Falling from 120 m to present-day level throughout the Mississippian, then rising steadily to about 80 m at end of period[5]
The Carboniferous (/ˌkɑːrbəˈnɪfərəs/KAR-bə-NIF-ər-əs)[6] is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period 358.9 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Permian Period, 298.9 Ma. In North America, the Carboniferous is often treated as two separate geological periods, the earlier Mississippian and the later Pennsylvanian.[7]
The name Carboniferous means "coal-bearing", from the Latin carbō ("coal") and ferō ("bear, carry"), and refers to the many coal beds formed globally during that time.[8] The first of the modern "system" names, it was coined by geologists William Conybeare and William Phillips in 1822,[9] based on a study of the British rock succession.
Carboniferous is the period during which both terrestrial animal and land plant life was well established.[10] Stegocephalia (four-limbed vertebrates including true tetrapods), whose forerunners (tetrapodomorphs) had evolved from lobe-finned fish during the preceding Devonian period, became pentadactylous during the Carboniferous.[11] The period is sometimes called the Age of Amphibians[12] because of the diversification of early amphibians such as the temnospondyls, which became dominant land vertebrates,[13] as well as the first appearance of amniotes including synapsids (the clade to which modern mammals belong) and sauropsids (which include modern reptiles and birds) during the late Carboniferous. Due to the raised atmospheric oxygen level, land arthropods such as arachnids (e.g. trigonotarbids and Pulmonoscorpius), myriapods (e.g. Arthropleura) and insects (e.g. Meganeura) also underwent a major evolutionary radiation during the late Carboniferous. Vast swaths of forests and swamps covered the land, which eventually became the coal beds characteristic of the Carboniferous stratigraphy evident today.
The later half of the period experienced glaciations, low sea level, and mountain building as the continents collided to form Pangaea. A minor marine and terrestrial extinction event, the Carboniferous rainforest collapse, occurred at the end of the period, caused by climate change.[14]
^"Chart/Time Scale". www.stratigraphy.org. International Commission on Stratigraphy.
^Kaiser 2009.
^Paproth, Feist & Flajs 1991.
^Davydov et al. 1998.
^Haq & Schutter 2008.
^Wells 2008.
^University of California, Berkeley 2012.
^Cossey et al. 2004, p. 3.
^Conybeare & Phillips 1822, p. 323: "Book III. Medial or Carboniferous Order.".
^Garwood & Edgecombe 2011.
^Irisarri, I., Baurain, D., Brinkmann, H. et al. Phylotranscriptomic consolidation of the jawed vertebrate timetree. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 1370–1378 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0240-5
^"Carboniferous Period". Encyclopædia Britannica.
^"Animal Life in the Paleozoic". Archived from the original on 2003-12-17.
The Carboniferous (/ˌkɑːrbəˈnɪfərəs/ KAR-bə-NIF-ər-əs) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the...
periods (from oldest to youngest): Cambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian Carboniferous Permian Some geological timescales divide the Paleozoic informally into...
Carboniferous tetrapods include amphibians and reptiles that lived during the Carboniferous Period. Though stem-tetrapods originated in the preceding...
Carboniferous Limestone is a collective term for the succession of limestones occurring widely throughout Great Britain and Ireland that were deposited...
stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period 298.9 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic...
at 419.2 million years ago (Ma), to the beginning of the succeeding Carboniferous period at 358.9 Ma. It is named after Devon, South West England, where...
The Carboniferous rainforest collapse (CRC) was a minor extinction event that occurred around 305 million years ago in the Carboniferous period. The event...
evidence of arthropleurid mating behaviour, are described from the Lower Carboniferous of Fife (Scotland, United Kingdom) by Whyte (2018). Two immature specimens...
periods in the Paleozoic era: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian. The Cambrian is the first period of the Paleozoic Era and...
earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million years ago, and began to break apart about...
to the southeast. The second main phase of movement was during the Carboniferous, this time with a dextral sense. The exact timing is uncertain, but...
tetrapods capable of terrestrial locomotion) appeared by the very early Carboniferous, 350 million years ago. The specific aquatic ancestors of the tetrapods...
one-fifth of the Earth's surface. It fused with Euramerica during the Carboniferous to form Pangea. It began to separate from northern Pangea (Laurasia)...
semiaquatic vertebrates. Amniotes evolved from amphibian ancestors during the Carboniferous period and further diverged into two groups, namely the sauropsids (including...
modern reptiles and birds), as well as a number of primitive Permo-Carboniferous forms previously classified under Anapsida, in the old (no longer recognised)...
Meganeura is a genus of extinct insects from the Late Carboniferous (approximately 300 million years ago). They resembled and are related to the present-day...
around 345 to 290 million years ago, from the Viséan stage of the lower Carboniferous Period to the Sakmarian stage of the lower Permian Period. The species...
roots, leaves and secondary wood in trees such as Archaeopteris. The Carboniferous Period saw the development of forests in swampy environments dominated...
from reptiles and birds, from which their ancestors diverged in the Carboniferous Period over 300 million years ago. Around 6,400 extant species of mammals...
with reduced bodies. Barnacles have existed since at least the mid-Carboniferous, some 325 million years ago. In folklore, barnacle geese were once held...
land. They diversified and became ecologically dominant during the Carboniferous and Permian periods, but were later displaced in terrestrial environments...
since the Late Paleozoic, evolved from lobe-finned fish during the Carboniferous, developing air-breathing lungs homologous to swim bladders. Despite...
The Pterygotes (winged insects) underwent a major radiation in the Carboniferous (356 to 299 million years ago) while the Endopterygota (insects that...
and Australia, typically associated with coal-bearing strata. Within Carboniferous coal-bearing strata, it is also very common to find what are called...
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