450 million years
or 110 meters to today
Geological era: Paleozoic / Ordovician
The first plants and insects conquer the land and many new species emerge. A tropical climate prevails, but the plants fundamentally change it: they bind carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) from the atmosphere, the temperature on earth drops. At the same time, the oxygen content of the atmosphere increases. The chemistry of the sea is also changing. The large continent of Gondwana is drifting over the South Pole. All these factors together trigger the second major extinction of species in the history of the Earth.
The supercontinent Gondwana forms a large land mass in the southern hemisphere. Further north, Laurentia and Baltica approach each other. Large parts of the continents are initially covered by shallow warm seas. However, the drop in temperature caused by plant metabolism leads to a new ice age.