Book excerpt: Imagine giant trees over 100 feet tall covering the land. And monstrous salamanders, dragonflies as big as crows, and millipedes over 6 feet long. Picture abundant life everywhere, then witnessing the end of almost all living things. This is not a science-fiction story. This is the story of our planet, Earth, over 250 million years ago! Journey into the distant past with this book and witness the earliest events in what would become North America; when life on land multiplied, grew to giant proportions, and then suddenly disappeared in the largest extinction our world has ever known.