Would you survive in the age of giant insects on Earth？

Today, we invite you on a journey back in time, more than 300 million years ago. Could you survive in the dense forests of the Carboniferous period, inhabited by giant insects and equally enormous amphibians? And why can excess oxygen be as dangerous as a lack of it? The surprising forest and its dangers Scientists call the period of time that began about 359 million years ago and ended approximately 299 million years ago the Carboniferous period. The name of this period derives from the formation of layers of coal at that time, a resource that humanity continues to use to this day. Coal is essentially a plant fossil. In fact, the Carboniferous period was marked by an impressive abundance of vegetation. Never before or after that time has there been such a large quantity of plants. At that time, practically the entire Earth's surface was a huge, hot, swampy jungle. Life had been occupying terrestrial environments steadily since the Devonian period. The "pioneers" of this achievement were probably plants. Since there were no herbivores, which would be their natural predators, plants spread rapidly over vast areas, forming biomes such as swamps, which had not existed until then. The widespread spread of plants during the Devonian was what paved the way for the Carboniferous to become the era we know today. In nature, there are two opposing processes that balance each other out. In photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, while all living beings, on the other hand, consume oxygen and release carbon dioxide during respiration. Plants release much more oxygen than they consume, and animals do the opposite. In the current geological era, most photosynthesis occurs in the oceans, but at the beginning of the Carboniferous, the enormous amount of terrestrial vegetation contributed significantly to this process. Of course, animals already inhabited the planet at that time, but not in sufficient numbers to consume the excess oxygen. The Forest Dwellers Well, let's assume that you followed our advice and are wearing respiratory protection equipment. Now, you can safely walk through the Carboniferous forests, making your way through the dense foliage of ferns and other gymnosperms. But you won't see any flowers or fruits anywhere. That's because angiosperms hadn't yet appeared. Angiosperms would only appear in the Cretaceous period, about 200 million years after the Carboniferous. If in the current geological era mammals are the dominant ones, and in the era of the dinosaurs reptiles were the sovereigns, the Carboniferous was marked by the dominance of amphibians and arthropods. Thanks to the abundance of oxygen, arthropods reached gigantic sizes, something impossible under current conditions. One of the symbols of the Carboniferous was the Arthropleura, a giant myriapod about 2.5 meters long and the largest arthropod that ever existed. Have you ever been scared when you hear that? Don't worry, the Arthropleura was a herbivore. But it's best not to touch it. That's because it might think it's being attacked and react. By the way, there are also giant insects that can be dangerous to time travelers. For example, the Meganeura, the largest flying insect ever recorded in the history of paleontology. How about a dive? If the thrilling experience on dry land isn't enough, we can take you for a dive in the sea. In the shallow waters, you'll find gigantic sea scorpions, even larger amphibians, and dense clumps of algae. Be careful not to get tangled in these clumps or step on any poisonous organisms. In fresh waters, you can find giant fish like the Rhizodus, which is 8 meters long. In sea waters, you can come across even larger sharks, like the Campodus. It could reach an impressive 13 meters in length. These fish were dangerous predators, and an encounter with them would certainly be catastrophic. However, you can also find more peaceful creatures. Although the heyday of fish was in the Devonian period, the Carboniferous period was also home to many fish, and not all of them were dangerous large predators. For example, you could find various molluscs with strange shells and even trilobites. After their heyday in the Cambrian period, the number of trilobites decreased, but they did not completely become extinct in the Carboniferous period. In short, if you can avoid the large predators, diving in the seas of the Carboniferous is certainly worth it. Whether on land or in the sea, microorganisms can pose a serious problem. The microorganisms of that time were much more primitive than those that our immune systems deal with on a daily basis.