Würzburg 600 million years ago: a journey through millions of years

Not on the sea, but sunk in the sea, a few hundred kilometers from the coast of the ancient continent Pangea. This is what Würzburg would have looked like 600 million years ago if Catholics had already existed and folded hands in the cathedral. An Atlantis with her chapel, a Marienberg not far from gaping cliffs. The first life already existed then, little piles of cells, not stacked quite as high as the Meebrunser on two legs. But that was not to be the case, for the large predators had not yet developed and rudimentary life was bubbling up in the great ocean, still completely unaware that a beautiful fortress will rise at exactly this point of first cell division, built up of speaking and thinking organisms.

The then rulers of the sea – jawless fish with round mouths

100 million years later, half a billion years ago, something has already happened. The large continent has approached the later Würzburg locality, the first vertebrates inhabit the country, jawless fish with round mouths swim in the area of ​​later Würzburg. Of these fish, only lampreys or hagfish remain today, but then, in the Cambrian explosion of life, they dominated.

400 million ago Pangea is history. Würzburg, however, has moved further away from its later landmass. The division of the supercontinent, for example, leaves Italy completely submerged. Islands exist in later France and Spain and in Eastern Europe, Würzburg remains submerged ready for its relocation to safer lands.

300 million years ago there was finally more oxygen in the atmosphere

It was made 300 million years ago, in the late Carboniferous age. At this time, the plants have learned to form roots and thus grow larger. This was also made possible by atmospheric oxygen, which was more readily available in the Carboniferous. Giant reptiles and insects roamed the Main Franconian metropolis, although one could not even think of the Main here. Rather, there was a mountain range at the time where it would become Würzburg.

In the Triassic 200 million years ago there were them, the dinosaurs. Würzburg was a green land, the mountains moved with the movement of the continents. Here was fertile ground for herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs, who would rather indulge in some of the local fauna and flora than a pint. Even if the Triassic were to go down in history as a dark age. Volcanic eruptions led to mass extinctions, about 76% of life on land and in the sea disappeared from land. According to experts’ website www.dinosaurpictures.org, the first finds in the area confirm that there were either pterosaurs or the long-necked thecodontosaurus, which is German for root-toothed lizard.

100 million years ago Würzburg was located on an island by the sea

Around 100 million years ago, the dream of many Würzburg residents could come true. Würzburg is very close to the sea. Many parts of what would later become Europe were still under water, but Scandinavia, for example, was already clearly visible. One should have gone only by ship, as Würzburg was located on a large island at the time.

One last leap forward another 50 million years. At the time, Italy’s boot was already visible, Spain looked much the same as it does today, France was still underwater to the west, and the whole of northern Germany was still sea. That changed over the next 30 million years, during which time Africa and Europe as continents slowly struggled to find their current location. It was then that mammals managed to develop into a successful species, primates were formed. The earth continued to cool, the plants that lost their leaves in the fall were growing.

Anyone who gets to read this article belongs to a species that is just a blink of an eye in the history of the earth. The first humans existed just 2.4 million years ago. The inhabitants of Würzburg were not yet, but Africans, born much further south, but connected to Europe by continental land bridges. The population of the world by Homo Sapiens took its course, who in 704, at least as a Frank, decided to build the Castellum Virteburch. It was the early forerunner of Würzburg, which is today the seventh largest city in Bavaria. Only what the continents can invent for the future remains open. Will another 100 million years be enough for Würzburg to be on the sea again instead of the sea?