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Description
Walking With Monsters
Part 4
The Carboniferous Period
300 MYA

Things are getting bigger and bigger on land. Plants, such as primitive ferns, have grown to enormous sizes. Most of the land is made up of gigantic swamps and tropical rainforests. These jungles and swamps will create most of the modern world’s coal, hence the name “Carboniferous” – this is the Age of Coal.

All this plant life has created a ridiculous surplus of oxygen in the atmosphere, and the arthropods of the world have ballooned to enormous sizes. The largest land-dwelling arthropod of them all is the twelve-foot Arthropleura, a relative of centipedes and millipedes. Meganeura, a relative of dragonflies, has a three-foot wingspan, and hunts among the massive trees.

Small reptiles, like Petrolacosaurus, have made their debut, but are still prey for larger beasts, like the massive Mesothelae spiders.

Amphibians, like the ten-foot Proterogynus, have their run of these swamps, but are still bound by the limitations of the water.

Yet, as the world becomes cooler and dryer, these massive forests will vanish – and the great arthropods will vanish with them.

A note on the Spider: shortly after the animation for “Walking with Monsters” was completed, the ancient invertebrate Megarachne, long thought to be the largest spider in history, was discovered to be a Sea Scorpion instead. The producers, unable to retract the creature’s appearance, simply called it “Mesothelae”, after an ancient family of spiders that were around during that time. None of them grew anywhere near this big.

As far as we know…

Part 3: [link]

Part 5: [link]

(Credit for Walking with Monsters goes to Impossible Pictures and the BBC)

Description
Walking With Monsters
Part 4
The Carboniferous Period
300 MYA

Things are getting bigger and bigger on land. Plants, such as primitive ferns, have grown to enormous sizes. Most of the land is made up of gigantic swamps and tropical rainforests. These jungles and swamps will create most of the modern world’s coal, hence the name “Carboniferous” – this is the Age of Coal.

All this plant life has created a ridiculous surplus of oxygen in the atmosphere, and the arthropods of the world have ballooned to enormous sizes. The largest land-dwelling arthropod of them all is the twelve-foot Arthropleura, a relative of centipedes and millipedes. Meganeura, a relative of dragonflies, has a three-foot wingspan, and hunts among the massive trees.

Small reptiles, like Petrolacosaurus, have made their debut, but are still prey for larger beasts, like the massive Mesothelae spiders.

Amphibians, like the ten-foot Proterogynus, have their run of these swamps, but are still bound by the limitations of the water.

Yet, as the world becomes cooler and dryer, these massive forests will vanish – and the great arthropods will vanish with them.

A note on the Spider: shortly after the animation for “Walking with Monsters” was completed, the ancient invertebrate Megarachne, long thought to be the largest spider in history, was discovered to be a Sea Scorpion instead. The producers, unable to retract the creature’s appearance, simply called it “Mesothelae”, after an ancient family of spiders that were around during that time. None of them grew anywhere near this big.

As far as we know…

Part 3: [link]

Part 5: [link]

(Credit for Walking with Monsters goes to Impossible Pictures and the BBC)