Meganeura/Arthropleura

The Carboniferous period (358-298 million years ago) is one of my favourite periods of geological history, simply because my imagination runs wild with what it would be like to get to spend 24 hours in a world with giant amphibians as the dominant land animal and king-sized versions of insects we know today buzzing around -
                          

    Presuming somebody found a way to fulfill my dream send me back 300 million years for a day jolly, I'd actually only have to last 22.4 hours in a Carboniferous forest, as the Earth's rotation was faster back then. There'd also be the added problem of ensuring that I didn't immediately die from change in atmosphere as the oxygen level was much higher. The high oxygen level in the carboniferous forests (35% compared to 21% today) meant that insects such as dragonflies, cockroaches and millipedes grew much larger than their ancestral equivalents we know today. For example:

The Meganeura is one of the largest insects of all time, with a wingspan of nearly 26 inches (remind me to insert a picture of myself holding two 12-inch rules side by side here later for dramatic scientific effect)

Of course, should I manage to bat away the Meganeura and not wet myself in bug horror, I'd need to keep an eye on the forest floor too, in case I trip over an Arthropleura, the largest arthropod of all time. Scientists estimate that these arthropods could reach sizes of 6 foot 6 inches:

Here's a great clip from David Attenborough's "First Life" which shows an Arthopleura in action:

....A dramatic change in climate marked the end of the Carboniferous period and the reign of these TERROR INSECTS (as I'm now nicknaming them) came to an end. The following Permian period started with an ice age, and the continents all locked together to form PANGEA, one giant mass of landlocked land.And it's in the Permian period that we meet the ancestors of the very first dinosaurs, but more on those bad boys later...