Rise of Trees

390–350 million years (Middle DevonianEarly Carboniferous)

What was the Earth like during this period?

What is a tree?

What is the earliest known tree?

Above: Fossil stump of one of the earliest tree-like plants on Earth, Eospermatopteris, at Gilboa, NY

Above: Reconstruction of a cladoxylopsid "tree", such as the Gilboa tree, Eospermatopteris

Above: Reconstruction of Eospermatopteris-Wattieza growing in a wetland environment

What is the first true tree?

Above: Diagram of Earth's earliest trees. Eospermatopteris on the left, and Archaeopteris on the right

Above: Reconstruction of the first true tree, Archaeopteris

When did forests evolve?

What was the effect of these first forests?

Above: An early amphibian-like fish, Eusthenodon, swimming under an Archaeopteris forest

Above: An early fish-like amphibian, such as Acanthostega, swimming next to a fallen trunk of Archaeopteris

What happens after this extinction event?

What were plants like before this time?