You want a fun bit of prehistory? There were sixty million years between the emergence of trees and the evolution of anything that could eat wood. Anything. Not one animal, vegetable, or mineral could break down dry cellulose... for an entire geological era. During the carboniferous period, the only forces on this planet that could destroy a tree were darkness, gravity, and fire.
This is where all the oxygen in the atmosphere comes from. This is where all the oil come from. It's not dinosaur juice! It's the crushed remains of wildfires the size of continents. Gigatons of charcoal piled up and sublimated beneath tectonic plates, because there was absolutely fucking nothing to stop them.
this post was submitted on 30 May 2024
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