What was the Earth like during the 5 Mass Extinctions ? | History of the Earth Documentary

life is a natural phenomenon known today exclusively on Earth life is characterized by the fact that it can reproduce itself identically the presence of water a metabolism and an ability to maintain physical and chemical parameters the earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago no form of life and habits in its primitive form it does not look like the planet we know today covered by a thick extremely hot atmosphere the Earth has an orange hue its surface is totally unrecognizable everything is so quiet so empty So Silent dear traveler good morning today we are going to explore the past of our planet to follow the Journey of life before leaving for a new adventure remember to like the video And subscribe to the channel so you don't miss it thank you and have a nice trip [Music] with time the Earth cools down the water contained until then in its primitive atmosphere becomes liquid the hydrosphere appears it starts to ring water fills the depressions and the oceans are formed life appeared on Earth 3.5 billion years ago about 1 billion years after its formation at the beginning in the form of simple unicellular organisms they evolve in an aquatic environment and are small in size about a few tenths of a millimeter little by little the cells grouped together and move closer together they absorb sunlight water and gas they develop and invade the seabed in several million years the cells perfect themselves and gather they will form multicellular beings of various shapes and sizes larger than the unicellular ones a single nucleus not being able to control a too large quantity of cytoplasm multicellular organisms see their cells associate in tissues which will allow them to accomplish functions 540 million years ago a real explosion of diversity occurred the Cambrian explosion the ideal conditions are met for the evolution of many species of marine animals the oceans were filled with living creatures similar to jellyfish shrimp and worms some species kill each other and get bigger and bigger from the abyss to the surface of the water The Aquatic world is teeming with life green seaweed grows in the shallow Waters and will evolve to become the first plants to grow on land mosses cover the land areas [Applause] today our planet has an extraordinary wealth and diversity of animals and plants and yet the history of life is not a calm one the latter has not been spared and it has undergone great upheavals having each time consequences on its evolution today the forces of nature seem calm and the Earth seems to have found its balance and yet a species is wiped out from the planet every 20 minutes the equivalent of seven soccer fields are deforested every hour after the five Great cataclysms that led to the five greatest mass extinctions it would seem that the Earth is once again entering a brutal phase of upheaval in the climate and the composition of life but let's go back to these periods of change that were decisive for the evolution of the fauna and Flora as we know it today on our planet we are in the second of the six systems composing the Paleozoic the ordovician which lasts from minus 488 million years to minus 443 million years this new period begins following the Cambrian Extinction probably due to an asteroid impact at the beginning of this period life existed only in the sea a continental and shallow sea the animal world was dominated by trilobites and brachiopods which had a great evolutionary success in the Paleozoic on land it is nothingness oxygen is rare neither plants nor animals can develop the supercontinent gondwana includes all the continents of the Southern Hemisphere and is surrounded by the ocean panthalasa in which all living species are swarming more than 490 million years ago before the ordovician period the atmosphere was heavily filled with CO2 which induced a greenhouse effect and consequently very high temperatures the oceans reached up to 45 degrees Celsius or more than 113 degrees Fahrenheit the photosynthesis reaction of the first living beings slowly pumped the CO2 out of the atmosphere the sea is cooled which led to even more biodiversity the ordovician is more than favorable for the proliferation of life and evolutionary radiation the number of genus and families almost quadrupled compared to the Cambrian the species that dominates is that of trilobites these Marine arthropods can measure between one millimeter and 70 centimeters in length the majority being between two and seven centimeters or almost three inches this group is hyper Diversified since it is not less than eighteen thousand seven hundred fifty species that are represented the trilobites have a very specific Anatomy they are formed of two lateral lobes surrounding a median lobe the longitudinal trilobation and a head called cephalon they have a solid exoskeleton it is thanks to the molt that fossils of exoskeleton could be found thereafter the main organs of the digestive system are located in the rakis as in other arthropods their muscles are striated and the nervous system consists of a cerebral ganglion and an optic nerve leading to the faceted eye a voluminous dorsal vessel made up of Hearts pumps colorless blood trilobites live only in water with a great preference for the substrates constituting the bottoms of seas oceans and lakes they feed mainly on invertebrates such as worms thanks to their legs covered with spines the trilobites catch the worm and tear it before bringing it to its mouth the trilobites laid eggs of a size of 200 micrometers the genital pores are located at the back of their head brachia are lofotrocosoan animals a major group of the mollusk glass the protostomyans which live exclusively underwater their shell has two valves with a particular symmetry since instead of being positioned on the right and left they are located ventrally the peduncular valve and the larger and dorsally the brachial valve the smaller the shell of a brachiopod is distinguished by the existence of a spiral brachial skeleton that lends itself to be the support of the loaf of four an organ near the mouth that contributes to the feeding of the animal from the low four tiny filaments trap Plankton and deposited in the mouth brachiopods live permanently attached to their substrate foreign is going well on Earth and life is proliferating at the end of the Milky Way a few thousand light years from Earth a star at the end of its Evolution explodes into a supernova intense radiation energy emerges from its poles and releases a remarkable quantity of gamma rays in 10 seconds the explosion of gamma rays produces more energy than a thousand suns at a speed of 300 000 kilometers per second or a hundred seventy thousand miles per second bees Rays cross the universe and reach the Earth they first pass through the atmosphere and annihilate the air molecules only 10 seconds after the explosion it is the return to calm and yet the future of each species is now threatened in the middle of the day a second star shines next to the Sun the Supernova shines and Will Shine for a few more months before disappearing almost a third of the ozone layer has been destroyed by gamma rays the ultraviolet rays of the sun can now pass through the atmosphere the Earth becomes a furnace and the 50 times more intense sunlight is literally intolerable the organic matter that Plankton feeds on is totally burned by the Sun the Plankton eaters are in turn deprived of food the trilobite larvae that incubate in the surface waters do not survive the intensity of the solar rays their reproductive cycle is strongly compromised and the adults become the prey of predators the corals are decimated in just a few weeks the whole food chain is disrupted in the tropics the rays are even more violent and cause the death of coral reefs the DNA of all plant and animal species is damaged the trilobites become scarce in their turn and it is the beginning of the hunger for the big predators orthoceras and Europe toroids then fight a merciless War orthoceras are cephalopods with univalve shells that can measure from a few centimeters to 11 meters long or from a few inches to 36 feet they are the main predators of the Paleozoic Era the euryptorids are chelocerat arthropods they are frequently called sea scorpions because of the resemblance to Modern scorpions but they can reach up to two meters long or seven feet uriptoids are the largest arthropods to have existed on Earth in the atmosphere nitrogen and oxygen molecules are turned upside down and transformed into a harmful gas nitrogen dioxide this newly formed gas will spread in a layer allowing harmful ultraviolet rays to pass through but not the heat which is however an elemental element for the maintenance of life temperatures fall and a period of glaciation begins the ocean teeming with life degenerates into an ocean of misery the eggs laid in the cold no longer develop fortunately since ultraviolet rays do not reach the depths some species such as uriptoids and nautiloids take refuge in the shallows of the oceans in order to survive more than 500 years later the report is alarming all forms of life on Earth are threatened and a third of the fauna has already disappeared a hundred fifty thousand years later the ordovician fauna is dying slowly the cold is intense the planet is cooling down year after year famine is rampant and predators are becoming scavengers the glaciers suck the water out of the oceans until the water level drops by 50 meters or more than 165 feet the shallows dry up and thousands of animals are left for dead nevertheless some species manage to adapt to this new climate and these new living conditions like the astropis with a small size not exceeding 15 centimeters or 6 inches the astrapis is one of the few primitive fish species it has a primitive backbone and a bony carapace that protects the spine this animal is the ancestor of all vertebrates existing today from birds to reptiles through mammals and humans the astrapis does not give the impression of being robust at first sight it feeds on microbes and algae and is a prey and not a predator however it will adapt and flourish during this period of glaciation it adapts better to the cold than any other Aquatic species and will follow the retreating ocean compared to carnivorous species that feed only on a particular prey and therefore cannot survive when that prey disappears The astrapis does not make the difficulty it feeds on everything it finds very quickly new varieties of Fisher eye with new evolutions the arteries and muscles will form the first Gill which will facilitate the sorting and absorption of food and will later give the jaws of vertebrates the Europe terrid also follows the movement of the oceans and survives by taking the place of the orthoceris in the food chain the cold persists and gigantic icebergs form under the surface destroying everything in their path The Aquatic habitats are reduced [Music] 500 000 years after the gamma-ray burst two-thirds of the animal world disappeared temperatures on the planet are finally starting to rise thanks the gradual influx of CO2 from volcanoes little by little the Glaciers are melting this new climate change upsets the species and pushes them to adapt again seventy percent of the species disappear forever from the surface of the Earth following this Extinction [Music] during the millions of years that follow the orthoceris is weaker than ever but still present it is smaller weakened and becomes an easy prey on the contrary the Europe terrid becomes a ferocious predator with a decrease of the water level the sea scorpions saw developing its lungs allowing its blood to circulate through the tissues and to recover oxygen it is now ready to venture onto the shore it becomes as big as a crocodile and a feared predator a camthodians fish cousins of astrapis are also subject to extraordinary evolutions they now have Jaws that allow them to cut flesh from the carcass they who used to feed on microbes and algae climb the ladder in the food chain the planet is in remission but the toll is heavy it is gradually regaining its tropical climate and is seeing its water levels rise and Aquatic habitats being recreated all the fish we know today come from species that appeared at this time but the Earth is about to undergo another cataclysm During the devonian period the panthelosa ocean still covers a large part of the Earth the supercontinent proto-gondwana is located in the South and is slowly moving northwards while many islands and archipelagos are spread out on the equator the climate is warm between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius or almost 86 degrees Fahrenheit more than 200 million years have passed and tranquility and in the vast ocean animal life proliferates with abundance coral reefs cover millions of square meters these ecosystems are populated by sponges trilobites mollusks nautiloids and brachiopods fish are also present and have evolved a lot placoderms impose themselves as the new species of fish on the front equipped with bony plates covering the front part of their body they are now equipped with fins a new space of displacement is offered to them they can take height and escape the terrible scorpions of the Seas they are the first pelagic fish another new characteristic makes their strength their jaw which articulates from now on they are able to tear and bite armed and harmful placoderms are outstanding predators that hunt everything within their reach from then on aquatic vertebrates were divided into two major classes fish with radiating fins which still make up 50 percent of vertebrates today and fish with fletchy fins equipped with lungs allowing them to breathe in the open air and which would evolve much later into tetrapods foreign [Music] vegetation evolved and became luxury thanks to a warm and humid climate Ferns and lycopods abound and tiny insects proliferate in the absence of herbivorous species to limit the spread vegetation abounds and the first forests appear the first broad-leafed plants appear and by the same token the photosynthesis reactions that contribute to enrich the atmosphere with oxygen the first proto-legs develop on some fish because in order to be protected from predators they are led to take refuge in the waters of rivers lagoons or mangroves in these shallow Waters roots and vegetation are intertwined creating a cramped space in which the fish will have to use its fins differently it clings spreads flattens so much so that they are no longer useful for swimming and evolve in a few million years into proto-legs at the end of the devonian some fish with fleshy fins evolved into tetrapodomorphs like the tiktalik it is an intermediate species between the fish and the tetrapod it can reach up to two meters long and sees its body in its head flattened in order to keep the body in water but to be able to take out the head to breathe even if it can also breathe underwater it is physically similar to the crocodiles of today it is only 30 million years later that the first aquatic tetrapods were born such as ichthyostega which will be one of the most important transitional links between Marine vertebrates and exclusively terrestrial vertebrates the first tetrapod to move on land arrived sometime later it is a kantha stega during several million years it will make Journeys between the Aquatic environment and the land until becoming completely terrestrial scorpions and spiders also join these tetrapods outside the water [Music] the devonian extinction will extend over some three million years following a series of events it all starts under present-day Siberia in the heart of the Earth where an ocean of magma is bubbling a giant plume an upwelling of Hot Rocks from the Earth's mantle is being formed it eventually breaks away from the magma pierces the Earth's crust and explodes extremely hot gases are projected under the surface of the Earth the water begins to boil an underwater earthquakes annihilate the reefs the Colossal eruptions reach areas of 60 square kilometers with an energy equivalent to a thousand nuclear bombs in the surroundings millions of fish die under the Heat the giant plume continues its conquests of the Earth the prosperous Animal Kingdom that reigned is annihilated the activity of the tectonic plates intensifies the ocean floor cracks and new oceanic crust and underwater volcanoes are formed another consequence of the plume is that it poisons the ocean because when the molten lava comes into contact with the sea water it releases many metals such as iron magnesium gold and silver toxic substances everything leads us to believe that the apocalypse is near the Earth will never be the same again [Music] eight thousand years have passed the ocean continues its battle for survival without respite but it is now the Earth's atmosphere that is under attack thousands of tons of toxic Gases such as carbon dioxide are slowly released into the air loading it with greenhouse gases the temperature rises the ocean currents which were previously assured by a redistribution of heat stop and the world freezes the water of the oceans reaches 32 degrees Celsius or 90 degrees Fahrenheit The Aquatic environment dies the trilobites do not survive [Music] 250 000 years later the giant plume continues to trigger volcanic eruptions the vegetation takes advantage of these favorable conditions for its proliferation to develop an abundance the planet becomes a paradise for plants that need sunlight carbon dioxide and water vegetation flourishes and many leaves fall to the ground this accumulation of plants rots over the years and forms the first layer of hummus on the planet like a rich and deep soil the darker part of the story is that when it rains the soil is washed into the ocean the algae absorb the nutrients and grow unchecked the Seas become saturated with plants north of the equator the ocean is nothing but bacterial sludge and looks like a cemetery a few Dunkleosteus large arthradiar placoderms fight against starvation but their appetite and the lack of food forces them to cannibalism even if the animal kingdom seems to be dying out some of the more resistant species are developing astonishing ways to adapt their new world this is the case of the modern Paces in Australia this small fish that fits in one hand is able to crush a shell with its teeth but its strength lies elsewhere this viviparous fish protects its young in its abdomen a fundamental characteristic for its survival at one of the worst times of the planet please 750 000 years after the giant plume eruptions are now hitting the Earth a gigantic volcano is preparing it is in present-day western China that the eruption takes place lava geysers reaching hundreds of meters in height gush out a cloud of Ash is formed on the whole Sky which takes a reddish orange color a black veil hides the light while the Earth had been functioning as a huge Greenhouse for several thousand years the volcanic gases that now mask the sun's rays will plunge the planet into a volcanic winter the temperature the oceans will drop from 32 to 21 degrees Celsius or from 90 degrees Fahrenheit to 70 degrees Fahrenheit fish eggs and Plankton are eradicated in Greenland River tiktalik survive but the first snowfall will surprise them the Earth which was tropical cools down and the Frozen Waters will bring the tiktalics to their loss they die out little by little until they Disappear Completely the volcanic winter ends 1.5 million years after the beginning of the plume the plume is finally extinguished 70 of the species have perished the ocean is now a gigantic empty bathtub the reefs that once covered 5 million square kilometers are reduced to a few thousand the Earth is devastated emptied it becomes a hostile world microscopic bacteria and algae invade the ocean floor so much so that one would think one was back in the Precambrian era the tree is still present will produce oxygen and contribute to the rebirth of the Earth temperatures stabilize and life diversifies again especially in the tides during the Permian the two continents larasia and gondwana merged to form a new supercontinent Pangea this movement of the continents modified the climate giving the earth a completely different shape and allowing New Life to develop immense arid deserts and mountain ranges cover the surface of the planet the water level decreased considerably and a new ocean was formed the tethus from east to west of Pangea temperatures on the surface of the Earth vary between zero degrees Celsius and 40 degrees Celsius or range between 32 degrees Fahrenheit and 104 degrees Fahrenheit in a single day the forms of life are diverse we find plants reptiles amphibians at the Aquatic level mollusks echinoderms and brachiopods develop animals adapt to these new climatic conditions and develop ways to regulate their body temperature dimetrodon and adaphasaurus mammalian reptiles develop dorsal veils and thermoregulatory power that allowed them to vary their body temperature by absorbing or evacuating Heat others will mutate and evolve like the thrapsids by developing a fur as a means of protection one of the feared Permian Predators is the gorgonopsian an animal measuring up to 5 meters or 16 feet long and with a jaw that is two 12 centimeter long canines a fearsome Predator that feasts on various species such as dictons and scudosaurs some species become bipedal and flying animals made their appearance 252 million years ago a hundred kilometers below the surface of the Earth bubbling magma accumulated there for thousands of years is preparing for an unprecedented attack in Siberia the volcanic pressure reaches its peroxism violent shocks are felt molten rock that was previously buried under the Earth's crust bursts out into the open the ground splits in two for about 30 kilometers that is to say 18 miles it is a real tidal wave of Liquid Fire a lava flow quickly covers the equivalent of the surface of Florida in only 48 hours and it doesn't stop there While most volcanoes explode and stop between their periods of activity the eruption of the Siberian traps is manifested by a basaltic outpouring that continued over the years Pangea is soon completely won by the anger of the volcano installing a dangerous natural imbalance life near the traps is instantly decimated the surviving animals try to flee far from Siberia but the consequences of this catastrophic event will not let them rest ten years after the eruption volcanic gases that have accumulated in the atmosphere are causing climate changes carbon dioxide and sulfur dissipate from the Earth's crust sunlight becomes obscured and the trapped heat results in decades of unstable weather patterns the alternation of cooling and warming phases makes the balance of Life impossible all areas of the Earth are affected in South Africa 24 000 kilometers or 15 000 miles from Siberia survivors are beginning to struggle to breathe the temperature rises a few degrees and the oxygen level drops the respiratory system of listosaurs or gorgonopsians cannot withstand the lack of oxygen predators and prey share the same battle the thronexadon a small animal that one would have thought easily defeated seems to be favored by evolution it shows a great resistance to heat because of its small size and faces air pollution thanks to the Bony structure of its face which allows it to breathe and shoe at the same time it's community life also allowed it to enjoy a solidarity during this cataclysm and to lighten the burden such as feeding or defending itself the proterosokus an ancestor of a dinosaur that resembles a crocodile also makes its place in the chaos its cold-blooded body allows it to withstand the heat better than warm-blooded species while needing less food 25 years pass after the eruption and the molten rock continues to spread when it comes into contact with the air it congeals into a black mountain on which no life is possible the animals that live in these regions must leave some die of hunger half of the gorgonopsians are decimated in Northern Asia as a new catastrophe is brewing sulfur dioxide mixes with water vapor and creates sulfuric acid acid rain now falls on the planet completely destroying the vegetation trees turn black leaves fall off entire forests are devastated animals that can't hide are dying our distant ancestor the thronexadon manages to find shelter 50 years after the beginning of the cataclysm the volcanic eruptions remain the Siberian traps are located on a coal Reserve the methane it contains is suddenly released and much more powerful than carbon dioxide it contributes to the greenhouse effect the warming accelerates the plants which are the base of the food chain perish under the Heat and famine sets in large herbivores like dictadons are not spared this species which spent its day to graze disappears progressively and consequently its Predators like the gorgonopsians also some species take advantage of this hostile universe the proterosuchus a cold-blooded animal spends much less energy in this environment where it is always warm the thronexadon becomes a scavenger and feeds on remains insects and amphibians 1 000 years after the eruption life on Earth is on the verge of total Extinction the floods linked to the spring Monsoon carry millions of tons of dead plants to the Sea transforming it into a huge landfill that putrefies under the effect of the Heat oxygen in the ocean becomes scarce and the Rocks become black the ocean floor is covered with Corpses only the bacteria survive the majority of the species that dominated the Marine ecosystem disappeared by emptying itself of its oxygen the ocean welcomes a completely different species of microbe that produces hydrogen sulfide a harmful gas if present in significant quantities in the atmosphere propagated by the winds hydrogen sulfide poisons the whole planet leading to the loss of many animals the protera sulcus seems to be protected against the effects of this gas but will there be a future for it on Earth [Music] a hundred fifty thousand years after the extinction the lava flow is now 1600 meters or 5200 feet deep a tiny fraction of the species that still survive are trying to adapt again and again the lystrosaur is now smaller and able to survive without food or water for longer their path crosses that of another herd and their meeting will give birth to a new and even stronger generation among which the best Will Survive the great Extinction the dictatons and the gorgonopsians are not so lucky and disappear foreign two million years after the eruption all forms of life seem extinct all or almost a few survivors managed to adapt to this hostile environment which did not encourage life to flourish among them the praterasukas is an outstanding Predator which represented only three percent of the population before the extinction thanks to him a variety of archosaurs which will later give birth to crocodiles is born the thronexadon also survived the cataclysm which is crucial for the subsequent emergence of man the Permian mass extinction is the most devastating in the history of the Earth 95 of all life forms disappear including 70 percent of terrestrial species such as vertebrates plants and insects and 95 of marine species 89 Genera of reptiles among the 90 existing do not survive this is a colossal regression for the history of evolution the Permian Extinction ends the Paleozoic Era we are now in the Mesozoic Era also called age of reptiles whose first period is the Triassic the Triassic period begins after the great Permian Extinction which considerably reduced biodiversity since 95 percent of marine and terrestrial life disappeared forever the Earth is a vast Immaculate expanse to be reclaimed the few survivors can now develop and flourish the planet has seen its tectonic plates come together to form the one and only supercontinent Pangea the vast panthelosa ocean surrounds it and contributes to the humidification of the coastline the interior is dry and arid it is hot on earth like a huge Greenhouse the hercuinian mountain range which was created by the Collision of the two continents larasia and protogondwana is the only one that is contributed to the climate variations on Pangea the height of these mountains blocks the clouds which causes precipitation on well-targeted regions as a result Pangea has two types of climate a hot and humid one where clouds are present in the north and a hot and dry one where clouds can't go in the south the northern slope of the hercinian chain is much more favorable to the development of vegetation and the animal world in terms of vegetation we find mosses seed plants Ferns and other horsetails the plant kingdom was less affected by the Permian Extinction than the animal kingdom but still witness The Disappearance of devonian sigularia characterized by their fossilized Trunks and lipido drendens among others it will take only a few thousand years for the Flora to be abundant again and for the vegetation to Green up on Pangea on the fauna side The Disappearance of the vast majority of species has left a large number of ecological niches free the surviving species are brought to move the animals will conquer this new environment over time they adapt evolve and diversify new species appear and the existing species evolve mutate and also give birth to new varieties much more adapted to these living conditions this is the phenomenon of speciation an evolution of Life over Generations giving rise to new species in the seas and oceans the previous Extinction had spared no one since 95 percent of the species in place were led to disappear life has nevertheless resumed its course and the oceans are gradually repopulated with new varieties of modern corals mollusks and many species of fish within a few thousand years life was once again teeming under the waters but it would never be as abundant as during the Paleozoic kendrixians distant cousins of sharks appear these fish are characterized by paired fins scales and a skeleton composed of cartilage and not bone hybridones are also found in the marine environment they evolve clearly throughout the Triassic period at first they were small about 20 to 30 centimeters or 12 inches and fed on small prey a few million years later they adapted to the salinity of the coastline and diversified reaching sizes of up to three meters long or more than nine feet they developed teeth that allowed them to tear and also to crush they then occupied the top rank of the oceanic food chain at that time before the arrival of marine reptiles it was during the Triassic period that marine reptiles developed and flocked to Marine and oceanic Waters several families of marine reptiles arose but some did not last such as placodontes marine reptiles that fed on hard prey and Crustaceans or thalatosaurians reptiles with long paddle-like tails and slender bodies the marine reptiles that made a permanent home on Earth were the ichthyosaurs or lizard fish they are Marine vertebrates that measure between 1 and 10 meters in length that is to say between 3 and 32 feet they moved in the water relatively easily and quickly thanks to their large fins and later they will also opt for a movement and successive jumps on the surface of the water like the present dolphins on land the last survivors of the Permian Extinction are the most widespread the raw sushians archosauromorphic reptiles are at the top of the food chain the most basal of the group would give rise to the archosaurs and then the pterosaurs insectivorous reptiles with a wingspan of about a meter or three feet that flew the first crocodile forms appeared the origin of the future crocodilians this lineage of archosaurs gave birth to the first dinosaurs in the upper Triassic the latter did not yet reach colossal sizes some were small like the Argentine Europe which was one meter long or almost three feet long the largest and most numerous are the platyasaurus herbivorous dinosaurs measuring up to 10 meters long or more than 30 feet long mammals managed to survive the Triassic period without difficulty the most numerous are the thorapsids the diconidons and the lysosia this animal weighing between five and six tons had a size close to that of Asian elephants it is the largest of its environment let's remember during the Permian Extinction the Siberian traps let out lava and toxic gases on the earth for a million years now the surface of the planet is calm and the Hostile desert that the Siberian traps left behind is once again welcoming and Lush to life but deep in its bowels the Earth still boils the forces that brought Pangea together a few million years ago are breaking it apart the gradual displacement of the continents is causing the magma that makes up the mantle of the Earth's crust to flow and when these forces break up Pangea lava will gush out in considerable quantities this is the beginning of a new mass extinction for several weeks a rumbling has been heard and felt in a fraction of a second Pangea is torn apart geysers of burning steam come out of the bowels of the Earth and shoot up to more than 1500 meters of altitude or five thousand feet of altitude the gigantic eruptions of burning Steam trigger an intense volcanic event a week later that leads to the division of Pangea and the formation of the Atlantic Ocean basin the volcanic eruption is triggered lava gushes out through land cracks and the magma spreads like a gigantic fire wave the cracks can reach up to several 20 kilometers or miles in length they are literally waves of flame that run until they reach animals and vegetation swallowing everything in their path nothing has ever been comparatively so violent since the birth of humanity the herbivores rushed to flee but the quills on their backs protecting them from predators slow them down and the lava catches up with them for months the lava flows the animals flee but have nowhere to go faced with this critical situation some are better equipped than others to adapt to change this is the case of the starkosaurus one of the very first dinosaurs it is one of the very few bipeds of the time which makes it a light predator in the world of quadrupeds but even in spite of his asset he will not be spared the damage of the eruption 50 years passed during which volcanic eruptions follow one another a layer of lava gradually covers the surface of the globe these eruptions produce a lot of gas dissolved in the magnet when they rise to the surface millions of tons of noxious gases are released into the atmosphere in the carbon dioxide level increases temperatures rise considerably the heat is so great that it becomes suffocating so much so that marine animals also suffer from the heat wave the Rooty had done a kind of archosaur lives in the water but is forced to venture onto land to lay its eggs this particularity of his species condemns him forever feeding itself becomes an ordeal for all of them until they eat their offspring a few decades later the heat is still imposing and now the concentration of oxygen in the air is very low it would be impossible for Modern Man to breathe in such conditions dismantasukas will bear the brunt of this low oxygen concentration although they have never feared Predators thanks to their imposing carapace they are in a bad position this time because they're respiratory and Pulmonary capacities are very limited every movement is laborious for them and they start to stay localized in the smaller areas the lack of oxygen also affects the reproduction because the eggs are not oxygenated enough for the embryo to develop the births decrease the survivors and the newborns become weaker the population of dysmata circus eventually becomes extinct which benefits the starrichosaurus the latter does not have the same physical structure its limbs are aligned with the rest of the body and therefore do not interfere with the internal organs [Music] the lungs unfold fully and it has less difficulty breathing starrichosaurus also has extra air pockets like birds and dinosaurs creating a continuous flow of oxygen through the respiratory system this is how a bird that breathes the same air as a human will absorb 30 percent more oxygen [Music] foreign the years go by and cracks appear again and again the surface of Pangea is dying and a new world is slowly taking shape fifty thousand years have passed the landscape is unrecognizable the sky is red the atmosphere is weakened in oxygen but very rich in carbon dioxide everything is a dry Horizon dotted with fires here and there the storms of Ashes destroy everything the fresh waters of Pangea become thick in the middle of this cataclysmic landscape the Routier done is looking for a place where he could be safe since his river is no longer accessible the ashes now mix with the steam creating acid rains that destroy trees and vegetation the rains last The Roots wither and the soil is washed into the ocean the ocean becomes a thick liquid polluted with all kinds of dissolved minerals and organic matter the ocean world is similarly impacted the water in turn becomes acidic and the Plankton the basis of the food chain dies then the fish and all the creatures that feed on them succumb and turn euda morphindons go along the rivers and lakes to find food but they will have to make do with the only corpses rotting on the ground it is now 70 000 years since the catastrophe began and the Earth has a new face many organisms have disappeared and others are taking advantage of the situation to spread such as bacteria these bacteria transform the ocean into a dirty place the sky turns yellow and the smell of sulfur is everywhere in this unwelcoming scenery a living being clings to the little life it has left it is our distant ancestor the mega zosterodon this small mammal has an advanced pulmonary apparatus with a membrane of muscles and tendons that separate the lungs from the rest of the organs the diaphragm this makes it easier for it to breathe despite the toxicity of the air the megazostridon also has a major advantage for its survival it is one of the first animals to nurse its young the female therefore only has to draw on her own resources to feed her offspring While others have to find food for them [Music] 250 000 years have passed since the eruption and Pangea is unrecognizable fissures run through the Earth on both sides and molten rock still flows from them the quantity of magma poured out will reach a total of about 2 million square kilometers desertification spreads over entire regions in some rare regions where life Remains the stericosaurus continues to evolve and find its place in addition to its Advanced pulmonary system it now incubates its eggs this body contact provides temperature regulation and protection the new generation emerges stronger and more robust dinosaurs are becoming more and more numerous [Music] it will be only 500 000 years after the beginning of the events that the eruptions stop this shifts in the Earth's crust definitely broke up Pangea and divided distinct continents as we know them today which favored the opening of the Atlantic Ocean the three-fourths of the terrestrial fauna disappeared forever affecting more particularly the herbivores like the desmoto circus underwater the disaster is also without appeal the coral reefs are almost all destroyed it will take six hundred thousand years for the Triassic Extinction to end it is still as hot as ever the air is barely breathable the carbon dioxide level is at its highest but our world as we know it today was born the starrichosaurus has adapted to the worst possible conditions and now the planet is his and his kind they multiply and invade the land creating new habitats and new species alongside these giant lizards we find the ancestor of the current mammals the mega zosterodon they will evolve during the next thousands of years we are now in the Cretaceous Period seen from the sky the Earth appears very familiar to what we know today the fragmentation of Pangea draws the features of our current continents the planet has no ice caps so the climate is always warm the oceans are 200 meters higher than today's level more than 650 feet higher ferns conifers and flowering plants dress the landscape reptiles still dominate The Aquatic environment although one of the largest groups the ichthyosaur Disappeared for reasons that are still quite mysterious in the air creatures reach impressive sizes like the quetzal cultists with its 15 meters or 50 feet wingspan that fly majestically the pterosaur has to be careful it is less and less present on this land of giants in fact on dry land the gigantic dinosaurs are the group of animals that is dominated and Reigns Supreme for several million years on all continents well established they evolved and diversified and new species emerged such as the Tyrannosaurus the famous T-Rex with a long powerful tale and a massive skull it measures more than 13 meters or 40 feet and can weigh up to eight tons it is the largest carnivore that has ever existed on Earth and by far the largest of its time alongside the Dinosaurs the mammals still have a place smaller in size they are no bigger than a mouse while the smallest dinosaur measures 1.20 meters or four feet two million species of animals live together at that time [Music] a few hundred thousand years before the famous cataclysm an exceptional volcanism took place at the level of present-day India its name the traps of Deccan over more than a million years lava flows fall on the surface covering more than 2 million cubic kilometers reaching in some places more than 800 kilometers or 500 miles long these basaltic flows are accompanied by emissions into the atmosphere of large quantities of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide two gases that can modify the climate these emissions of sulfur after conversion to sulfate aerosols would have induced 65 million years ago brief episodes of global cooling while CO2 would have caused a warming of three degrees Celsius or 37 degrees Fahrenheit in the longer term most likely contributing to the most famous biodiversity crisis in the history of the earth that will follow [Music] a few million kilometers from Earth in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter one of the celestial objects goes off course and heads for Earth launched several kilometers or miles per second the asteroid up to 10 kilometers or miles long lands on the earth like a bomb and forms a crater 50 kilometers or 30 miles deep in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico the energy released by the asteroid is equipped to a hundred million megatons in less time than it takes to say it the water within a radius of 60 kilometers or 37 miles turns into vapor suddenly killing millions of lives animals near the impact Bridge do not have time to feel the shock as they are hit at a speed far faster than their reaction time the vaporized rocks form a hot cloud and quickly move towards the ocean this is the shock wave everything in its path is evaporated part of the Earth itself is transformed into vapor over the entire continental United States even the mighty Tyrannosaurus will not withstand the shock wave the only survivors are those who manage to take shelter in caves fires break out North America is like a giant Inferno prey or Predators parents or children no one is spared our distant ancestor the purgatorius a mammal stays in his burrow its small size allows it to find shelter to take cover and to protect the survival of its species [Music] 10 minutes after the impact the shock wave has released all its energy but the consequences start to be felt the Earth shakes Rumblings are heard it is an earthquake of very strong magnitude cracks opened up causing the dinosaurs to fall into these deep crevices the earthquake spreads to Antarctica and causes landslides the Tremors and aftershocks lasted several days [Music] the asteroid continues to cause destructive phenomena less than an hour after the impact a giant tsunami is heading towards the coast at a speed of one thousand kilometers per hour or 620 miles per hour the size of a mountain range on the coast animals see the ocean receding then a line on the horizon growing closer and closer the tsunami hits the land catching trees animals and debris and scattering them across the landscape this wave which measures several hundred meters in amplitude or almost 1500 feet high sweeps the planet not sparing aquatic animals either the Mosasaur which can measure up to 17 meters or 55 feet is caught by the current and pushed back to the shore where it will await certain death the wave submerges the lowlands digging holes more than 300 meters or 1000 feet deep after which it Retreats with such force that it carves a new landscape a few hours later the ocean calms down and the survivors emerge from the rubble to contemplate the extent of the damage but before they could come to their senses another consequence of the impact hit when the asteroid hit the earth and dug the crater millions of tons of rock were propelled into space they are now falling back on the planet forming the largest meteor shower of all time pieces of the Earth's crust are crossing the atmosphere again for several hours the planet is in Flames all creatures are harmed the temperature climbs in a few hours and the heat becomes unbearable to the point that in some places the rivers start to boil the Earth is unrecognizable and yet some specimens resist this apocalypse the purgatorius takes Refuge underground while on the surface the dinosaur world collapses it waits for calm to return and organizes Itself by rationing its food in the Yucatan Peninsula the crater is a Caldera mountains Rose to 5000 meters above sea level more than sixteen thousand feet high one year after the impact of the asteroid the Earth is almost emptied of all life forms seventy percent of the species disappeared during this fifth mass extinction some of the smallest animals were able to survive like all those that exceeded 25 to 30 kilograms or 50 pounds the ocean was also deprived of large marine reptiles and most fish in plankton the small mammals that were hiding eventually come out Turtles snakes and crocodiles have also saved their skins by burrowing deep into the ocean and by their ability to hibernate and fast for extended periods the purgatorius one of the oldest representatives of the primates can have his revenge he who was the prey of the dinosaurs can now roam without fear on this new land its important radiation in the era that follow the paleocene played a role in the emergence of mammals and the later appearance of homo sapiens mammals become the dominant species the only surviving descendants of the dinosaurs are the birds [Music] this is the last great Extinction that will take place until today and it is thanks to this incredible Adventure that modern man has been able to take his place on Earth it All Began about 200 000 years ago a new species with a precarious survival appears in small numbers and only localized on a small part of East Africa they are at the beginning only a few thousand couples in spite of its slowness and its weakness this species shows itself fundamentally resourceful none of the constraints of the natural environment seems to slow it down it crosses rivers and mountain ranges and gradually colonizes other regions where there are prey and climate suitable for its survival wherever this species settles it adapts and reinvents itself this species our species is expanding its range on its way it crosses other beings many animals which can reach twice 10 times or even 20 times the size of its members nevertheless it reproduces faster and is sufficiently intelligent to ensure its survival it will then go beyond the water's edge Crossing seas and oceans The Story Goes On for thousands of years until our species spreads over almost the entire Earth Homo sapiens reproduces at an unprecedented rate for the first time in the history of the earth a living being changes the structure of the organic world on a global scale man eliminates forests in order to feed himself through agriculture he contributes to the transit of animals and plants on both sides of the planet and thus redistributes the components of the biosphere but the most important transformation lies in the discovery of underground energy reserves which leads to an evolution of the composition of the atmosphere such events involving such violent changes that threaten the diversity of Life had previously occurred only five times five catastrophes so damaging that they are classified in a very special category mass extinctions it is too early to say that human behavior will cause identical consequences but some scientists agree on the qualification of sixth Extinction while for more than a century a man has been improving his quality of life and his life expectancy how can we imagine that our planet Earth is doing so badly a mass extinction or biological crisis refers to an event marked by the sudden and simultaneous disappearance of more than 60 percent of the biodiversity whether animal or plant on the entire planet it is relatively short compared to the geological time scale and corresponds to a few million years [Music] in spite of its intensity a mass extinction gives the chance to certain forms of life to develop without their usual predators biodiversity is transformed and a new equilibrium is created as during the biological crisis of the Cretaceous paleogene The Disappearance of the dinosaurs left the field free for certain species ancestors of man for a few decades Studies have been carried out in order to take stock of the species that are disappearing one million animal and plant species are threatened with Extinction out of the 8.7 million species listed two-thirds of animal species could disappear in less than 80 years the history of the Earth has always been marked by catastrophes and devastating biological crises life oscillates tirelessly between periods of intense development and almost total Extinction but today the beginnings of a new Extinction seem to be looming large are we on the verge of a sixth mass extinction the future will tell us [Music]

Channel: Wondody | The World of Odysseys

Views: 449,292

Keywords: wondodi, science, space, documentary, earth, space documentary, universe, venus, mars, life on mars, nasa, abyss, ocean, maya, nature, extraterrestrial, alien, history, big bang, solar system, sun, life, water, history of the earth, extinction of dinosaurs, dinosaur documentary, origin of life, animal documentary, history documentary, natural documentary, dinosaurs documentary, dinosaurs, journey, history of the universe, earth documentary, earth history, dinosaurs ending, dinosaurs extinction

Id: ZkOPahZM3qI

Length: 75min 27sec (4527 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 15 2023