DEVONIAN

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WHEN DID IT START

419.2 (+/- 3.2) million years ago

WHAT ERA OR PERIOD

Devonian Period, in geologic time, an interval of the Paleozoic Era.

PICTURE

What makes it unique

*known as the Age of Fishes, as it spawned a remarkable variety of fish. The most formidable of them
were the armored placoderms, a group that first appeared during the Silurian with powerful jaws lined
with bladelike plates that acted as teeth.

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Major events in geologic history occurred this time

Late in the period the first four-legged amphibians appeared, indicating the colonization of land by
vertebrates. During most of the Devonian Period, North America, Greenland, and Europe were united
into a single Northern Hemisphere landmass, a minor supercontinent called Laurussia or Euramerica.

Picture
Temp, precipitation, ice ages

Scotese (2002) gave estimates of global temperatures of about 22°C through the early part of the
Devonian, dropping to about 19.5°C through the Frasnian and Famennian. This has been associated with
glaciation in the southern continents during the latest Famennian.

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Animals or life forms lived this time

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.

Plant life lived 2 organism

The vegetation of the early Devonian consisted primarily of small plants, the tallest being only a meter
tall. By the end of the Devonian, ferns, horsetails and seed plants had also appeared, producing the first
trees and the first forests.

*Ferns are an ancient lineage of plants, and one of the oldest groups of plants on Earth. Fossils of ferns
have been found all over the world, dating back to the middle Devonian period—383-393 million years
ago. Ferns were even food for herbivores (plant-eating) dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Triceratops!

*Horsetails belong to a family of plants that were widespread in the Devonian period, about 350 million
years ago. In that era, the plants were abundant, and they grew to the size of trees. The horsetails of
today, though considerably smaller, are sometimes referred to as living fossils.

*Seed plants diversified and spread in the Late Paleozoic. By the end of the Devonian, a variety of early
seed plants collectively known as “lyginopterids” appeared. These include Sphenopteris, a plant with
fern-like leaves, but which bore seeds and cupules.
Pics of organism

org appears during this time

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.

org disappears during this time

Reef building sponges called stromatoporoids and corals suffered losses and stromatoporoids finally
disappeared in the third extinction near the end of the Devonian. Brachiopods associated with reefs also
became extinct.