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 • Basic Overview
Life Lands Ashore
Earth’s continents are constantly—slowly—on the move. When the Silurian Period began, continents that once were separate had come together along the equator.
By 470 million years ago, Earth’s barren landscape was turning green with plant life.
Trailblazing life forms, including plants, had made a major move: to land. In the seas, life flourished as temperatures warmed. Fishes diversified in the deep.
Massive reefs sprawled across tropical sea floors. Devonian Period reefs were larger and more widespread than at any other time in history, stretching for miles and reaching hundreds of feet in height.
The seas spawned new life on land.
From this rich diversity of life in the waters, animals—including the first tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates)—were beginning to colonize land.
Soon, this new world would be home to ancestors of today’s insects and spiders, as arthropods evolved that could live on land. Other animals would follow.
Continue to Pioneering Plants. >>
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