything was a prototype, an experiment in features. Features were tried that never appeared again and the body plans that still appear today were devised. Super cool!
  • @psyko2666
    it's the C A M B R I A N E X P L O S I O N
  • @lethallizard963
    Fun fact, the word Cambrian is the latinised form of Cymru, which is the Welsh word for Wales, where the Cambrian rocks are best exposed in the UK (and where I live :D)
  • Moral of the story: Plants have caused extinction more than humans could dare dream about
  • Evolution is easily my favorite topic in science. I love it. So interesting. Easy to understand yet so intricate and beautiful. Amazing.
  • Man the Great Dying was a time when the devs nerfed almost everything. Heck some builds were downright removed from the game. Just to appear as easter eggs in the later expansions. They also tease us with -gorgonopsids added -gorgonopsids removed in the patch notes. They do this every update with a strong build that was previously removed like come on! Last time it was -tyrannosaurus added -tyrannosaurus removed Give us a break devs! Stop making me salty!
  • @ramentaco9179
    It's so cool that humanity's ancestors came from the ocean, and now, we're exploring it and rediscovering it.
  • @DaCoDgamer
    “The great dying” lol when there’s so many extinction events you just get straight to the point 😂
  • Ive been alive 28 years, but through these vids I feel like I've seen millions.
  • @Chrysaetos11
    I've always found the Cenozoic to be the most interesting epoch. It got loads of mammals, birds, and interesting looking reptiles (crocs, turtles, snakes, big lizards). The separated continents also increased diversification. I'd love to see a video on the Eocene, it's particularly interesting due to global rainforests, mammal diversification, terror birds, and loads of reptiles.