What are some fun facts about the Devonian period?
What is the Devonian era known for?
What were the major events in the Devonian period?
What major events happened during the Silurian period?
What major events happened in the Carboniferous period?
What went extinct in the Devonian Period?
What major events happened in the Mississippian period?
- Epoch opens in slow mass extinction; life soon recovers.
- Euramerica & Gondwana continue to merge; much. ...
- Vast forests and swamps form as sea levels fluctuate.
- Climate hot & humid but glaciated at the poles.
- Oxygen level 40% above today - abundant wildfires.
- Much of the world's coal formed in the Carboniferous.
Which evolutionary change took place during the Devonian Period?
What went extinct in the Silurian period?
What are some fun facts about the Silurian period?
What happened at the end of the Silurian period?
What was the Devonian extinction?
The Devonian ended with a mass extinction, during which 22% of all marine families disappeared. Little is known about the extinction of land organisms at the time. Although various investigators have suggested causes (e.g., global cooling tied to glaciations on Gondwana or an extraterrestrial impact), neither glaciation nor the impact hypothesis is unequivocally supported by the available data. The development of forests may have also been a factor, by changing the atmosphere and releasing an overabundance of nutrients into the water.
What was the Devonian period called?
Along with the Silurian, the Devonian Period is called the “Age of Fishes.” However, plant, invertebrate, and other vertebrate lifeforms also experienced major changes in the Devonian. For instance, land plants began to show great diversification. Additionally, the first forests appeared, and the first seeds and soils developed, allowing plants to reproduce on dry land. The oldest fossils of insects and spiders date to this time. Early tetrapods, ancestors of land-dwelling vertebrates, first appeared during the Devonian. The Devonian ended with a mass extinction.
What marine group showed the most diversification during the Devonian period?
The marine group showing the most diversification during the Devonian was fish. Two prominent groups were agnathans (jawless fish) and placoderms (the first jawed fish). Some placoderms reached very large sizes; for example, paleontologists have measured fossils of Dunkleosteus (“terror fish”) at 26 feet (8 m) in length with a skull of 4 feet (1.2 m) across. This animal did not have teeth, but sharp bone on the top surface of the jaws made it a fearsome predator. Other groups of fish that appeared in the Devonian were sharks, lobed-finned fish (e.g., coelacanths and lungfish), and the ancestors of the ray-finned fish, the most abundant type of fish today (e.g., trout, salmon, and tuna).
What is the Devonian system?
Before their Cambrian/Silurian naming controversy, Adam Sedgwick and Roderick Impey Murchison jointly named the Devonian System for the rocks of Devonshire in southern England, having done the actual work prior to their misunderstanding. Actually Devonshire is a poor type area because the rocks are intensely deformed and the base of the system is not exposed. Nevertheless, the rocks are fossiliferous, and their distinctive faunas—intermediate between those of the Silurian and the Carboniferous—led to their identification as the Devonian. Murchison and Sedgwick showed that fossils could be used to recognize the Devonian System in the Rhineland in Germany, where this age of rocks is much better exposed and much more fossiliferous (Eicher 1976).
Why is Devonshire a poor area?
Actually Devonshire is a poor type area because the rocks are intensely deformed and the base of the system is not exposed. Nevertheless, the rocks are fossiliferous, and their distinctive faunas—intermediate between those of the Silurianand the Carboniferous—led to their identification as the Devonian.
What were the major changes in the world's geography during the Devonian period?
Tectonics and paleoclimate. Significant changes in the world's geography took place during the Devonian. During this period, the world's land was collected into two supercontinents, Gondwana and Euramerica.
What is the Devonian period?
The Devonian Period. The Rhynie Chert in Scotland is a Devonian age deposit containing fossils of both zosterophylls and trimerophytes, some of the earliest vascular plants. This indicates that prior to the start of the Devonian, the first major radiations of plants had already happened. The oldest known vascular plants in ...
What was the Devonian landscape?
The Devonian landscape. By the Devonian Period, colonization of the land was well underway. Before this time, there was no organic accumulation in the soils, resulting in soils with a reddish color. This is indicative of the underdeveloped landscape, probably colonized only by bacterial and algal mats.
What type of fish were found in the Lower Devonian?
Benthic, jawless, armored fish are common by the Lower Devonian. These early fish include a number of different groups. By the the Middle Devonian, placoderms, the first jawed fish, appear. Many of these grew to large sizes and were fearsome predators.
What were the fossils found in the Devonian?
In the Lower Devonian, ammonoids appeared, leaving us large limestone deposits from their shells. Bivalves, crinoid and blastoid echinoderms, graptolites, and trilobites were all present, though most groups of trilobites disappeared by the close of the Devonian.
What were the three major continental masses during the Devonian period?
Many new kinds of fish appeared. During the Devonian, there were three major continental masses: North America and Europe sat together near the equator, with much of their current area covered by shallow seas. To the north lay a portion of modern Siberia.
What were the first vertebrates?
The first tetrapods — land-living vertebrates — appeared during the Devonian, as did the first terrestrial arthropods, including wingless insects and the earliest arachnids. In the oceans, brachiopods flourished. Crinoids and other echinoderms, tabulate and rugose corals, and ammonites were also common.
What was the Devonian period?
The Devonian Period was a time of extensive reef building in the shallow water that surrounded each continent and separated Gondwana from Euramerica. Reef ecosystems contained numerous brachiopods, still numerous trilobites, tabulate and horn corals. Placoderms (the armored fishes) underwent wide diversification and became the dominant marine predators. Placoderms had simple jaws but not true teeth. Instead, their mouths contained bony structures used to crush or shear prey. Some Placoderms were up to 33 feet (10 meters) in length. Cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays were common by the late Devonian. Devonian strata also contain the first fossil ammonites.
What was the climate like during the Devonian period?
Sea levels were high with much of western North America under water. Climate of the continental interior regions was very warm during the Devonian Period and generally quite dry.
What event killed the Placoderms?
The Kellwasser Event of the late middle Devonian was largely responsible for the demise of the great coral reefs, the jawless fishes and the trilobites. The Hangeberg Event at the Devonian/Carboniferous Boundary killed the Placoderms and most of the early ammonites.
What was the Tiktaalik period?
Tiktaalik was probably mostly aquatic, “walking” on the bottom of shallow water estuaries. (Image credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation) The Devonian Period occurred from 416 million to 358 million years ago. It was the fourth period of the Paleozoic Era. It was preceded by the Silurian Period and followed by the Carboniferous Period.
What were the first trees to grow in the Devonian period?
Lycophytes, horsetails and ferns grew to large sizes and formed Earth’s first forests. By the end of the Devonian, progymnosperms such as Archaeopteris were the first successful trees.
What was the role of reproduction in the Devonian period?
Reproduction was by male and female spores that are accepted as being the precursors to seed-bearing plants. By the end of the Devonian Period, the proliferation of plants increased the oxygen content of the atmosphere considerably, which was important for development of terrestrial animals.
What is the fourth era of the Paleozoic era?
It was the fourth period of the Paleozoic Era. It was preceded by the Silurian Period and followed by the Carboniferous Period. It is often known as the “Age of Fishes,” although significant events also happened in the evolution of plants, the first insects and other animals.
Climate and Geography
Marine Life
- The Devonian Period was a time of extensive reef building in the shallow water that surrounded each continent and separated Gondwana from Euramerica. Reef ecosystems contained numerous brachiopods, still numerous trilobites, tabulate and horn corals. Placoderms (the armored fishes) underwent wide diversification and became the dominant marine predators. Placoderms had si…
Plants
- Plants, which had begun colonizing the land during the Silurian Period, continued to make evolutionary progress during the Devonian. Lycophytes, horsetails and ferns grew to large sizes and formed Earth’s first forests. By the end of the Devonian, progymnosperms such as Archaeopteris were the first successful trees. Archaeopteriscould grow up to 98 feet (30 meters…
Animals
- Arthropod fossils are concurrent with the earliest plant fossils of the Silurian. Millipedes, centipedes and arachnids continued to diversify during the Devonian Period. The earliest known insect, Rhyniella praecusor, was a flightless hexapod with antennae and a segmented body. Fossil Rhyniellaare between 412 million and 391 million years old. Early tetrapods probably evolved fro…
Mass Extinction
- The close of the Devonian Period is considered to be the second of the "big five" mass extinction events of Earth's history. Rather than a single event, it is known to have had at least two prolonged episodes of species depletion and several shorter periods. The Kellwasser Event of the late middle Devonian was largely responsible for the demise of ...