When Trees Took Over the World

420 million years ago, the forest floor of what's now New York was covered with a plant that didn’t look like a tree at all, except its roots were made of wood. Instead of looking up to learn about the evolution of trees, it turns out paleobotanists should’ve been looking down all along.

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[invisiblepants]

The tyranny of trees went unchallenged until beavers evolved.

[TigirlakaLaserwolf]

he's wearing that jacket so we'll talk about the video instead of how proud we are that he's committed to his workout routine

[rudolvonstroheim]

I can't believe I've never thought about how I could use all the random scientific terms I know in Scrabble before.

[mrmichaelgsavard]

My concept of the earth isn’t easily formed without an image of plants or trees—imagining eras just at the beginning of plant life is very exciting

[rasmusn.e.m]

What Blake said: Archaeopteris
What I heard: Archaeopteryx

What Blake said: Archaeopteris
What I heard: Archaeopteryx

What Blake said: Archaeopteris
What I heard: "Wait, hold up, that's not the old bird thingie he's talking about, it's a tree..."

What Blake said: Archaeopteryx
What I heard: "What? Why is the tree an early bird?"

[Clockworkcityofpain]

I get so hyped when science channels make videos about plants. They're still like 80% of all the biomass in the planet! I can't do the math but I'm pretty sure they still reign supreme over us even when humans are doing their best to cut them down.
More videos about plants and trees please!

[AccidentalNinja]

Five different kinds of wood which evolved convergently? I'd be interesting in a video on those kinds & how they differ.

[Aloddff]

Bless eons for never click baiting us in the titles

[weberwoodshop]

OMG PLEASE give us a jingle for “Convergent Evolution” that we can sing in our heads every time you say it.

[Morbacounet]

"How our planet went from the reign of algae to the rule of trees."
Laughs in phytoplankton

[dynojackal]

Now all we need to round out the evolution of plants is "How Grass Conquered the World", because I think that would be a great video.

[FWildcat]

"We've had one Xylem yes, how about second xylem?"
-2:28

[humancattoy]

That actually makes more sense. Woody roots could break rock and allow soil formation.

[charlieogre]

I used to live near Gilboa as a kid, and it never occurred to me that it was the site of one of the oldest forests in the world.

[margaretjones]

Blake, you look very nice in that sport coat/pant combo and I appreciate the heads up on the word 'xylem'. Thanks for this episode, it was mind bending to think how much trees have done for us.

[StuffandThings_]

The evolution of trees and wood is one of my favorite topics! Its very sad that we lost so many wacky woody lineages, I would do anything to see the middle-late Devonian period forests.

[epauletshark]

I have been watching LITERALLY EVERY EPISODE of eons. Again. Pretty good timing.

[jovanweismiller]

'Xylem up and phloem down' may be the only thing I remember from high school biology. LOL!

[JJ-mcvn]

It’s crazy how plants and animals both came from those tiny little things millions of years ago

[juangil]

All PBS staff is amazing. They tell these stories so well!