Up Next
Back to Show
Eons
The Age of Mutant Plants
Season 9
Episode 10
Around 252 million years ago, as the Permian Period transitioned into the Triassic, there wasn't much life on Earth left. Landscapes had been torched an entire ecosystems had collapsed. But the fossil record is full of something else, too -- mutant plants -- found worldwide and spanning thousands of years. But what was it about the Great Dying that caused a global age of mutant plants?
Support Provided By
7:54
Around 300 million years ago sails were all the rage, but we're still not sure what they were for.
10:44
During the Permian Period many tetrapods, or four-limbed vertebrates, took to life in the trees.
9:29
For millions of years after the Great Dying microbes ruled the Earth.
26:06
Life begins to rebound after the destruction of the mass extinction ending the Permian Period.
25:37
An apocalypse ended the Permian Period 252 million years ago, wiping out more than 80% of species.
25:37
The first saber-teeth and tusks evolve in the Late Permian and our ancestors, the cynodonts, appear.
25:37
An extinction in the Middle Permian decimates life, from a fossil reef to our ancient relatives.
25:37
The first herbivorous vertebrates evolve on the side of the amniote family tree leading to mammals.
25:37
Seed plants and amniotes adapt to dry climates, helping them thrive on Pangea in the Permian Period.
9:11
How did Homotherium evolve to be so successful? The answer may lie in the rise of the Tibetan plate.
10:16
The mystery of what non-flying dinosaurs were doing with their feathered wings has a new hypothesis.
11:45
What did ancient people once know about these bizarre megafauna that we’ve since forgotten?