Around 300 million years ago, long before dinosaurs ruled the Earth, the Carboniferous period teemed with strange and giant ...

The hard-bodied arthropods started eyeing opportunities on land. Edging into freshwater and shallow lagoons, they likely included horseshoe crabs, which, despite their name, are more closely ...

Creepy-crawlies also began to appear on land. Starting off small, they measured no more than a few centimeters long. These terrestrial pioneers were arthropods, such as primitive centipedes and ...

The first invaders were plants, which began creeping upland from the streams and swamps some 450 million years ago, followed by arthropods and a few brave mollusks, which became the land snails.