this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
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Science Memes

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Moss (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 144 points 2 months ago (4 children)

It always staggers me when I remember that for roughly sixty million years during the Carboniferous Period, there were trees but no microorganisms capable of decomposing them.

Just sixty million years of branches falling off and trees falling down and... just sitting there on the ground, not rotting at all.

[–] [email protected] 80 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Now consider wild fires during that period.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Fire hadn't been invented yet.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

they said "wild fires"

just like wild horses, wild fires existed long before they were domesticated.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You just ruined the song.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Was the world turning though?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Not the song I mean, but thanks for the ear worm.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago

they must have been wild

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Note that although species can be described as tree-like, they didn't quite look like modern trees do. Also, much of the world was swamp, and much of the dead plant material sank into these bogs and decayed into peat.

The amount of CO2 trapped during this period caused the atmosphere to be around 35% oxygen. This allowed life with inefficient respiratory systems to grow much bigger in size without suffocating, mainly insects. Think woodlice 6 feet long, spiders the size of dogs, millipedes as big as cars, and dragonflies as big as eagles.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago

Think woodlice 6 feet long, spiders the size of dogs, millipedes as big as cars, and dragonflies as big as eagles.

No, I don't think I will

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I LOVE the thought of a world-covering swamp with pseudo-trees and giant fucking bugs. Such a stimulating thought. I'd love to explore and see it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Have you been to Florida, friend?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Nope, but I was in Australia. Not quite as swampy.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It was a lot more fun to believe that coal was crushed dinosaurs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

We have oil for that

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Sus: bacteria predate trees by like... a lot. There may not be many fossils of them:-), but surely they would eat whatever they could.