Ecosystems during the Devonian Period

Hemicyclaspis

Ichthyostega

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  The first amphibians, such as Ichthyostega, appeared towards the end of the Devonian period.


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  Both freshwater and marine fishes show a great proliferation of forms, with many heavily armoured fishes including the Pteraspids, and the Cephalaspids such as Hemicyclaspis.


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  The evolutionary trends of the Silurian period continued during the Devonian period, with plants and vertebrate animals showing spectacular advances.
  

Geography during the Devonian Period

• As we approach the Late Devonian, Pangea is beginning to take shape.
• As the pressure on the Laurentian plate increased, huge mountain ranges were thrust up around the periphery of the continent.
• In addition, the Late Devonian saw the evolution of large trees with deep root systems
  
  

Climate during the Devonian Period

• The Devonian has been regarded as largely warm and equable, with a disastrous drop in temperatures in the Late Devonian leading to the Frasnian-Famennian "mass extinction".
• The climate of the Early Devonian is rather strongly zonal.
• In the Late Devonian, the southern "cool temperate" zone expands, with indications of glacial ice in parts of far western Gondwana (northern South America).
• However, the northern temperate zone appears to retreat before a subtropical zone which extends almost to 60° N.
  
  

Introduction to the Devonian Period

• The Age of Fishes
• A time of great transition. In the sea ammonoids and fish evolve and quickly diversify. On land trees and forests appear for the first time. The first insects, spiders, and tetrapods evolve.

Geography during the Silurian Period

• The early Paleozoic saw the continents clustered around the equator, with Gondwanaland continues it's slow southern drift
• Siberia, Laurentia and Baltica converge at the equator.
• By the end of the Silurian, these colliding continents had began to raise mountains and forge a new supercontinent, Laurussia.
  

Climate during the Paleozoic Era

• The Early Paleozoic climatewas also strongly zonal.
• The Early Paleozoic ended, rather abruptly, with the short, but apparently severe, Late Ordovician Ice Age.
• The Middle Paleozoic was a time of considerable stability.
• Baltica (Northern Europe and Russia) and Laurentia (eastern North America and Greenland) remained in the tropical zone.
  
  

Flora and fauna during the Silurian Period

lTropical reefs are common in the shallow seas of this period.

lJawless fish invade brackish and fresh water, as do eurypterids, xiphosurids, scorpions, which may have been semi-aquatic.

Climate during the Silurian Period

The Earth entered a long warm greenhouse phase. The climate caused changes in the flora like the ones seen above.

Development of planet Earth during the Paleozoic Era

This picture represents the Paleozoic geography.

DAY FOUR: Finishing our blog and practicing our oral presentation

Now that we are done with the visual presentation we have decided it is time to focus on the oral presentation and on finishing the blog with all the information needed. We are one day away from the presentation and we are practicing our oral presentation and giving our final touches to the blog. We have included in it: photos, references, a link to the powerpoint presentation and the schedule of work that we followed. Now we are ready to present our work.

DAY THREE: Preparing th Powerpoint presentation adn the 3D Presentation

Now that we have gathered all the information related to our topic, we decided to make a small meetting at German's house that we could summarize all the information we had obtained. After summarizing the information, we created a Powerpoint presentation to inform the group about the research we had done. We included in our presentation: summarized information about the Silurian and Devonian Period, photos, maps representing the development of the Earth, and tables that presented the various eras and periods of Earth's development.

DAY TWO: Staring our research

We were assigned a group project related about the Paleozoic Era, focusing in the Silurian and Devonian Periods. We decided that the working places would be the school facilities and a house. Considering the diversity of the project, we decided it was more efficient if we first did a research about the entire Paleozoic Era. This research included: climate, flora, fauna. We then focused on researching the Silurian and Devonian Periods focusing int the main topics we discussed previously.

DAY ONE

After studying briefly the topic assigned we did a power search to get more familiarized with the topic. During our first meeting, we divided the work and created a schedule so that we could work effectively. We decided to begin first with the the written work and later on with the visual presentation.

References

These are all the adresses from where we took information or pictures in order to develop a very concise work:


1. http://www.palaeos.com/Paleozoic/Paleozoic.htm
2. http://www.palaeos.com/Paleozoic/Silurian/Silurian.htm
3. http://www.palaeos.com/Paleozoic/Devonian/Devonian.htm
4. http://www.bobainsworth.com/fossil/palaeozoic.htm
5. http://www.fossils-facts-and-finds.com/paleozoic_era.html
6. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/paleozoic/paleozoicloc.html