How land plants shaped our planet

Plants have had a deep and lasting impact the planet since their emergence on land 470 million years ago. Join us as we explore the steps plants took to colonise the land, and the consequences this green invasion had for the land, the oceans, and the life on planet Earth.

Produced, directed, filmed, written, animated, edited and presented by five NUI Galway undergraduate science students: Elana Reilly, Karina O’Donnell, Sam Irwin, Sarah Gleeson and Simon Vokes

Huge thanks to Dr. John Murray and Professor Tracy Frank for feedback and advice on our script and to the Centre for Excellence in Learning & Teaching (CELT) for advice on editing.

Thanks also to Dr. Peter McKeown, and Dr. Karen Bacon of NUI Galway for participating and featuring in this documentary.

A sincere note of thanks to Dr. Paul Naessens of NUI Galway and Western Aerial Survey and Photographic Services for providing drone footage of the Fough River in Oughterard, County Galway.

Finally, thanks to Dangan House Nurseries for allowing us to film on site.

Image sources:

Information sources:
Algeo, T.J., 1998. Terrestrial-marine teleconnections in the Devonian: links between the evolution of land plants, weathering processes, and marine anoxic events. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 353(1365), pp.113–130.

Davies, N.S. and Gibling, M.R., 2010. Cambrian to Devonian evolution of alluvial systems: The sedimentological impact of the earliest land plants. Earth-Science Reviews, 98(3–4), pp.171–200.

Edwards, D., Fanning, U. and Chaloner, W.G., 1985. Evolution and Environment in the Late Silurian-Early Devonian: The Rise of the Pteridophytes (and Discussion). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 309(1138), pp.147–165.

Kenrick, P. and Crane, P.R., 1997. The origin and early evolution of plants on land. Nature, 389(6646), pp.33–39.

Raup, D.M. and Sepkoski, J.J., 1982. Mass Extinctions in the Marine Fossil Record. Science, 215(4539), pp.1501–1503.

Wellman, C.H., Osterloff, P.L. and Mohiuddin, U., 2003. Fragments of the earliest land plants. Nature, 425(6955), pp.282–285.

[ambulocetusnatans]

The Permian was a close call, but I'm curious how the Anthropocene will remembered in a few million years, assuming there is anything left to remember.