When Trees Took Over the World

420 million years ago, the forest floor of what's now New York was covered with a plant that didn’t look like a tree at all, except its roots were made of wood. Instead of looking up to learn about the evolution of trees, it turns out paleobotanists should’ve been looking down all along.
A big thank you to Franz Anthony (franzanth.com), Julio Lacerda (https: JulioTheArtist), and Fabrizio de Rossi ( / artoffabricious ) for their excellent paleoart featured in this episode.
Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: / pbsdigitalstudios
Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
Gerret Outdoors, Derek Helling, Hideyo Kusano, Dennis McCullough, Margaret Luby, Florian Heinze, WilCatRhClPPh33, Mark Talbott-Williams, Elizabeth Baker, Jake Myers, Eddy, Angel Alchin, Julie Cohen, salsablog.band, simon read, Sean C. Kennedy, Eric Roberto Rodriguez, Hillary Ryde-Collins, Facts Dinosaurs, Frida, Matthew Donnelly, Yu Mei, Dan Ritter, faxo, Jayme Coyle, Gary Walker, GrowingViolet, Stephanie Tan, Laura Sanborn, Ben Cooper, Leonid, Robert Noah, Matt Parker, Heathe Kyle Yeakley, Jerrit Erickson, Anton Bryl, MissyElliottSmith, Zachary Spencer, Stefan Weber, Andrey, Ilya Murashov, Merri Snaidman, Marcus Lejon, Robert Arévalo, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, Anthony Callaghan, Philip Slingerland, John Vanek, Eric Vonk, Henrik Peteri, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Jeff Graham, Daisuke Goto, Gregory Kintz, Chandler Bass, Tsee Lee, Robert Hill
If you'd like to support the channel, head over to / eons and pledge for some cool rewards!
Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook - / eonsshow
Twitter - / eonsshow
Instagram - / eonsshow
References: docs.google.com/document/d/1m...

[@rudolvonstroheim3898]

I can't believe I've never thought about how I could use all the random scientific terms I know in Scrabble before.

[@invisiblepants6477]

The tyranny of trees went unchallenged until beavers evolved.

[@TigirlakaLaserwolf6]

he's wearing that jacket so we'll talk about the video instead of how proud we are that he's committed to his workout routine

[@AccidentalNinja]

Five different kinds of wood which evolved convergently? I'd be interesting in a video on those kinds & how they differ.

[@mrmichaelgsavard]

My concept of the earth isn’t easily formed without an image of plants or trees-imagining eras just at the beginning of plant life is very exciting

[@Percy1800sDetective]

Now do one on

[@jennifer7685]

You skipped the really cool reason coal exists! Nothing existed for millions of years that could consume them

[@vituperation]

He has that sport coat to conceal his guns, but he can't hide that shirt button that's just one flex away from flying into low-Earth orbit.

[@hera7884]

Poison Ivy has entered the Chat

[@andy-kg5fb]

Archeopteris: a plant, Archeopterics: a dinosaur.

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

What Blake said: Archaeopteris

[@Clockworkcityofpain]

I get so hyped when science channels make videos about plants. They're still like 80% of all the biomass in the planet! I can't do the math but I'm pretty sure they still reign supreme over us even when humans are doing their best to cut them down.

[@Morbacounet]

"How our planet went from the reign of algae to the rule of trees."

[@Aloddff]

Bless eons for never click baiting us in the titles

[@F4Wildcat]

"We've had one Xylem yes, how about second xylem?"

[@weberwoodshop]

OMG PLEASE give us a jingle for “Convergent Evolution” that we can sing in our heads every time you say it.

[@dynojackal1911]

Now all we need to round out the evolution of plants is "How Grass Conquered the World", because I think that would be a great video.

[@jovanweismiller7114]

'Xylem up and phloem down' may be the only thing I remember from high school biology. LOL!

[@margaretjones5488]

Blake, you look very nice in that sport coat/pant combo and I appreciate the heads up on the word 'xylem'. Thanks for this episode, it was mind bending to think how much trees have done for us.

[@humancattoy7767]

That actually makes more sense. Woody roots could break rock and allow soil formation.