16) Forests evolve

The first forest are thought to have been composed of plants with a structure similar tree ferns, such as these growing in temperate rainforest in Tasmania’s Takayna, now threatened by logging and mining. Image credit: © Tenzin Alex Anderson.

335 Million years ago, the first subtropical forests evolve. Over generations, these forests load themselves with carbon extracted from the atmosphere which later becomes fossilized as coal and oil. As the forests spread, amphibians transform into pre-reptilian creatures with the grand innovation of self- contained eggs that allows them to move inland. The Great Age of Reptiles begins.