Eons Podcast

In the aftermath of the Great Dying, rapid evolutionary radiation resulted in the rise of a bunch of weird creatures in the Triassic Period. But life at the end of the period, including the earliest dinosaurs, faced yet another catastrophic extinction event. Could you survive in this strange time period?

A catastrophic volcanic event in the Late Permian Period caused the biggest mass extinction of all time - known to us as the Great Dying. As a result, a large majority of terrestrial life would disappear, but our ancestors had the adaptations (and the healthy dose of luck) needed to survive – but would you?

The swamps of the Late Carboniferous Period teemed with giant insects, but it’s time for the amniotes - the ancestors of all reptiles, birds, and mammals to come - to earn the title of Fully Terrestrial Vertebrates. It’s getting more crowded on land - could you survive?

The End-Ordovician Extinction was the first of the so-called ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions in the history of life on Earth - more than 80% of species in the oceans died out. But could you survive its aftermath?

In the ocean, the Cambrian Period was one of startling evolutionary innovations, but on land, it was barren, with no vegetation of any kind. In this strange world before plants made their way onto land…could you survive?

By the end of the Devonian Period, the land had exploded with plant life and ancient invertebrates. There was also Tiktaalik - one of the first known vertebrates able and willing to move from the water to land. Our distant relative figured out how to survive in this dramatically different environment, can you?