The Devonian Period: life, species and extinction
Though mainly known as the ages of fishes the Devonian Period had also seen appearance of plants, trees, animals, insects, and forests. Lasted from 417 to 354 million years ago, the Devonian Period marked the emergence of different species and is a part of the Palaeozoic Era. Vascular plants like Trimerophytes and Zosterophyllophytes are known to be grown in this period.
Life in the Devonian Period
As stated above this is the period of life both in land and water. Along with marine and aquatic life there was also remarkable emergence of life on land. The major groups of animals dominating land were tetrapods and terrestrial anthropods. The earliest arachnids and wingless insects were in the later group which appeared in the Devonian period.
Species of the Devonian period: Fishes
Thousands of fishes appeared in this period from jawless fishes to fish with jaws all were prevalent in this era. At the beginning of their development fishes were without jaws and cartilages were to support their structure. Fishes known as Ostracoderms also known as shell skin fishes appeared in rock in the early part of this period.
Fishes of Placoderms species appeared with gills, jaws and paired fins. Like the Ostracoderms this fishes too had shell skins but in their neck and head areas. Dunkleosteus was the largest Placoderms in the seas of the Devonian period. This predator had deadly jaws were really dangerous for other fishes and sharks.
In the mid Devonian age sharks and bony fishes appeared. Lobe fins are among the category of bony fishes and had fleshy lobes with pairs of fins which eventually thought to have evolved into legs of the amphibians which can live both in water and out of it. The much discussed species of bony fishes, coelacanth was also from the group of lobe fin fish. Though it was thought as a extinct but it is seen occasionally in the Indian Ocean.
Lungfishes were another species of the Devonian fishes. A type of lungfish, Dipterus developed in this period and resembled the lobe fins in its looks. This fish had the capacity to survive in less water. It could take the oxygen and air to live by sticking its head out of a ponds water.
Species of the Devonian age: The Reef Builders
Corals and sponges were prevalent in this age too and these made some of the world’s largest reefs. The Devonian seas also gave birth to different types of invertebrates of which ammonites are a species.
Trees, plants and forests in the Devonian period
Different types of plants and trees grew in the Devonian period of which the progymnosperms, ferns, , sphenophytes, and lycophytesv were the prominent categories. These plants had leaves and roots and they were taller too.
Extinct of the Devonian period
The Devonian period ended with mass extinction. The water habitats suffered from severe extinction than the land species and corals and sponges affected mostly. After thousands of years of the Devonian period there were no major reefs built in the world.
Index
Extinct Profiles
- Triassic Dinosaurs
- Jurassic Dinosaurs
- Cretaceous Dinosaurs
- Pterosaurs
- Marine Reptiles
- Dinosaur Extinction