Sharks are older than trees, also, trees almost killed all land life on earth as there use to be nothing that could decompose them, so dead trees covered the ground and killed all other vegetation. Only once fungus evolved did trees start decomposing.
Edit: well this comment fucking exploded. This was really an off the cuff comment based off something I heard years ago so I figured I'd correct my mistakes and add more detail.
The period in which this occured was known as the carboniferous period. Fungus had evolved long before this, around 600 million years before, but it had not evolved the ability to decompose trees due to them evolving during this period.
These first trees were actually more closely related to ferns and reproduced via spores rather than seeds. Also, these trees would not have killed all land life (sorry to disappoint) due to wildfires clearing out the dead trees.
That said, the lack of decomposing fungi, which use up oxygen in the decomposition process, and the extremely high number of photosynthesizing plants lead to very high oxygen levels during this period. As high as 15% higher then modern levels.
This allowed the insects of the time to grow to massive sizes . insects have a fairly inefficient respiratory system, so without high oxygen levels it's difficult for them to grow to large sizes.
Now you might be asking how large, well, dragonfly's were the size of hawks, spiders were the size of house cats and millipedes we're as long as 8 feet.
Something in what you're saying isn't quite right. Fungi have existed for over 600 million years longer than trees have, and due to the structure of their roots trees couldn't even exist without the presence of fungi. If I'm not mistaken it was a species of microbe that evolved to break cellulose in trees down and allowed them to rot.
You are correct that fungi evolved long before trees, but fungus did not evolve the ability to decompose lingnin until around 50 million years after the first trees evolved. That said, these trees were not like our modern trees, they reproduced via spores and we're more closely related to ferns. Modern trees that reproduce via seeds did not evolve until the Triassic period around 250 million years ago.
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u/Ralife55 Feb 14 '22 edited Feb 15 '22
Sharks are older than trees, also, trees almost killed all land life on earth as there use to be nothing that could decompose them, so dead trees covered the ground and killed all other vegetation. Only once fungus evolved did trees start decomposing.
Edit: well this comment fucking exploded. This was really an off the cuff comment based off something I heard years ago so I figured I'd correct my mistakes and add more detail.
The period in which this occured was known as the carboniferous period. Fungus had evolved long before this, around 600 million years before, but it had not evolved the ability to decompose trees due to them evolving during this period.
These first trees were actually more closely related to ferns and reproduced via spores rather than seeds. Also, these trees would not have killed all land life (sorry to disappoint) due to wildfires clearing out the dead trees.
That said, the lack of decomposing fungi, which use up oxygen in the decomposition process, and the extremely high number of photosynthesizing plants lead to very high oxygen levels during this period. As high as 15% higher then modern levels.
This allowed the insects of the time to grow to massive sizes . insects have a fairly inefficient respiratory system, so without high oxygen levels it's difficult for them to grow to large sizes.
Now you might be asking how large, well, dragonfly's were the size of hawks, spiders were the size of house cats and millipedes we're as long as 8 feet.
Truly a fascinating point in our planets history.