The whole classroom was silent, they thought that the teacher would dissect something in front of the students just after eating lunch. The teacher reassured the students, "Please don't fret, these won't be used until grade 10..."
"We'll talk about trees. I'm sure your teacher last school year taught you already, but we'll go more in depth about them." The teacher claps their hands, trying to make the students at least a bit interested.
The teacher talked about the first plants, "Plants date back to about 500 million years ago, they were like moss and liverworts. They clung to rocks near the water and reproduced asexually by producing spores that get driven out from waves"
Josh asked, "Teacher, but then the rocks wore down because of the plants right? Wouldn't the weathered phosphorus get pushed into the ocean and cause a sever algal bloom? "
"It did cause an algal bloom and this made the water hypoxic, the reduced oxygen in the waters also decreased the production of co2 thus making the planet cooler. All of this caused about 85% of marine life to be eliminated and this was the first extinction event"
"The plants that needed to be close to water evolved to rely less on clinging to rocks by having their spores walls harden and forming cuticles"
The more Josh heard, the more fascinated he was. The plants caused the first extinction event and were also the ones that helped with forming even more complex terrestrial life.
"Class it is already 2:00 pm, it is time now time to leave. Grab one of your notes, please read sometimes"
Josh's first day was fun, he had a cute smile on his face and decided to go home. He wasted no time and ate a heavy snack and started to play the game again.