Skip to main content
Back to Show
Eons

When It Was Too Hot for Leaves

Season 4 Episode 13

Plants first made their way onto land at least 470 million years ago but for their first 80 million years, leaves as we know them today didn’t exist. What held them back?

Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.
Support Provided By
Season
What Will Earth Be Like 300 Million Years From Now?
9:34
We’re taking a look towards the deep future. After all, the story is far from over.
What Was The Earliest Surgery?
7:59
When did we start practicing medicine in its varied, complex forms?
How Snake Venom Sparked An Evolutionary Arms Race
9:11
For some, the rise of venomous elapid snakes was an almost apocalyptic catastrophe.
Why Is It So Hard to Tell the Sex of a Dinosaur?
12:07
When you only have fossils, how do you know if a dinosaur is female or male?
Animals Are Older Than We Thought
11:57
What are animal-like fossils doing in rocks a billion years old?
Our Most Mysterious Extinct Cousins
9:41
Paranthropus lived alongside our ancestors. If we are still here, why aren’t they?
How Ancient Microbes Rode Bug Bits Out to Sea
8:42
Exoskeleton fragments may have allowed microbes to sail the ocean and change the world.
Why Only Earth Has Fire
10:45
Fire only exists only on Earth because fire can’t exist without life.
Beans & Bees (Not Bats) Gave Us Butterflies
7:09
Turns out bats didn’t give us butterflies and we should be thanking bees and beans.
The Huge Extinctions We Are Just Now Discovering
8:58
Graptolites show us how unpredictable the Silurian period really could be.
When Did We Stop Being Naked?
9:05
How can we figure out when we first started wearing clothes?
Do Thunderbeasts Prove Giant Animals Are Inevitable?
7:50
From an evolutionary perspective, is bigger always better?
Active loading indicator