Science & NatureFact of the day · 18-second read
Sharks lived on Earth tens of millions of years before the first trees.
The oldest shark-like scales are about 450 million years old, from the Late Ordovician. The earliest plants botanists class as true trees, such as Archaeopteris with its woody trunk, appeared around 385 million years ago.
Why is this true?
Sharks have since come through several mass extinctions, including the Permian–Triassic “Great Dying” about 252 million years ago, which wiped out an estimated 90 per cent or more of marine species.
Related nerd rabbit hole: → A lightning bolt heats the air to about 30,000 °C, roughly five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.
Wait, really? Source: Natural History Museum / Devonian palaeobotany records