The Terrifying World of Giant Insects: What Was Earth Like During the Carboniferous Period? [View all]

350 million years ago, long before the dinosaur era, planet Earth was a very different place. Endless tropical swamps teeming with towering ferns, intense humidity, and an high oxygen level in the air created ideal conditions for flourishing life; though not the kind we know today. The Carboniferous Period was a strange, otherworldly era dominated by giant insects.

Everpresent swampy tropical forests absorbed carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and released immense amounts of oxygen into the atmosphere. This raised the oxygen level to a record 35% - more than one and a half times the safe level for humans.

Such high oxygen levels became a powerful energy source for living organisms in this primeval jungle world. It was the perfect time for early vertebrates that were beginning to evolve but haven’t quite adapted to life on land, as well as various invertebrates that grew to astonishing sizes.

It was a time of aggressive centipedes as long as a car, dragonflies soaring through the sky that resembled modern hawks, and giant spiders and scorpions the size of a bull terrier, dominating the swampy jungles. The Carboniferous was an epoch when giant insects ruled the planet, transforming it into your worst nightmare.