Academy Town Square: A Transforming Earth: The Legacy of the Devonian Period

Join us for a deep dive into Earth’s remarkable history on Thursday, September 26, timed with the closing weekend of our exhibition Life Onto Land: The Devonian, which is on view through Sunday, September 29.

In this in-depth Academy Town Square conversation, you’ll hear about the Devonian, a transformational period hundreds of millions of years before the age of the dinosaur — when Earth’s forests first began to appear and first limbed animals emerged. Learn about this fascinating time from Academy scientist Ted Daeschler, paleoecologist Diana Boyer and paleobotanist Jonathan Wilson, whose research contributes to our shared understanding of evolution and Earth's history.

In a lively discussion, moderated by Academy scientist Jason Downs, the scientists will unpack how Devonian Period evolutionary transitions, and the extinctions that ended it, shaped the entire world in fundamental ways that continue to be reflected in the natural world today. During this pivotal period in life's history, vertebrates acquire limbs and moved into shallow waters. Arthropods started exploring terrestrial spaces. Plants evolved from simple, low-lying forms into massive trees, shaping the first forests. Reef-building organisms experienced great diversification. Then two major extinction events occurred that not only marked the end of the Devonian, but also collapsed the massive reef systems and eliminated many of the aquatic vertebrates that once dominated the seas and rivers — leaving behind groups that dominate those spaces today.