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The Age of Mutant Plants

Season 9 Episode 10 | 11m 06s

Around 252 million years ago, as the Permian Period transitioned into the Triassic, there wasn't much life on Earth left. Landscapes had been torched an entire ecosystems had collapsed. But the fossil record is full of something else, too -- mutant plants -- found worldwide and spanning thousands of years. But what was it about the Great Dying that caused a global age of mutant plants?

Aired: 09/14/26
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During the Permian Period many tetrapods, or four-limbed vertebrates, took to life in the trees.
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An extinction in the Middle Permian decimates life, from a fossil reef to our ancient relatives.
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