During theDevonian period, New York was covered in a warm shallow sea as indicatedby calcareous rock. The Arcadian Mountains formed around this time.There were three major continental land masses: North America and Europe together at the equator (mostly undersea); Siberia, located north of the Europe/North America land mass; and a combination of South America, Africa, Antarctica, India, and Australia in the southern hemisphere.

   The Devonian period is often called the age of fish because of the extensive diversification in ocean life that took place. Jawless fishes (Class Agantha), armored jawed fishes (Class Placodermi), and cartilaginous fishes including sharks and rays (Class Condricthyes) roamed the seas. In the early Devonian, Ammoniods became extinct, just as trilobites bit the dust in the period-ending extinction. Brachiopods, which look similar to mollusks but aren't closely related, donminated the ocean floor along with Criniod and Blastiod Echinoderms. Bivalve mollusks were also present. Large coral colonies originating in the Silurain period provided a habitat for larger organisms.

    At the beginnign of the Devonian, the tallest plants stoodjust one meter high. However, by the end of the period, horsetails, ferns,seed plants, and the first trees and forests had appeared all over the world.Stomata were an important addition  to leaf sturcture before Devonain times because they allowed vascular tissue to form, and in turn, trees. Archaeopteris, the first image below, was the first tree, a mix of gymnosperm and fern charactoristics. It belongs to Phylum Progymnosperm. The group Rhyniophytes includes the early vascular plants. Sphenophyta were treesin the devonian but their modern descendents are horsetails. Lycopodswere35meter talltreesin the Devonian and now are now club mosses.