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How Earth’s Smallest Life Caused its Biggest Death

Season 9 Episode 7 | 9m 29s

The Great Dying at the end of the Permian Period was among our planet’s darkest hours. But for the smallest among us, the story went very differently. For 3 million years, microbes ruled the Earth. But were these tiny survivors just lucky? Or did they play a more sinister role in the greatest disaster our planet has ever faced?

Aired: 08/10/26
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What about the Great Dying caused a global age of mutant plants?
During the Permian Period many tetrapods, or four-limbed vertebrates, took to life in the trees.
Around 300 million years ago sails were all the rage, but we're still not sure what they were for.
Life begins to rebound after the destruction of the mass extinction ending the Permian Period.
An apocalypse ended the Permian Period 252 million years ago, wiping out more than 80% of species.
The first saber-teeth and tusks evolve in the Late Permian and our ancestors, the cynodonts, appear.
An extinction in the Middle Permian decimates life, from a fossil reef to our ancient relatives.
The first herbivorous vertebrates evolve on the side of the amniote family tree leading to mammals.
Seed plants and amniotes adapt to dry climates, helping them thrive on Pangea in the Permian Period.
How did Homotherium evolve to be so successful? The answer may lie in the rise of the Tibetan plate.