PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to http://to.pbs.org/DonateEons ↓ More info below ↓ Learn more about The Great Courses Plus* here: http://ow.ly/PeiY30egcZN Insects outnumber humans by a lot and we only like to think we're in charge because we're bigger than they are. But insects and other arthropods weren’t always so small. About 315 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period, they were not only abundant: they were enormous. Thanks to Lucas Lima, and Studio 252mya for their illustrations. You can find more of Lucas's work here: https://252mya.com/gallery/lucas-lima Produced for PBS Digital Studios. Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet? Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/eonsshow Twitter - https://twitter.com/eonsshow Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/eonsshow/ References: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/08/110808-ancient-insects-bugs-giants-oxygen-animals-science/ http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0022610 https://www.wired.com/2010/11/huge-dragonflies-oxygen/ http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/277/1690/1937.short http://bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/bionumber.aspx?id=113319 https://news.ucsc.edu/2012/06/giant-insects.html https://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/buginfo/bugnos.htm http://www.pnas.org/content/96/20/10955.full https://www.nap.edu/read/11630/chapter/8#117 *The Great Courses Plus is currently available to watch through a web browser to almost anyone in the world and optimized for the US market. The Great Courses Plus is currently working to both optimize the product globally and accept credit card payments globally.