When the Rainforests Collapsed
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
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The Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse set the stage for a takeover that would be a crucial turning point in the history of terrestrial animal life. If it weren’t for that time when the rainforests collapsed - in an extinction event that you probably haven’t heard of - our ancestors might never have made it out of the swamps.
Thank you to these paleoartists for allowing us to use their wonderful illustrations:
Fabrizio de Rossi: / artoffabricious
Julio Lacerda: / juliotheartist
Franz Anthony: franzanth.com/
Nobu Tamura: spinops.blogspo...
Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: / pbsdigitalstudios
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References: docs.google.co...
I love how almost every video starts with: lemme tell you about this particular animal that had a really bad day.
It's a great way to get a video started...
Don't all good stories have some sort of tragedy in them?
Those poor old animals
Well that's the case for every fossil you'll find.
Can we have an F in chat?
F
I know what's meant by 'collapse' but I can't shake the mental image of all the ancient rainforests just *falling down* in unison.
If ALL the trees fall down in a forest, how big of a sound does it make?
@@ProfessorSyndicateFranklai I don't know. But we do know future paleobotonists "hear" it.
biohazard724 lol
That might be pretty accurate, just maybe slower to occur in reality, they did an episode that went pretty in depth about scale trees, and from what I remember they were pretty quick to grow then die, because of the way they were structured, thriving in the carbon rich atmosphere, but almost weak in construction.
"and they did a really nice 'thumb' when they hit the ground" G'Kar
Long ago, four ecosystems existed together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the rainforests collapsed
TheKiwijord this is great lol
the ecotar never appeared to restore blanace
But when the ecosystem need him most, he vanished.
@@urick15 *But when the biosphere needed them most, they vanished.
@@alestiiidaeno_last3075 why biosphere though?
Can u do an episode on how scientists predict how an animal would look like when only partial skeletons are found.
Imagination
It's being already made
by looking at related species and comparing each other, and basing the looks on something more complete for some of them
(it's never exact tho, they just want something to work off of)
very interesting topic for a video tho, +1
Please, this would be so interesting
Yes, because all we have ever found of Megalodon is teeth, how do we know anything about them?
It'd be so cool if you guys did a behind the scenes series on what you put into making these videos because they're always so informative and interesting. I'd love to see what's put into the research for these!
Maybe in a few million years...somebody will dig up some fossilized researchers...and somebody else will make a documentary about their lives and times...
I think you can see the behind the scenes on their patreon
A clarification for those who do not know:
Amniote does not mean reptile. Just because something is scaly and it lays eggs on land does not make it a reptile.
"Amniote" refers to a small group of lizard-like animals from the Carboniferous and Permian that were not amphibians and not yet proper reptiles, and all their descendants (e.g., mammals, reptiles and birds). This is a important distinction, because if you do not know that the diapsid-synapsid split occurred before reptiles evolved, you may be inclined to falsely believe that mammals evolved from proper reptiles, which is not the case.
Really handy clarification there, thank you for pointing this out
Let's just agree that the Linnaean term 'reptile' is obsolete and useless in classifying animals today
Deez Nuts
Thank you friend.
Thanks
I remember this channel had tens of thousands of subscribers and now there are almost 1.2 million of them...
Even though it is not as nice as 1.5 or 2 million, still congrats. I am happy to see you rise.
Give them 6 months. I'm sure they'll
be there.
now 2.22 million!! another million
1:06 - This illustration is really creative. I don't usually care that much about the concept sketches in these videos...
Critical Hit, I noticed that, too. The style is very different from the typical illustration.
th-cam.com/video/w0-QLpcPMks/w-d-xo.html
Yeeey! I love episodes that give a little more protagonism to plants. I mean, if you are a plant person, you'd be inclined to call the Mesozoic era the age of gymnosperms rather than the age of dinosaurs. That said, an episode on cycads, please!!!
Yes, please.
Plants don’t get the attention they deserve. ☹️
Still wondering why nobody calls them paleoflora
But these plants are your gas 😳
So fossilized extinction plants may be causing an extinction event, ironic
Do an episode titled "When India was an Island". Thanks.
Yes please! I would love to see this
Rajasorus !always wanted to say that
well holy hell they did it, a bit late but they did it!
You do know that these videos are addictive
Learn to use an egg. Use a stronger egg. Put water in it. Have a baby on land in an egg. Water's in the egg. Baby in the egg in the water in the egg. Works for me!
Bye bye ocean!
I thought that, too...
/expectedbillwurtz
Don't tell me how to raise my kids!
Take it to the next step; keep egg inside body, live birth.
Jansen Art th-cam.com/video/w0-QLpcPMks/w-d-xo.html
This will forever be one of my favorite channels
I'd love more about the Carboniferous period. It's just my favorite
It's probably just here in the United States, but I've always learned the period he's speaking of -- between the Silurian and Permian -- was the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian periods.
@@Deavertex Yes, we use Carboniferous in the UK. It was my favourite period too when I was a child... giant insects and ferns!
that moment when you hear your home mentioned on something you watch, YAY! Nova Scotia!
HandMade By Holly so?
Ikr I'm like woah Nova Scotia thats sick
I was there for a geology field trip last year :D
I applauded when he said he lived in New Mexico and chuckled when he said he moved to Montana, where there is real winter... but lots of nice mountains, too.
Aaaahhhhh! Just got home from work to be greeted by a new Eons video! Life is pretty good!
I love how literal the term "fossil fuel" is.
That’s... why it’s called that.
I hate it because it makes people think their cars run on dinosaurs.
@OsirisLord which is technically true, in a manner of speaking
@@dougthedonkey1805 it's not even remotely true.
OsirisLord
Literally no one thinks fossil fuels are made of dinosaurs....
Everyone knows it’s plant matter that that’s broken down and changed into a new form.
2:35 Could I be the only one who sees a yellow serpent with a big mouth trying to catch a gray fish?
no
Now I can't unsee that!
I was more distracted by the hedgehog and gerbil playing pattycake right above them.
After you showed it, I can't unsee it.
@@secularmonk5176 Oh, wow!
I love PBS Eons so much, it's so intriguing, keep doing what you're doing, guys. One of the few big corporations that aren't corrupt, and are entertaining! ^^
Just signed up to you guys on patreon. I was simultaneously shocked by how much money Scishow rakes in and how little you guys are. Explains why Scishow has near daily uploads and two side channels.
Support Eons peoples! I want daily archeology/anthropology vidyas!
You'd be disappointed.....I'm outa here.
They have 4 shows:
Scishow
Scishow Psych
Scishow Space
Scishow Kids
The most interesting part to me where the different quasi trees. Can you do more plants in the future?
The Carboniferous was a weird period in Prehistoric times. It was all forests, swamps and marshes. I never guessed that amphibians and reptiles shared the same forests before it collapsed.
Cover the history of tapirs!
Josh they put tape on their ears
You mean other perrissodactyla than Chalicotherium?
The most disturbing thing I learned today is that the host moved from New Mexico to Montana. IN THE WINTER. I am now seriously doubting the integrity of the folks at PBS.
Most likely a forced migration.
Doubt the integrity
What's this host people keep talking about
@@tommycriton9758 ... The host of the show. Lmaoooooo
@@Erica-ye7kp and what's the problem
The delight of a paleontologist finding an interesting new fossil is like me when I discover a PBS Eons video I haven't seen! Keep up the great work people. Thank you!
I would love to be able to travel back to times like this just to explore...
That would be so awesome!
4:13 If I remember correctly those "tree ferns" bare a sticking superficial resemblance to modern tree ferns but are completely unrelated. And we know that because those tree ferns bore seeds, hence they were called seed ferns.
It's weird to think they were not related with how similar they appear, but they were in completely different phyla
Seed ferns? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pteridospermatophyta
One of the best Eons videos yet
I’m guessing Hylonomus is found in the Joggins Fossil Cliffs in Nova Scotia, which by the way are a UNESCO World Heritage Site!
it could also be blue beach, lesser known, but older
or Cape Breton, lost of coal mines there and fossils over the ENTER island ;)
Yep it is one of the most famous specimens from the area I remember hearing about it when we visited the Bay of Fundy area several years ago. The areas extreme tides drive the fossil revealing erosion which enabled so many of the fossils to be uncovered. (Sadly we didn't really find anything as those tides also destroy exposed fossils and all...).
@@StrangeLittleGarden I love blue beach. I live 20 minutes away from it
Yes, these were found in exactly the Joggins area of Nova Scotia, back in the 1860s onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1964.tb00488.x
No one ever talks about the small exstiction events like this one the Carbon-Permian next you should do the Jurassic-Cretatious exstiction
And the Eocene one
There are no major extinction event between Jurassic-Cretaceous. The middle Permian extinction deserve more attention though, being possibly more deadly than the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction.
@@pengen_gantinama 1st; late Permian
2nd; small extinction events are important too.
Animal Wonders is such an awesome channel. I love Jessie's enthusiasm.
2:25 lovely illustration
I hope the right paleontologist discovers a species of Hylonomus so we can have a species called Hylonomus Bosch.
Though it'd probably be called Hylonomus Boschi then
Max Barrentine I like the way you think 😊 - Hopefully they will name the place where it's found "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
I'm glad that eons went more into detail about the Carboniferous era and the Rainforest collapse, since it's been mentioned so many times in previous video.
Please thumbs up if you like to see a video in the Australian Mega Fauna.
*When I Collapse because I see a new PBS Eons Episode!*
Lol not to make fun but 7:42 “Animal Wonders is an Animal Wescue” made me laugh! They’re such a great organization but I had to point it out :)
I love this guys voice 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Funny you mention that because I can't stand the voice of the female presenter. Black is clear, understandable. A credit to the videos he presents.
Love this host! Great video, I love seeing these peeks into the past of our distant ancestors.
i have literally watched EVERY episode😭😭
Aku The Shapeshifter why are you crying
No more episodes, obviously.
You don't have to say "Literally". We believe you. Such a misused and redundant word.
So wasteful, too, in this word drought we're experiencing.
yeet
Yo, I REALLY appreciate the effort to talk slower. It actually makes this way more enjoyable and easy to absorb. Keep it up, you guys are awesome !
The tree ferns that were around during the carboniferous are not the same tree ferns that exist today. They actually belong to two different groups of ferns, Marratiopsida and Polypodiopsida. (Ray F. Evert, Susan E. Eichhorn(2013), Raven Biology of Plants, New York, NY: W. H Freeman and Company)
Eons always makes Weds better, and reminds me that the week is half over. Be of good cheer! Monday is... shall we say... eons ago!
Great video , but i am still waiting for that Australia megafauna episode.
I wonder how it would be to just be able to walk through a Carboniferous rainforest. How it would look and smell and sound and feel.
Most likely pretty moist.
I imagine it would be very warm and humid, and with eagle to car sized bugs.
If you want, there used to be a show on bbc called prehistoric park. The host, Nigel, had a device to go back in time and he used it to rescue extinct animals and bring them back to the present. I believe there was an episode on the carboniferous
5:09 | 5:53 - how many flashed back to playing a similar map in Command & Conquer or maybe Dune real-time strategy games when this graphic splashed the screen?? 😳😆😁
I did. This is a blast to the past and a half.
The Carboniferous is my absolute favourite geological era. To grab a Time Machine and go herping --- ooooh boy.
Give me a submarine and send me back to check out the Sea Scorpions.
I might need a suit .. atmosphere wasn't so welcoming to us back then
Just watch out for the giant spiders.
This is surprisingly relevant given the current situation with our own rainforests
@C Maybe considering the deforestation rates... meeeeh, you know
I understand that it may be stupid, but thank you for your pronunciation of Appalachian.
Thank you for covering the CRC. A few interesting things not mentioned in the video. There was mountain formation at the equator around this time. Which turend lowlands into highlands. This definitely had a negitive impact on the coal swamps in Europe and North America, but not in China were giant Lycopods persisted till the mid Permian. Another interesting thing around this time is the rise of seed bearing plants like seed ferns and early conifers like walchia piniformis. The reason for this their success is that, like reptiles, seed plants are less dependent on water for reproduction.
What was the other major plant mass extinction?
Probably that time I attempted to grow a garden.
Always appreciate your channel's insightful videos!
How far back in time could a stranded time traveler still survive by living off the land?
That's a super interesting question!
Not much i guess, the body of the time traveller would be completely defenceless against the diseases of the past
An unprepared human can't survive most places on modern Earth. But once you invoke preparation, the question gets really debatable with lots of unanswerable questions and definitions.
@@diegopugaquintanilla4344 The less related you are to an infected organism the less likely the pathogen is to infect you. It's not like you have any chance of catching Dutch Elm disease, for example. So things would get easier, at least in that one way, the further back you go.
One hour longer than a "daylight time" time traveler!!!
would love a video about the species today that have been around the longest and what has allowed them to survive until now
I would like to hear about how the family with hyraxs, elephants and dougongs evolved
Bay of Fundy area around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is so underrated, love love love Joggins and Hopewell Rocks.
in light of climate change denial, it may perhaps be prudent to emphasise the _tens of millions of years_ it took for the carboniferous forests to "collapse" - especially if you casually compare that climate change with the modern one we're experiencing. the rate of change differs by roughly 5 orders of magnitude: we're changing the climate nearly 10,000x faster today.
Only coz they adjust the temperatures to make the past seem cooler and modern day seem hotter to give that drastic increase you are talking about.
th-cam.com/video/tlnwhcO5NC0/w-d-xo.html
This is great!
Make an episode about how crabs evolved four different times. Like "crabs appeared," and then"more carbs appeared," "Iwasn'tdoneyetmorecrabsnow!" and then finally SLAM "You got more crabs" Like, earth went through some serious college phase.
The Carboniferous is one of the most interesting time periods
It's probably been mentioned in other videos, but I do think that a video about the evolution of grass could be pretty interesting.
Can you do a video on prehistoric corals?
Animal Wonders is great! It's a nice thing for younger kids as well.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. For pronouncing 'niches' correctly.
I suppose. But his pronunciation of Appalachian made me raise an eyebrow.
thank you for another great vid
i cannot express how much i love your videos!! :)
A lizard-like creature living in a dump in Nova Scotia? Yup that's me.
Oh wait you said stump... that's still me.
Woot! Nova Scotia!
New Mexico, eh? Well hi from a sorta kinda near neighbor in the past :P I grew up in the west part of Texas, in the Permian Basin area. Our science teacher taught us about amniotes (and reptiles) in part by bringing in her "pet" horned toad. She claimed she had a pet rattlesnake too, though nowadays I'd be REAL skeptical on that haha
I can't even imagine the adjustment, NM to Montana. Even in winter, I mean it DOES get cold out there in the desert but it's not...not quite the same!
Nifty video as always :D
Tree-ferns' name makes sense because it describes ferns that are tree-like. It makes perfect sense that they aren't trees.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk
If you still don't know what the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse is, imagine the deforestation of the Amazon today but on a worldwide scale.
...like today?
Herr Schmidt yes
0:35
Use an egg.
I was already doing that.
1:33
No. A stronger egg.
Put water in it.
Baby is in the egg.
In the water.
In the egg.
Works for me.
Great video by the way
I'm guessing eons has caught up to present day then?
If the invention of the amniotic egg is your idea of recent
@@TheWatcher802 you're so 2019
@@TheWatcher802 LOL deforestation jokes are tight
Could you guys make a video about the new dinosaur recently found in Canada called "reaper of death" (Thanatotheristes degrootorum)?
Ps: Loved the video
I used to live in albuquerque, glad you got out dude.
The writing is always so good, thank you!
i love this show
Hey Eons! Can you please make a video on the evolution of triceratops head?
Insulting my eggs laying abilities, are we??
Elenora Daimio Be quite im nesting
Placenta is not more then a soft egg shell ... MOST mammals just keep it inside the body until the baby was born
Great vid, didn't know about the different eras of "tree like" plants that dominated back in the day.
“When the rainforests collapsed”
Me: you mean like now?
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
"Hey, I've seen this one before."
Well, kinda but over millions of years that time.
@@jonstfrancis No! Well, full on collapse of the most dominant family of organisms, sure, but we see a full on ice age every 100k years or so which wipes out huge numbers of species, and then it swings back the other way which also wipes out huge numbers of species. Have to wait and see if we're around in another 100k.
@@wilfdarr Good point. But I assume the extinction at the end of the Carboniferous period and collapse of vast tropical forests then was on a larger scale than general ice ages. But all upheavals result in displacement of species and extinctions.
LOVE THIS CHANNEL
Great videos.
Great video. Please do one on the domestication of dogs.
And this is how the best geological era of our planet ended.
With oxygen levels at 30%, 1/3 higher than today, wouldn't there be more fires with far more destruction?
How did that play out on the atmosphere & environment?
Correct.
Plants probably evolved to be more fire resistant for one.
@@WokeandProud
Interesting hypothesis ;
But is this just "personal speculation" or can you point me to some actual evidence that supports this idea ?
At the end when you say that everyone watching is an amniote, I couldn't help but picture someone watching with their pet frog and being like "not you".
One thing you can be sure will never collapse is the support that STEVE consistently shows, but still I feel we know less of him then the tree furns of old
loved the video; love all of the videos!
I gotta give you props for mentioning the Permian and mass extinction without mentioning the End Permian Mass Extinction event.
Really Nice ! Thanks
The ending was nice, sometimes things that may seem bad can be good. Earth recycles itself trying new things making humans possible :)
Imagine all the coal we burned, all the information we burned. It's like burning the alexandrian library for plants
The fossils in coal have been compressed and altered beyond recognition, you aren't missing much.
@@MayorofAvabruck I'm not talking about fossils dude, watch the video
Idk what information you are talking about then.
His quick jokes are really funny 😄
Speaking of the Carboniferous, go check out CuriousMarc. He just started a series about accessing the only/largest dataset on coal balls that was stored on old 8in floppies with an ancient IBM mainframe. It looks like the series will be interesting, both from the digital and academic sides of the subject.
Cool video 🙂👍
The last time I was this early, the rain forests collapsed. 😝
😹
This feels like a prelude to the episode about placentas we've been promised a while back.
Thank you
I've been watching Animal Wonders for years that's so funny you guys are teaming up lol