PBS Eons has a new episode.  This one is about the plants during the Carboniferous Period.  That’s the same time period as Mazon Creek!  This episode discusses one of just two mass extinctions of plants in the fossil record.  Spoiler… Climate Change played a big role.

The Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse set the stage for a takeover that would be a crucial turning point in the history of terrestrial animal life. If it weren’t for that time when the rainforests collapsed – in an extinction event that you probably haven’t heard of – our ancestors might never have made it out of the swamps.