The First Animal to Walk on Land Was Not a Fish
The first animal to walk on land was not a fish with legs. It was not a four-legged vertebrate. It was a millipede.
428 million years ago nearly 50 million years before Tiktaalik made the famous crossing from water to land a 1 centimeter millipede called Pneumodesmus newmani crawled out of a Silurian sea onto bare rock and breathed air for the first time.
Arthropods the group that includes insects, spiders, scorpions and millipedes got to land first. They built the soil. They became the first flying animals. They pollinated the first forests. And they have held every land ecosystem together for 400 million years.
This is the story of the real first walkers and why they never get the credit they deserve.
⏱ Chapters:
0:00 — Introduction
0:46 — What Arthropods Are
2:11 — The First Steps
4:09 — The First Insects
5:38 — What Arthropods Built
6:54 — Outro
#CosmicEarth #FirstAnimalOnLand #Arthropods #Millipede #SilurianPeriod #EarthHistory