The first animals on land
Millipedes and arachnids crawl out of the water
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Pneumodesmus newmani from Scotland and the finds at Ludlow in England are among the oldest land animals, with preserved spiracles — breathing openings that only work in air. The arthropod exoskeleton was a pre-adaptation: it evolved for entirely different purposes in the sea, but limited water loss on land. This kind of accidental fitness is the rule rather than the exception in major evolutionary transitions. Without plants first there would have been nothing to eat; terrestrial ecosystems are built from the bottom up.
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Plants had been ashore for fifty million years before any animal followed. The first were small millipedes and arachnids living in damp moss. They already had a hard external skeleton from life in the sea — and it turned out to work admirably against drying out.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org