User:InMooseWeTrust/Reading lists/History of Life

Here's the history of life on Earth, and all you need to know about it.

Below is the short version:
 * 1) Panspermia
 * 2) Precambrian
 * 3) Cambrian
 * 4) Ordovician
 * 5) Silurian
 * 6) Devonian
 * 7) Carboniferous
 * 8) Permian
 * 9) Triassic
 * 10) Jurassic
 * 11) Cretaceous
 * 12) Paleogene
 * 13) Neogene

Origins

 * Origin of life - This deals with a lot of really complicated things. You probably won't understand it if you don't know biology really well.
 * Biogenesis - Through a lot of scientific experiments, people have found that life doesn't just happen. It only gets created from other life.
 * Astrobiology - There is a whole study being done on how life can work in outer space.
 * Panspermia - Life came on Earth from some other source. This seems to be true, based on what we're seeing in science.

Image:

Precambrian

 * Precambrian - Really simple bacteria lived at this time. The world was really similar to Venus and Mars back then. Well, Mars had liquid oceans and probably life, but whatever.
 * Stromatolite - Most types of Precambrian life still exists today.
 * Archaea - No, they're not bacteria. And no, they're completely harmless to other life. WHAT?
 * Bacteria - There are six times as many bacteria cells in your body than there are human cells. You're not even you. You're just germs.

Image: Precambrian landscape

Snowball Earth

 * Snowball Earth - A really interesting case study.

You don't need a picture. It's basically everything covered in ice and snow.

Cambrian

 * Cambrian - This is the first time that life really made its mark on the planet.
 * Cambrian explosion - This is a controversial idea about life on Earth, and it has a lot of people really confused. Darwin or Panspermia? Or both?
 * Arthropod The Cambrian was famous for the rise of arthropods.
 * Trilobite - They're probably the most famous ancient animals that are not dinosaurs.
 * Opabinia - Look! It's an elephant under water!!!

Image: Cambrian Earth didn't have much.

Ordovician

 * Ordovician - Just like the Cambrian, this is another really dramatic change but people don't know about it.
 * Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event - Just like the Cambrian explosion, this is another one of those really controversial events that question what we know about evolution.
 * Cephalopod - Things with a lot of legs.
 * Nautiloid - You know those shell things that move around by pushing themselves backwards in water?
 * Fish - I'm hungry.
 * Coral reef - This biome started forming during the Ordovician period, and you can still see them today.
 * Bivalvia - This thing has shells on both sides that open up. You know, like clams.
 * Eurypterid - Type of arthropod that was really successful during the Ordovician and later stages. These things were huge. More than 2 metres long in some cases.

Image: Things are starting to look more diverse.

Silurian

 * Ordovician–Silurian extinction event - Ordovician done, and same with most of the life from that time. The history of life is filled with a lot of relaly short extinction events, followed by a lot of new life. That new life stays for a while, and then there is another extinction event.
 * Silurian - From here, you start seeing some really amazing marine life in the oceans.
 * Shark - Need I say more?

Images: Land Sea

Devonian

 * Devonian - A lot going on in the oceans, and even more stuff happening on land.
 * Coelacanth - Ancient fish that is still alive today, in its original, unchanged form.
 * Tetrapod - This was a really new idea.
 * Insect - They diverged from arthropods, and would come to dominate the planet real soon.
 * Dunkleosteus - Big enough to eat you.
 * Plants
 * Wood - Wood makes trees.
 * Gymnosperm - The subgroup of plants that made up the forests.
 * Prototaxites - Is it a lichen or a fungus? Who knows, but these things made up a lot of the Devonian forests.
 * Fern - Simplest designs work the best.
 * Lichen - These actually came earlier, but they made the land suitable for forests.
 * Amphibian - The water animals needed a place to rest, away from the predators. They realized they could stay on coastal lands, because the air was almost good enough to breathe, and plants started colonizing the planet. The land started to look a lot like the ocean, and the animals needed a new place to stay when they weren't in the water.

Images: Sea Forest

Carboniferous

 * Carboniferous - Era of thick forests, endless swamps, and the biggest insects the world will ever see.
 * Pangaea - The supercontinent came together during the Carboniferous period.
 * Appalachian Mountains - These mountains reached their peak during the Ordovician period, and during the Carboniferous period, they were home to some of the thickest forests ever. Now you can take that back out as coal.
 * Coal - Why is it called Carboniferous? Because it's full of this stuff.
 * Anthracite - Type of coal that's really common in the Appalachian mountains, thought to have been formed during the Carboniferous period.
 * Animals - Like I said, this is the age of insects... and some arthropods.
 * Meganeura - Giant dragonfly with 75cm wingspan. This is a lot like the Pokémon Yanmega. Search this thing on Google Image Search, and you'll see what it looks like in color. Scary stuff.
 * Arachnid - SPIDERS AND SCORPIONS!!!
 * Pulmonoscorpius - SCORPION!!!
 * Reptile - Amphibians realized that they needed to stay on ground more often, because the water was full and the land around the coast was getting crowded. So they became reptiles.

Images: Meganeura size Carboniferous forest

Permian

 * Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse - Earth is getting dry again.
 * Permian -

Search "Permian" in Google Image Search, and you'll see what things looked like back then.

Triassic
Search "Triassic" in Google Image Search, and you'll see what things looked like back then.

Jurassic
Search "Jurassic" in Google Image Search, and you'll see what things looked like back then.

Cretaceous
Search "Cretaceous" in Google Image Search, and you'll see what things looked like back then.

Paleogene
Search "Paleogene" in Google Image Search, and you'll see what things looked like back then.

Neogene
Basically, this is how things look now.