Imagine living in the Devonian Period, a time around 400 million years ago when the world was a totally different place. You’d be surrounded by strange, giant plants and the first forests, but there wouldn’t be any flowers or grass yet. Instead of birds or mammals, the skies might be filled with giant insects, and the oceans were teeming with bizarre fish—some with armor and jaws like giant scissors! It’s also the time when the first tiny creatures started crawling out of the water onto land. You’d have to watch out for these early amphibians exploring the shores, but there’d be no dinosaurs or large land animals yet. It would feel like a mix between an alien world and a prehistoric jungle!
00:00Now, we as human beings have faced all sorts of challenges.
00:04Ice ages, tough diseases, squabbles over real estate, and so on.
00:08But let's try to go way, way back to 400 million years ago,
00:13to the times when our oceans were ruled by sea creatures
00:16and the lands barely had any animals on them.
00:19Do you think you'd be able to survive there?
00:22We're talking about the Devonian period.
00:24It started around 400 million years ago and lasted really long, about 60 million years.
00:32It's named after Devon, England, where scientists first studied rocks from this time.
00:37The world was quite different then.
00:39Our planet featured three continents, a gigantic supercontinent, Gondwana, down south,
00:45a smaller one called Siberia up north, and another medium-sized one called La Russia to the east.
00:51These landmasses were moving around and crashing into each other, making big mountains.
00:57Now, imagine if your time machine broke down and you ended up in this ancient world.
01:02You're now in a world where the land is pretty much a barren wasteland.
01:07You are surrounded by basic plants like mosses and ferns.
01:11This is the early Devonian period.
01:13There were no trees yet, but moss was everywhere.
01:17And wow, that's a lot of water.
01:18Around 85% of the Earth was covered by oceans during the Devonian.
01:23So, you see many warm, shallow, oxygen-depleted lakes around you.
01:28The first thing you notice is that breathing seems a little harder.
01:32Well, don't panic.
01:33It's all because of lower oxygen levels, around 19%.
01:37It's still enough to ignite fire, and trust me, you'll need one.
01:41But prepare to feel a bit dizzy.
01:43Luckily, there are no huge predators to run away from, but you'll probably have to do a lot of swimming.
01:50All right, at least the weather seems pretty nice, warm and steady.
01:54If you keep traveling, you'll notice that the land seems almost limitless.
01:59That's because we're on Gondwana, the biggest supercontinent of them all.
02:03Since the tectonic plates don't move around much, there are barely any mountains around, and the Earth actually feels flat.
02:11Well, not totally flat.
02:13Gondwana boasted a gigantic mountain range, akin to the Himalayas.
02:18This range was gradually breaking down, sending sediments into the ocean.
02:23Those sediments would provide nutrients that help marine life thrive.
02:27In any case, it really feels like a whole different planet.
02:30The landscape around you looks like something out of Mars, if it had water.
02:35The only question is, where is all the life?
02:39Underwater, of course.
02:41There's a reason why Devonian is called the Age of Fishes.
02:45Now, to be fair, it wasn't all fish.
02:48The conditions were perfect for certain early marine life to develop important things, like lungs.
02:54Some even gained the ability to crawl out of the water and onto land for short periods.
02:58So, if you spot a tiny lizard-like creature around the coast, don't step on it.
03:04It's your great-great-great-great-great-grandparent.
03:07Well, it's not like you'd be able to really step on it.
03:11Remember the guy from the evolution meme with a funny crocodile-like head?
03:15His name is Tiktaalik.
03:17As you can guess, it was one of the first creatures linking fish to land.
03:21And although it might look friendly, it actually has a 9-foot-long body and very sharp teeth.
03:28And yes, it can crawl.
03:30So, if you notice a huge lizard, better find a hiding spot.
03:35You'll start seeing more of those Tiktaaliks and four-legged animals in general by the middle Devonian.
03:42But let's risk our lives for a moment and dive underwater.
03:47What do we have here?
03:48Welcome to Subnautica, Earth Virgin.
03:52While the land looks very primitive, marine life is incredibly diverse.
03:57We have corals, sponge-like creatures, sea lilies, shellfish that resemble clams, and more.
04:03The oceans are filled with various critters that look fascinating and potentially dangerous.
04:09Here are some tough armored placoderms.
04:11And yes, all of them are bigger than you.
04:14These formidable fish had powerful jaws with blade-like plates as teeth.
04:20They started as tiny guys who munched on mollusks.
04:23But as time went on, some turned into massive fish-slicing monsters, reaching up to 33 feet in length.
04:29The biggest of them was Heterosteus with their scary-looking eyes.
04:33This other guy, who's named Titanicthus, with its mouth always ready to swallow you.
04:40And the largest one, Dunkley Osteus.
04:43Oh, those are $5 names, huh?
04:45And here are some smaller guys.
04:48These are the shark ancestors, the cartilaginous fish.
04:51They had small, rough scales, fixed fins, and sharp, replaceable teeth.
04:56And finally, there are tiny ancestors of our normal modern sea creatures, bony fish.
05:03They're nice and pretty harmless.
05:05They were covered in scales and equipped with maneuverable fins.
05:09You know what?
05:09I think you can cook this one.
05:12So the question is, how do you cook it?
05:14There are no trees for fuel around.
05:16Not until the Middle Devonian, at least.
05:19So you'd have to scrounge up some super-dry moss and get to work rubbing rocks together.
05:24Fortunately, the warmth of the climate would save you from freezing at night.
05:29But since there's not much stuff to burn, you might be better off sticking to a raw diet of mollusks and other early arthropods.
05:37In this world of basic plant life on land and a huge ocean around, getting food and resources would be quite tough for you.
05:45Perhaps you could stick to fishing or collecting stuff from the sea.
05:49Overall, you'd have to be really clever to live off the small amount of plant life and maybe learn a thing or two from the sea creatures about navigating the oceans.
05:59In any case, you'd have to start from scratch.
06:03Surviving in the Devonian would be quite a challenge.
06:06Our bodies aren't built for living underwater or thriving in an environment dominated by early marine life.
06:12You need some shelter.
06:14Maybe you could try to build a basic house along the shores using dirt and moss, probably.
06:20You just need to create tools and shelters using whatever resources you can find.
06:25So, get creative.
06:27Also, get used to living without clothes.
06:29Unless you make up a way to create a dress out of moss, seashells and fish bones, all Little Mermaid style.
06:36All right, all right, to make it more fair for you, let's say you ended up closer to the late Devonian period.
06:44Hey, now things are looking up.
06:47At the end of that era, the first forest started covering our earth.
06:51Now we had plants with spores, leaves and roots, and even the first plants with seeds.
06:56The land is slowly getting some life.
06:59Hooray to normal breathing again.
07:00We've got some little bugs, four- and six-legged critters.
07:05The first land vertebrates, early tetrapods, started showing up.
07:09They're pretty cool.
07:10Very early ancestors of mammals and eventually us humans.
07:14But hold on, Houston, we've got a problem.
07:17As plants started taking over the land and breaking the rocks with roots,
07:21they released tons of nutrients in the water and caused a chain reaction.
07:26The sea got filled with algae, greedy bacteria thrived,
07:30and since there was almost no oxygen in the waters, around 70-80% of the species vanished.
07:37Whoops!
07:38But hey, good news for you!
07:40Less oxygen-hungry predators in the water.
07:43However, now you have to watch out for your new land neighbors.
07:47Most of them aren't harmful, but it's better to watch out.
07:51But still, with more trees and plants around,
07:53you could make useful tools like spears, fishing hooks, and rope.
07:57During the end of the Devonian, you might even build yourself a treehouse.
08:02Picture that, in a world with the first tree ever,
08:05reaching 90 feet tall with a super-wide trunk.
08:09So, it seems like you'd be able to survive without much trouble.
08:13You might even turn into a vegetarian with all these plant options.
08:16And hey, no more itchy clothes!
08:19You could fashion something much more comfortable.
08:22And remember that dinosaurs are on their way.
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