HEADLINE: Pangea's Mega-Monsoons, Coal Formation, and the Unclassifiable Tully Monster BOOK TITLE: Other Lands, a journey through Earth's Extinct Worlds GUEST AUTHOR NAME: Thomas Halliday 200-WORD SUM

HEADLINE: Pangea's Mega-Monsoons, Coal Formation, and the Unclassifiable Tully Monster BOOK TITLE: Other Lands, a journey through Earth's Extinct Worlds GUEST AUTHOR NAME: Thomas Halliday 200-WORD SUMMARY: This segment examines the Permian and Carboniferous eras. In the Permian (253 million years ago), the single supercontinent Pangea caused a mega-monsoon system involving extreme seasonal wetness and dryness. Sites like Moradi, Niger, show creatures adapted to this arid environment. Organisms included the bulk herbivore Umoist and the apex predator Gorgonops, a close relative of mammals with large canines. This period was immediately followed by the "Great Dying," the largest mass extinction event in Earth's history. The Carboniferous (390 million years ago) saw the first extensive forests. As trees fell into vast, tropical swamps, the water inhibited decay, leading to the preservation of organic material that eventually formed the world's coal deposits. This process sequestered carbon, contributing to lower atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations later in history. The final topic is the Tully Monster(Tullimonstrum), a small, torpedo-shaped creature with eyes on stalks that remains a profound paleontological mystery. It is intensely debated whether this organism is a vertebrate, and because it has no known descendants, it is classified as an evolutionary experiment that did not pan out.