What was the Earth like at the time of the Giant Insects ? | Documentary History of the Earth

🌍 Have you ever come face to face with a dragonfly the size of a hawk?
If you had walked on the surface of the Earth in the Carboniferous period, it could have happened. When people talk about gigantism, they tend to think of the famous dinosaurs that roamed the Earth during the Jurassic, 150 million years ago. However, dragonflies, millipedes, spiders and even scorpions once reached exceptional sizes. This amazing evolution is due to the constraints imposed by the living environment.
But how did insects so small reach such large dimensions? And why did they become extinct?

🔥 As a reminder, videos are posted on SUNDAYS at 18:00.

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💥 Earth in the time of giant insects:
- Insects are everywhere. They are one of evolution's greatest hits. Three-quarters of all animals are insects. Their numbers are exceptional. All around us, billions upon billions of insects fly, swim and walk without us seeing them. Their mass is 300 times greater than that of mankind. Their small size means that we often ignore them. There was a time on Earth when insects did not go unnoticed. It is a very ancient history that is the result of an accumulation of adaptations, each one more surprising than the last. From flying insects with a wingspan of 70 centimeters to giant millipedes up to 3 meters long, these are creatures that actually walked the surface of the Earth more than 350 million years ago. When did insects begin to conquer the land? And how did they reach such exceptional sizes?

All insects are arthropods, with a rigid cuticle or carapace called an exoskeleton and a body divided into segments. Each has a pair of jointed appendages. Arthropods include insects, crustaceans, spiders and centipedes. The body of these creatures is divided into three parts: the head, thorax and abdomen. The head consists of antennae, eyes and mouth. The thorax has three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings. The abdomen is divided into several segments, has no appendages and the genital openings open at the end. Crustaceans were the first animals to leave the water. Hexapods needed multiple adaptations to differentiate themselves from these crustaceans. The largest and most important adaptation was the appearance of wings.

425 million years ago, a few million years after the first plants began to invade the land, the first animals also ventured out of the water.
These first curious creatures are segmented beings, the ancestors of our millipedes. At first they stayed close to the water. Then they venture into the mosses, which contain moisture and food through plant debris and spores. As these myriapods are initially adapted to aquatic life, they must evolve. They develop an external skeleton and a different way of breathing. Myriapods are equipped with a system of respiratory tubes, called tracheae. Each tube leads to the side of the carapace and divides into an increasingly fine network that leads to organs and tissues, even penetrating into each cell to bring oxygen to them.

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🎬 In today's program:
- 00:00 - Introduction
- 01:40 - Who are insects?
- 04:07 - The emergence of insects and their evolution.
- 11:36 - The wings of insects
- 14:47 - Fauna, flora and giant insects in the Carboniferous period.
- 19:55 - The Carboniferous Flora
- 25:37 - The richness of the Carboniferous flora implicated in the phenomenon of gigantism
- 27:15 - What are giant insects?
- 27:28 - Arthropleura
- 28:45 - Meganeura monyi
- 31:58 - Pulmonoscorpius
- 32:55 - Megarachne
- 33:40 - Giant insects are not alone...
- 34:31 - Marine life
- 40:40 - Terrestrial Fauna
- 43:40 - A great novelty in animal life: the appearance of the amniote
- 48:37 - The causes of the disappearance of giant insects
- 49:52 - Oxygen levels in the atmosphere decline
- 52:22 - The Permian Mass Extinction
- 54:25 - The emergence of new winged predators
- 57:19 - Appearance of the first birds and bats
- 01:02:15 - The emergence of flowering plants
- 01:05:10 - Do giant insects still exist?

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[toastybastard]

I fully believe the narrator is in fact a giant insect

[Kapt_Klaw]

I dont even fear large carnivorous beasts, but a look at an insect larger than my ankle would send me shivers.

[jbyrne]

I didnt know there was an AI Forrest Gump narrator voice now, what a time to be alive!

[ZigZagGoon]

I appreciate them for figuring out time travel and being brave enough to capture this footage for us.

[arrayofwayz]

Imagine how the giant dragonflies really sounded when they flew. It would be mind-blowing to hear that low rumble like a helicopter almost

[keithjones]

I guess the little up-tick at the end of most of its sentences are supposed to make it sound more human. I'm not fooled.

[Katja-piwm]

I really like documentaries with AI narration. Screams of love, care and effort.

[anthdimensionalbeing]

i really do find insects and other invertebrates fascinating. They've been around for so long, are so vital to earth's ecosystems, and represent an entirely different path animal life has taken on earth. people hate them because they are so different to vertebrates but personally I just find this difference fascinating. There are so many forms of insects which can fill so many roles in the world and I think more people should learn about them instead of simply giving in to their instinctual disgust of them. These tiny animals represent one of the most successful lineages of life, persisting through extinction after extinction. it's a shame humanity in it's industriousness and careless acquisition of resources is inadvertently putting this ancient lineage of life at risk of extinction.

[donaldshono]

I want to watch this video but there is something off about the way the narrator speaks and it kinda creeps me out. It literally feels weird and uncomfortable to listen to him speak. I mean no offense if the narrator is a real person but the voice seems artificial.

[JMDinOKC]

Murray Leinster wrote a couple of novels about a group of humans who lived on a planet with gigantic insects. Most of the science is wrong but the story is still terrifying.

[jonathanhughes]

The earth’s ability to pull itself back from catastrophe climate changes again and again. From snow ball earths to volcanic hells. It’s quite amazing to see how resilient life is and how it adapts to climate again and again. It just shows that if a simple form of life can ever get started then short of getting rid of all water and earth’s deep ocean volcanic activity then life that’s simple is hard to kill off.

[dolphin.starbeam]

as a botanist, the section about prehistoric flora was a pleasant surprise! what a well made video

[RobertSmith-rgdi]

It's the inflections that get to me. Sometimes using one that doesn't fit, and sometimes using ones i can't place or understand...

[tonytwo-knuckles]

Never thought I'd be watching a documentary on giant bugs narrated by G-Man's cousin but here we are

[clausbohm]

Insects are some truly complicated beings, I imagine on some planets they evolved to be the dominants species on their planet where the environment made it so.

[crabtrap]

bottomline: Birds aren't to be trusted

[sivacrom]

Can't take the voice over artist's bizarre affectations, especially at the end of his sentences.

[jeffkerr]

I live in the philippines. Love it and the people. I sometimes get spiders in our house that are huge. Occasional cockroach and some small lizards. I'm ok with the lizards they eat ants. Cockroaches are not around enough to be an issue. But lately. 🥺Spiders with big long legs, good size body, and very fast. I dont know how they get in.

[cheyennecope]

The “spider” in the intro is not a spider. It’s a tailless whip scorpion, which is an arachnid but technically not a spider or a scorpion.

[bubbleslovebird]

This is how you do a documentary!!!
I missed watching things like this on PBS.