Trudy Myers's Blog, page 21
July 12, 2021
Hank's Widow
May 15
Prologue
The sky was overcast, the air saturated with mist, as if the entire universe found this day as sad and miserable as the hu-mans who lived through it.
In a tiny town in Nebraska, a glistening red car pulled off the graveled street and into the driveway of a small house that had seen better days, stopped close behind the ancient sedan parked in front of the garage.
The lawn was overgrown, but the driver of the sports car ig-nored the drops the grass deposited on his black suit legs and polished shoes. He opened the front door and climbed the 3 steps to the enclosed front porch, then walked into the house’s front door, into the living room. He walked forward, faced the sofa, and considered the picture frames on that wall. Each frame held a number of photos of people; some trimmed down to show only one person. He was well familiar with these frames and their contents, although some of the faces he didn’t know personally.
The final frame held his attention. Large and crowded, it held all the grandchildren. Most of them had spouses, too. Gram had been toying with the idea of getting a larger frame for the grandchildren, and to use this frame to start a collection of great-grandchildren. But she hadn’t gotten around to it.
His gaze landed on the last 4 grandchild entries, and his eyes stung. Way back when those pictures had been of babies, they had looked like quadruplets, although they weren’t. As they grew, they had each slowly developed their own look, until they looked like brothers, and not the cousins that they actually were. The 2 in the middle of those 4 were still high school graduation photos. The outside 2 were wedding pictures; one of Lyle and his extremely pregnant bride; Lyle looking bored and Gloria looking… scared.
But the picture he stared at was the other wedding photo, a snapshot of a blissfully happy couple on the steps of a large courthouse.
“Forgive me, Gram,” he muttered, then removed that frame from the wall, pulled the happy couple from the collection. In another moment, the frame was back in place and he slipped the photo into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.
Just in time.
He turned as the outside door opened and another black-suited man stepped onto the porch, paused to wipe his shoes on the welcome mat. The 2 men could have easily been mistaken for brothers. The first man stepped forward and opened the door to the porch. “What are you doing here?”
The other man held up 2 bottles of beer. “Thought we could both use one of these.”
A brilliant flash of light and deafening thunder left them momentarily dazed. Then the sky opened and rain fell in sheets. In Nebraska, a hard rain might last a few minutes or several days. They unbuttoned their suit jackets and moved forward to sit at the dining room table, unscrewed the caps from their beers.
“Got any plans for this place?” asked the recent arrival.
The first man took a pull from his drink and watched the rain through the windows. “I only half own it. So, no, not with-out talking with Hank. Keep it from falling down, I guess.”
“Well, here’s what I think.”
“You’ve started thinking?” the first man teased. “That will sure surprise your old teachers.”
The other man grinned in acknowledgement of the teasing, then let it fade. “I was thinking you should at least lock it up tight. Otherwise, Lyle’s likely to move in. And even if he didn’t, he’d probably sell everything off, piece by piece.”
“He doesn’t own it.”
“Would that stop him?”
The first one sighed. “No. Probably not.” He stood up. “Well, turn off the utilities… I can call the companies tomorrow and get them officially turned off, but I can turn things off here today. You want to check the doors and windows? And I’ll lock the front door as we go out. Once the rain settles down.”
“Sure. I’ll start with the garage and work my way back here.”
They both entered the kitchen, turned right through the washroom, out to the enclosed breezeway between the house and garage. The first man halted at the hot water heater, while the second headed to the other end of the breezeway.
The first man cleared his throat. “Bob, Lyle’s got his family at the old Jessup place.”
Bob stopped halfway down the breezeway, but didn’t turn. “I know.”
“I could ask Hank about letting them live here.”
Bob sighed. “I won’t ask you to. He has to grow up. I can’t condone bailing him out any more, Chuck.”
“You sure?”
Bob continued up the breezeway to the garage door.
July 10, 2021
Triassic Period Part 2
Now let's take a look at the inhabitants of the Triassic Period.
Three categories of organisms can be distinguished in the Triassic record: survivors from the Permian–Triassic extinction event, new groups which flourished briefly, and other new groups which went on to dominate the MesozoicEra.
To go back to the beginning, after the extinction event just before the Triassic Period began, the Earth's biosphere was impoverished. It was well into the middle of the Triassic before life recovered its former diversity. Therapsids (including what would become mammals) and archosaurs (including crocodilian reptiles) were the chief terrestrial vertebrates of this period. A specialized subgroup of archosaurs, called dinosaurs, first appeared late in the Triassic, but did not become dominant until the succeeding Jurassic Period.
The first true mammals also evolved during this period, as well as the first flying vertebrates, the pterosaurs, who were a specialized subgroup of archosaurs.
In marine environments, new types of corals appeared in the Early Triassic, forming small patches of reefs of modest extent compared to the great reef systems of modern times. The shelled ammonites (whose shell resembled that of the modern nautilus, but is not an ancestor) recovered, diversifying from a single line that survived the Permian-Triassic extinction.
The fish fauna was remarkably uniform, with many families and genera exhibiting a global distribution in the wake of the mass extinction event. There were also many types of marine reptiles. The first of the lizard-like animals appeared in the Early Triassic seas and soon diversified, and some developed to huge size during the Late Triassic.
On land, the surviving plants included ginkos, ferns, and horsetails, among others. Seed plants came to dominate the terrestrial flora. In the northern hemisphere, conifers and ferns flourished. A seed fern genus would dominate Gondwana throughout the period.
Many groups of terrestrial fauna appeared in the Triassic period or achieved a new level of evolutionary success during it. They include lungfish, Temnospondyls (early amphibians that had mostly been replaced by reptiles, they made a come-back in this period), Rhynchosaurs (the primary large herbivores in many Triassic ecosystems), Phytosaurs (looked like crocodiles, but unrelated), Aetosaurs (heavily armored and mostly herbivorous), Rauisuchians (the keystone predators of most Triassic terrestrial ecosystems), Theropods (dinosaurs but not the large kind that would come later; most were 1-2 meters long), and Cynodonts (a large group that includes true mammals, complete with hair and a large brain).
Some amphibians were among those groups that survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event. The first ancestors of frogs are known from the Early Triassic, but did not become common until the Jurassic (which comes next).
Among reptiles, the earliest turtles appeared during the Late Triassic Period.
During the Triassic, archosaurs displaced therapsids as the dominant amniotes. This may have contributed to the evolution of mammals by forcing the surviving therapsids and their mammalia-form successors to live as small, mainly nocturnal insectivores. Nocturnal life may have forced the mammaliaforms to develop fur and a higher metabolic rate.
Though the end-Triassic extinction event was not equally devastating in all terrestrial ecosystems, several important clades of large reptiles disappeared, as did most of the amphibians, groups of small reptiles, and others (except for the proto-mammals). Some of the early, primitive dinosaurs also became extinct, but more adaptive ones survived into the Jurassic. Surviving plants that went on to dominate the Mesozoic Era included modern conifers.
The cause of the Late Triassic extinction in uncertain. It was accompanied by huge volcanic eruptions that occurred as the supercontinent Pangaea began to break apart about 202 to 191 million years ago, forming one of the largest known inland volcanic events since the planet had first cooled and stabilized. Another possible but less likely cause for the extinction event might be global cooling.
Giveaway for Hank's Widow
She wanted a quiet place to pursue her writing. He's loved her since he first saw her photograph. Will her grief prevent him from claiming her heart?
Sign up for the giveaway should start on July 20th, and end on August 19th. Don't forget to sign up, and good luck!
June 26, 2021
Something Different
And now we interrupt this series of blogs to bring you a commercial break.
I've often wondered what other writers talk about in their blogs, without it seeming like they are constantly pitching their wares. I solved that dilemma for myself by talking about the various research I've done, whether or not that research had anything to do with what novel I am currently writing or editing. I hope my efforts amuse my readers.
But I am an author, and a publisher, and so once in a while, I need to inform the world what I have been doing. Buckle up, this is a speedy re-hash of the past 6-8 months.
De-Evolutionby John Lars Shoberg was published (MoonPhaze LLC) in November of 2020. It is a science fiction novel about humans who colonize a planet and cannibalize their ship to help build their colony. Then they find out that what they had thought was an example of native fauna was actually an intelligent species, although their culture had devolved in the past 100 years to that of cavemen. Will the humans be similarly effected? —It is available on Smashwords.com, Amazon, MoonPhaze.com, and possibly at your local book seller. It has been met with some success. You can find a review of it on https://jimsscifi.blogspot.com/, entry dated Saturday, June 19th, 2021.
The Stone Ship (The Stone Builders #2) by John Lars Shoberg was published in May of 2021. Although it is a sequel to The Stone Builders (Available from MoonPhaze.com), it stands on its own pretty well. It is a science fiction adventure. —The military found a large chunk of a spaceship made of stone while exploring a new star system. They assemble a group of scientists to study the artifact, and leave them there to their studies while the military ship goes off to finish exploring the system. Then an unknown ship is noticed approaching the scientists. Is it the Stone Builders, looking for their ship? Or even worse, the unknown species that managed to destroy a ship made of stone? —It is available on Smashwords.com, Amazon, MoonPhaze.com, and possibly at your local book seller. It has had the same amount of success as De-Evolution, in a shorter amount of time, although we haven't found any reviews of it at this time.
Meanwhile, I have written 2 romance novels and a short story. And I'm deep in the middle of getting them published.
Hank's Widow(Small Town Happiness #1) by Linda (NMI) Joy, my pen name for romances, will be published July 20, 2021, if I don't run into too many snags. I've already had a few, but right now I'm waiting for the cover to be finished before turning it over to the printer. —After her husband is killed in a winter traffic accident, Wanda finds in his papers a deed for a house in the middle of Nebraska. Unable to afford their Chicago apartment on her own, she decides to move to that house. In her husband's extended family, she finds 3 cousins who all look remarkably like him. Will she ever finish grieving when her husband's face is around every corner? —It is currently available for pre-order from Smashwords.com and MoonPhaze.com. I expect to get it uploaded to Amazon in the next few days, ready for that July 20th publication date.
"The Game" (Small Town Happiness #0.5) by Linda (NMI) Joy, will also be published July 20, 2021. It is a short prequel for Hank's Widow and my other romance, which is currently being edited. "The Game" is a short story happening about 6 years before Hank's Widow, which shows how the Four Cousins' close relationship fell apart. Because it is so short, (24 pages), it will only be in ebook formats, and will be bundled with Hank's Widow at no additional charge.
Waiting for Glori (Small Town Happiness #2) by Linda (NMI) Joy is hoping to be published in January 2022. I am currently doing a 2nd edit/rewrite, and I typically do 3 or 4 edits. —Gloria has finally escaped from her husband's abuse and neglect. Now she needs to figure out how to stand on her own, for her son's sake. Progress takes time, but she doesn't stop to wonder if her independence will allow her to find love.
And I have an artist working on the cover for And the Meek Shall Inherit, another science fiction novel by John Lars Shoberg. I need to go through it for one last edit, looking for pesky grammar mistakes that have managed to slip my attention before this. We are anticipating a November publication date.
AND I made a goal of publishing 4 books during 2021, so I need to find another... Perhaps one of ours that is no longer in print. There's 3 or 4 to choose from.
Wow. I tired myself out just going through the list and remembering all the stuff I still need to do. And on the other hand, I'm a little amazed at all I've accomplished. I'd like to remind all my readers, that if you've read a book—whether a MoonPhaze book or not—please help the author out by posting a blog. Goodreads is a good place to do it, if you belong, or maybe on your own blog.
Good reading!
June 21, 2021
Cover Reveal & ARC requests
I am accepting requests for ARCs with the intent that you will write a review once you've read Hank's Widow. The ARCs will be electronic, so let me know what format you want. Without any guidance from you, I will send a PDF file.
Send your request for an ARC to MoonPhazePub@hotmail.com
June 12, 2021
Triassic Period Part 1
The Triassic Period spans 50.6 million years, from 251.9 million years ago to 201.4 million years ago. It is the first and shortest period of the Mesozoic Era. It both started and ended with a major extinction event.
The Permian–Triassic extinction devastated terrestrial life. Diverse communities with complex food-webstructures took 30 million years to reestablish.
The Triassic period ended with a mass extinction which was particularly severe in the oceans. All the marine reptiles disappeared except for the ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Invertebrates like molluscs were severely affected. In the oceans, 22% of marine families and possibly half of marine genera went missing.
The vast supercontinent of Pangaea continued until the mid-Triassic, after which it began to gradually split into two separate landmasses, Laurasia to the north and Gondwana to the south.
During this time period, almost all the Earth's land mass was concentrated into a single supercontinent centered more or less on the equator and spanning from pole to pole. The Tethys Sea penetrated the east side of this continent for a good distance along the equator. There was an older branch of the ocean (called the Paleo-Tethys Ocean) north of the Tethys Sea that was now closed off by a group of moving islands that became a strip of land.
During the mid-Triassic, a similar sea penetrated along the equator from the west coast. This sea was not named in the article I read. All the rest of Pangaea's shores were surrounded by the world-ocean known as Panthalassa. Although it was not stated, my guess is that these 2 long seas coming from the east and the west along the equator finally met, and Pangaea was no more.
The sea level was consistently low compared to the other geological periods. The beginning of the Triassic saw the sea level at around present sea level, rising to about 10-20 m (30-60 ft) above sea level during the Early and Middle Triassic. Then the sea level began to rise, with it reaching up to 50 metres (150 ft) above the present sea level. It then began to decline, reaching a low of 50 metres below the present sea level, which continued into the next time period.
The global climate during the Triassic was mostly hot and dry, with deserts spanning much of Pangaea's interior. There is no evidence of glaciation at or near either pole. In fact, the polar regions were apparently moist and temperate, providing a climate suitable for forests and vertebrates, including reptiles. Pangaea's large size limited the moderating effect of the global ocean; it's continental climate was highly seasonal, with very hot summers and cold winters. The strong contrast between Pangea and the global ocean triggered intense monsoons.
The climate shifted and became more humid as Pangaea began to split apart. The Triassic may have mostly been a dry period, but evidence exists that it was punctuated by several episodes of increased rainfall in tropical and subtropical latitudes of the Tethys Sea and its surrounding land. It may be that volcanic activity helped trigger climate change during this period.
Next we'll take a look at the inhabitants of Earth during the Triassic Period.
June 5, 2021
Mesozoic Era
Okay, we're going to take a quick overview look at the Mesozoic Era, also known as the Age of Reptiles. It lasted from 252 to 66 million years ago. It has 3 Periods nestled within it; the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. It was characterized by dinosaurs, conifers and ferns, a hot greenhouse climate, and the tectonic break-up of Pangaea.
The Mesozoic began just after the largest well-documented mass extinction in Earth's history, and it ended with another extinction event.
During this era, the supercontinent Pangaea broke into separate landmasses that would eventually move into their current positions during the following era. There was not much mountain building during this era, but what little did occur took place around what is now known as the Arctic Ocean. In contrast, the supercontinent Pangaea gradually split into a northern continent, Laurasia, and a southern continent, Gondwana. (Seems like this name has been used before.) By the end of the era, the continents had split up and some had rejoined into their present forms, though not their present positions. Laurasia became North America and Eurasia, while Gondwana split into South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica and the Indian subcontinent, which would eventually slam into Asia, giving rise to the Himalayas, but not during this Era.
The climate varied, alternating between warm and cool periods. Overall, the Earth was hotter than it is today. The Triassic (first) Period was generally dry and highly seasonal, especially in Pangaea's interior. Low sea levels would have exacerbated temperature extremes. Pangaea's interior probably included expansive deserts.
Sea levels began to rise during the Jurassic (second) Period, most likely caused by seafloor spreading. The sea levels could have risen as much as 656 ft (200 m) above today's sea level. This would have flooded coastal area. In addition, the breaking up of Gondwana into smaller continents created new shorelines. Temperatures continued to increase for a time, then began to stabilize. With the proximity of water, humidity also increased, and the deserts retreated.
The climate of the Cretaceous (third) Period is more widely disputed. Probably, higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could have almost eliminated the north-south temperature gradient, meaning that temperatures were about the same across the planet, about 10 degrees Centigrade higher than today.
Dinosaurs first appeared mid-way through the first period, and became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates by early in the second period, then died out at the end of the third period. Archaic birds appeared during the 2nd period (Jurassic), evolving from a branch of dinosaurs. True birds appeared in the third period. Mammals also appeared during this era, but they remained small (less than 33 lb) until the third period. Flowering plants appeared early in the third period and rapidly diversified, replacing conifers and other gymnosperms as the dominant group of plants. But we'll take a closer look at flora and fauna as we get to those periods.
May 22, 2021
Permian Period Part 2
Mammals and reptiles could cope with the desert conditions better than amphibians, and so rose to dominate the Permian. Such dry conditions favored plants with seeds enclosed in a protective cover, rather than plants like ferns, that disperse spores. Modern trees like conifers, ginkgos and cycads appeared in the Permian.
On land, life included diverse plants and fungi. At first, a lot of the Carboniferous flora still flourished. But around the middle of the period, a massive desert covered the interior of Pangaea, and there are indications that the desert was devoid of vegetation. Even in areas where it wasn't such a stark desert, more advanced seed ferns and early conifers moved in. A number of types of plants and animals died out or became marginal elements. By the end of the Permian, swamps reminiscent of the Carboniferous survived only on a series of equatorial islands east of Pangaea that would later become South China.
The Permian saw the diversification of many important conifer groups, including ancestors of many present-day families. Rich forests were present in many area, with a diverse mix of plants. Southern Pangaea saw extensive seed fern forest, and oxygen levels were probably high there. The ginkgos and cycads also appeared.
Insects were very prevalent during the Permian, especially considering that 90% of the insects at the start of this period were cockroach-like insects. Primitive forms of dragonflies were the dominant aerial predators. Several insect groups appeared or flourished during this time, including beetles, true bugs and others.
Larger 'more advanced' types of animal life included reptiles and amphibians. A number of the reptiles seemed to be what I call the 'sail-backed' lizards, where they have bone ridges protruding from their spine and covered in skin. Some of these were herbivore and some were carnivore. I didn't find any indication of how large they might have gotten.
At some point, amphibians declined, and at least one family of the 'sail-backed' lizards was replaced with more advanced animals, including mammals and mammal-like animals. Towards the very end of the period, the first archosauriforms appeared. These were reptiles that possibly rose from the crocodile family and would go on in the next period to produce dinosaurs and pterosaurs. There were no flying vertebrates, although there was a family of gliding reptiles by the end of the period.
Also appearing late in the Permian were the first synodonts, which would evolve into mammals during the next period. Permian synapsids (the group that would later include mammals) thrived and included some large members, such as Dimetrodon. Their special adaptations enabled them to flourish in the drier climate, and they grew to dominate the vertebrates.
In the Permian sea, life was everywhere. You might have found mollusks, starfish, sea dollars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers if you went swimming, or animals very much like these modern versions. But as stated earlier, most of the marine life went extinct during the last days of this period. Nothing was said about the sharks or fish that were so prevalent in the previous period.
Could we live here? Plenty of plants are growing, at least, where it wasn't a desert, so maybe we could grow crops. Could we domesticate some of the herbivore sail-backed lizards? Would we want to? They're lizards, so they wouldn't give any milk. I have no idea how big their eggs might be, so that might be a reason to domesticate them. Okay, we'll leave some of us here to colonize the Permian, and the rest of us will go on to see what comes next.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian
May 15, 2021
Permian Period Part 1
The Permian Period is the last period of the Paleozoic Era, and it spans the 47 million years from 298.9 million years ago to 251.9 million years ago.
The Permian witnessed the diversification of two groups, the mammals (and all creatures more closely related to mammals than to reptiles and birds) and the reptiles. But I'm going to look at the conditions existing on the Earth at the time before I consider the animals that populated it.
At the time, the world was dominated by the supercontinent Pangaea, which formed when Euramerica and what was left of Gondwana collided during the Carboniferous. There was a smaller continent that lay to the northeast of Pangaea called Angara. There were also some small islands east of Pangaea called Cathaysia. Of course, with most of the land mass gathered into one supercontinent, the rest of the globe was ocean. The superocean of the time was the Panthalassa. Pangaea straddled the equator and reached for the poles (but didn't necessarily get there). This, of course, had an effect on the ocean currents of the time.
Early in this time period, Cimmeria—a string of microcontinental islands—tore off from the Gondwana area in the Southern Hemisphere and during the course of the period, moved up to join the Eurasian part of Pangaea in the Northern Hemisphere. Cimmeria included parts of today's Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet and the Malay Peninsula. The Central Pangean Mountains, which began forming due to the collision of Laurasia and Gondwana during the Carboniferous Period, reached their maximum height shortly after the beginning of the Permian, and would have been comparable to the present Himalayas.
The Carboniferous rainforest collapse left behind vast regions of desert stretching over the continental interior. From approximately 262 million years ago to 259 million years ago, a series of volcanic erruptions in what is now China (was then part of Pangaea) led the way to an extinction event. This was compounded when a similar series of volcanic activity over a wide swath of Siberia (then located in Angara) continued to change the atmosphere. This mass extinction event ended the Permian Period, and started the next period. It was the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, with nearly 81% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species dying. On land, it took 30 million years into the next time period for the ecosystems to recover.
Sea levels were mostly stable during the Permian, at several tens of meters (yards) above the present level. There was a sharp drop at one point, producing the lowest sea level of the entire Palaeozoic Era, roughly the same as today's level.
At the start of the Permian, the Earth was still in an icehouse. Around 323 million years ago, glaciers began to form around the South Pole, which would eventually cover a vast area of the southern Amazon Basin, Southern Africa, Australia and Antarctica. The coldest period was around 293 million years ago. By 285 million years ago, temperatures warmed, and a great deal of the ice retreated, although some glaciers remained. The Permian was cool compared to other time periods, at least until those volcanoes started pouring CO2 (a greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere.
It sounds like the Permian had a lot of diverse climates and ecosystems, right? So as long as we stayed away from that awful desert, we should be able to find a nice place to live. So let's take a look at the neighbors we'd have in the next blog.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian
May 8, 2021
Carboniferous Period
The Carboniferous Period spanned 358.9 million years ago to 298.9 million years ago. On a time table, it sits behind the Devonian Period and before the Permian Period.
In the Early Carboniferous Period, average global temperatures were approximately 68 F (20 C). During the Middle Carboniferous, they dropped to about 54 F (12 C). Carbon dioxide levels fell during the period from roughly 8 times today's level at the beginning to about the same as today's level at the end. Lack of growth rings of fossilized trees suggest a lack of seasons, or a tropical climate. Glaciations in Gondwana were triggered by its southward movement, and continued beyond this time period.
Also, there was mountain building as continents collided to form Pangaea. There was a minor extinction event at the end of the period, caused by climate change.
Now, the last we heard, pieces of Gondwana had broken off and were sitting at the equator or slightly north, while the rest of Gondwana drifted south to the south pole.
During the Carboniferous Period, the land was covered by vast forests, which would eventually become the coal beds characteristic of this period's stratigraphy. Some of the Early Carboniferous land plants were very similar to those of the Late Devonian, but new groups also appeared. The main plants of the early period were horse-tails, scrambling plants, club mosses, scale trees, and ferns. The club mosses of this period are cousins to today's tiny club-moss, but not ancestors; and they had trunks 30 meters high and up to 1.5 meter in diameter. Another type of large tree was ancestor of today's ferns. These continued throughout the period, but late in the period, they were joined by cycads (a new form of 'seed fern') and plants related to conifers.
At least one tall plant (6 to over 30 meters tall) was related to cycads (often mistaken for palm trees) and conifers and are thought to have lived in swamps. True conifer trees appeared later in the period and preferred higher, drier ground.
During this period, animals and bacteria had great difficulty processing the lignin and cellulose that made up the gigantic trees. After the trees died, they piled up on the ground, occasionally becoming part of long-running wildfires after a lightning strike. Others very slowly degraded into coal. White rot fungus was the first living creature that could process these trees and break them down.
Animal life was well established by now. Amphibians were diverse and common by the middle of the period, the dominant type of land vertebrates. Some were as long as 6 meters, but most were probably about 6 in (15 cm) in length. Some were aquatic and lived in rivers, while others may have been semi-aquatic. One branch of amphibians would eventually evolve into the first solely terrestrial vertebrates. The cooling climate slowed the evolution of amphibians, who could not survive as well in the new conditions.
Insects, spiders, crustaceans, and others were also very common, and many were much larger than those of today. The atmospheric content of oxygen reached its highest level in Earth's history—35% compared to today's 21%—which allowed the land invertebrates to get so large. There was a millipede-like creature that grew to 8.5 ft (2.6 m) long. Startling to come across, but if you could kill it, there should be some meat on all those legs. This was the largest known land invertebrate of all time. Among the insects, there were the griffinflies, which included a dragonfly-like insect with a wingspan of 30 in (75 cm). This was the largest flying insect ever to roam the planet. Many other insects flew and crawled about, including cockroach ancestors.
Reptiles, however, prospered due to specific adaptations, such as the amniote egg, which allowed the laying of eggs in a dry environment. Some of the small lizard-like animals gave rise to many descendants, including reptiles, birds and mammals.
I wanted to include a statement about the marine animals of the time, but that section of the article was mostly full of names and little else. I did gather than sponges were fairly prolific and diverse. Also sharks evolved into a multitude of shapes and sizes. Although sharks were mostly sea creatures, there was one type that would sometimes visit swamps. At least one marine fish explored river outlets, and fresh-water fish were common in rivers.
During the latter half of this period, there were glaciations, which meant low sea levels. The cooling and drying of the climate led to a minor extinction event at the end of the period. The tropical rainforest fragmented and then was devastated by climate change.
