History s Most Powerful Plants

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to http://to.pbs.org/DonateEons ↓ More info below ↓ Fossil fuels are made from the remains of extinct organisms that have been exposed to millions of years of heat and pressure. But in the case of coal, these organisms consisted largely of some downright bizarre plants that once covered the Earth, from Colorado to China. Produced for PBS Digital Studios. Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet? Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/eonsshow Twitter - https://twitter.com/eonsshow Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/eonsshow/ References: http://www.devoniantimes.org/who/pages/lycopsid.html http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/9200447/BibliographicResource_3000095543293.html Taylor, Edith L; Krings, Michael; Taylor, Thomas N, Paleobotany: The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants, Academic Press, 2nd Ed, 2008 http://science.jrank.org/pages/1531/Club-Mosses.html http://palaeos.com/plants/lycopodiophyta/lepidodendrales.html http://feedthedatamonster.com/home/2014/7/11/how-fungi-saved-the-world http://palaeos.com/plants/lycopodiophyta/lepidodendrales.html https://sites.google.com/site/paleoplant/home-1/embryophytes/polysporangiophytes/rhyniophytes/eutracheophyte/lycophytes/club-mosses/lepidodendrales https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jonathan_Wilson13/publication/309439742_Climate_pCO2_and_terrestrial_carbon_cycle_linkages_during_late_Palaeozoic_glacial-interglacial_cycles/links/5811fa2508ae9b32b0a37ac2.pdf http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1755-6724.13061/full https://www.researchgate.net/profile/William_Dimichele/publication/284104574_Arborescent_lycopsid_productivity_and_lifespan_Constraining_the_possibilities/links/571e604108aed056fa226d68/Arborescent-lycopsid-productivity-and-lifespan-Constraining-the-possibilities.pdf http://www.geologyatsheffield.co.uk/sagt/morphology/ https://books.google.com/books?id=wbZGAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=lepidodendron+fast+growing&source=bl&ots=3gdQ9ChJ3P&sig=8Zio7mUdoBqj7tHbY8m3ulzis_s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiy1YmA0pTVAhXr6oMKHdrvAEMQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=lepidodendron%20fast%20growing&f=false http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/07/the-fantastically-strange-origin-of-most-coal-on-earth/ https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/7416/paleo_2005_DiMichele_et_al_PCAS_56%28Suppl_I%29_HR.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y http://www.ameghiniana.org.ar/index.php/ameghiniana/article/view/1583 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1755-6724.13061/full https://www.researchgate.net/profile/S_Naugolnykh/publication/261171288_Fossil_flora_from_the_Aleksandrovskoe_locality_Lower_Permian_Kungurian_Krasnoufimsk_district_of_the_Sverdlovsk_Region_Taxonomical_composition_taphonomy_and_a_new_lycopsid_representative/links/0a85e5335cb34e4b6f000000.pdf