the worms were bigger back then.
Welcome back! Missed your posts!
Interesting. I do not think there is any question that large animals helped make nutrients available, spread bacteria, and fertilized the earth. However....
As something of a gardener, I have to argue here for the earthworm. Earth worms predate Dinosaurs and are little soil enriching bacteria factories. What comes out is more nutrient rich than the inputs, and they have been at it a longer time. The Dinosaurs, for the most part, came and went. (The Conquering Worm endures!)
https://www.quora.com/How-old-are-earthworms-as-a-species
“Earthworms had almost certainly started emerging by the Devonian period when plants began to spread across dry land and develop roots. Fossils have been found for modern forms from the following Carboniferous period 360-300 MYA.
So yes, they predate the Dinosaurs. Worms in general pre-date all vertebrates. When exactly earthworms got a foothold in the soil is hard to pinpoint, my guess is that the spread of free sporing vascular plants expanded a new ecological niche which earthworms filled.”
That was also Darwin’s take on it, there’s more at the, uh, third link up near the top.
Earthworms survived the K-T extinction, and all the other mass extinctions that mark the paleontological era boundaries. Plus, they won’t hunt and eat us, which is an endearing quality.
the worms were bigger back then.