Carboniferous facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Carboniferous |
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| 358.86 ± 0.19 – 298.9 ± 0.15 Ma | |
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A map of Earth as it appeared 330 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period, Mississippian Subperiod
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| Chronology | |
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Carboniferous graphical timeline
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Subdivision of the Carboniferous according to the ICS, as of 2021.
Vertical axis scale: millions of years ago |
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| Etymology | |
| Name formality | Formal |
| Nickname(s) | Age of Amphibians |
| Usage information | |
| Celestial body | Earth |
| Regional usage | Global (ICS) |
| Time scale(s) used | ICS Time Scale |
| Definition | |
| Chronological unit | Period |
| Stratigraphic unit | System |
| First proposed by | William Daniel Conybeare and William Phillips, 1822 |
| Time span formality | Formal |
| Lower boundary definition | FAD of the Conodont Siphonodella sulcata (discovered to have biostratigraphic issues as of 2006) |
| Lower boundary GSSP | La Serre, Montagne Noire, France 43°33′20″N 3°21′26″E / 43.5555°N 3.3573°E |
| Lower GSSP ratified | 1990 |
| Upper boundary definition | FAD of the Conodont Streptognathodus isolatus within the morphotype Streptognathodus wabaunsensis chronocline |
| Upper boundary GSSP | Aidaralash, Ural Mountains, Kazakhstan 50°14′45″N 57°53′29″E / 50.2458°N 57.8914°E |
| Upper GSSP ratified | 1996 |
| Atmospheric and climatic data | |
| Sea level above present day | Falling from 120 m to present-day level throughout the Mississippian, then rising steadily to about 80 m at end of period |
The Carboniferous ( kar-BƏ-nif-ƏR-əs) was an amazing time in Earth's history. It was a geologic period that lasted for 60 million years. This period stretched from about 359 million years ago to 299 million years ago. It came after the Devonian Period and before the Permian Period.
During the Carboniferous, Earth looked very different. Huge forests covered the land, and many new types of animals appeared. This period is famous for forming the vast coal beds we use today. Because of the many amphibians that lived then, it's sometimes called the "Age of Amphibians."
Contents
What's in a Name? The Carboniferous Story
The name Carboniferous means "coal-bearing." It comes from two Latin words: carbō (meaning "coal") and ferō (meaning "bear" or "carry"). This name was chosen because so much coal formed around the world during this time.
Two geologists, William Conybeare and William Phillips, first used this name in 1822. They studied the rocks in Britain and saw how much coal was present. In North America, scientists often divide the Carboniferous into two shorter periods: the earlier Mississippian and the later Pennsylvanian.
Earth's Changing Face: Carboniferous Geology
The Carboniferous Period saw many changes in Earth's land and seas. Scientists divide this long period into smaller parts to study it better. The two main parts are the Mississippian and the Pennsylvanian.
Layers of Time: Mississippian and Pennsylvanian
The Mississippian part of the Carboniferous is named after the Mississippi River valley in North America. During this time, many limestone rocks formed in the oceans. These limestones tell us about the marine life that thrived then.
The Pennsylvanian part is named after the state of Pennsylvania. This part of the Carboniferous is famous for its rich coal deposits. It also had many layers of sandstone and other rocks.
Sea Level Swings: Cyclothems
Imagine the sea level going up and down many times. This created special rock layers called cyclothems. A cyclothem is a repeating pattern of different rock types. It shows how the land was sometimes covered by shallow seas and sometimes exposed to air.
These changes happened because of ice sheets growing and melting at the poles. When ice grew, sea levels fell. When ice melted, sea levels rose. This created a cycle of sedimentary rocks, from river deposits to coal swamps and then marine limestones.
How Coal Was Made: Carboniferous Forests
Most of the world's coal formed during the late Carboniferous and early Permian. This happened in huge, wet, swampy forests called peat mires. When plants in these swamps died, they fell into the water. Because there was little oxygen, they didn't rot completely.
Over millions of years, more and more plant material piled up. Layers of sediment then buried these plant remains. The pressure and heat from being buried turned the peat into the coal we find today. These ancient forests played a big role in changing Earth's atmosphere.
Ancient Continents: Carboniferous Palaeogeography
During the Carboniferous, Earth's continents were slowly moving closer together. They were forming a giant supercontinent called Pangaea. This was a time of intense plate tectonic activity.
Building Mountains: The Central Pangean Range
As the continents collided, huge mountain ranges formed. One of the most important was the Central Pangean Mountains. These mountains stretched for thousands of kilometers. They were created when the continents of Laurussia (North America and Europe) and Gondwana (South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and India) crashed into each other.
These mountain-building events, called orogenies, shaped the land. They also affected the climate and how water flowed across the continents.
Where the Continents Were
- Gondwana was mostly in the southern polar region. It had large ice sheets covering parts of it.
- Laurussia was closer to the equator. It was a warm, wet place where many coal forests grew.
- Siberia and other smaller landmasses were also moving towards the forming Pangea.
Earth's Climate: An Ice Age and Changing Air
The Carboniferous climate was dominated by a long period of cold weather called the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. This was one of the longest ice ages in Earth's history.
Cold and Warm Spells
Temperatures dropped at the beginning of the Carboniferous. Large glaciers grew in the southern polar regions. However, there were also warmer periods when the glaciers shrank. These changes in temperature led to the rising and falling sea levels that created cyclothems.
Oxygen in the Air
Scientists believe that oxygen levels in the atmosphere were higher during the Carboniferous than they are today. They might have reached 25-30% at times. This high oxygen level might have helped some arthropods, like insects and millipedes, grow to enormous sizes.
Climate's Impact on Life
The changing climate affected life on Earth.
- Marine Life: The cold periods and sea level changes caused some marine creatures to struggle. But other groups adapted and thrived.
- Land Life: On land, the climate shifts led to big changes in forests. This also influenced the evolution of land animals, especially amphibians and early reptiles.
Life in the Carboniferous: Plants and Animals
The Carboniferous Period was a time of incredible growth and diversification for life on land and in the seas.
Giant Plants and Forests
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The land was covered by vast, dense forests. These weren't like modern forests. They were dominated by giant versions of plants that are much smaller today.
- Scale Trees: Huge trees like Lepidodendron and Sigillaria grew up to 30 meters (about 100 feet) tall. Their trunks were covered in scale-like patterns. These trees are related to today's small club mosses.
- Giant Horsetails: Calamites were giant horsetail plants, reaching heights of 20 meters (about 65 feet).
- Ferns and Seed Ferns: Many types of ferns and "seed ferns" (plants that reproduced with seeds but looked like ferns) were also common.
- Cordaites: These tall, strap-leaved plants were ancestors of modern conifers.
These massive forests were the source of the world's coal deposits.
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Wikisource has the text of the 1879 American Cyclopædia article Coal Plants. |
Marine Invertebrates: Life in the Ancient Seas
The Carboniferous oceans were full of diverse invertebrate life.
- Corals: Both solitary and reef-building corals flourished.
- Brachiopods: These shelled creatures were very common. Some, like Gigantoproductus, grew to be very large.
- Crinoids: Also known as "sea lilies," these animals looked like plants and formed dense underwater "thickets." Their remains often formed thick rock beds.
- Foraminifera: Tiny, single-celled organisms with shells became very important in marine ecosystems.
- Ammonoids: These coiled-shell relatives of squid were also abundant.
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Aviculopecten subcardiformis; a bivalve from the lower Carboniferous.
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Bivalves and brachiopods in the Logan Formation.
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Syringothyris sp.; a spiriferid brachiopod from the lower Carboniferous.
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Palaeophycus ichnosp.; a trace fossil from the lower Carboniferous.
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Crinoid calyx from the lower Carboniferous with a conical platyceratid gastropod attached.
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A conulariid from the lower Carboniferous.
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A tabulate coral (a syringoporid) from the lower Carboniferous.
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Typhloesus was a strange invertebrate from Montana, possibly related to snails.
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Essexella was a cnidarian, similar to a Sea anemone.
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Concavicaris was a long-lived thylacocephalan arthropod.
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Triproetus was a type of trilobite.
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Daidal was an early type of Mantis shrimp.
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Jeletzkya was an early coleoid cephalopod.
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Syllipsimopodi was the earliest known vampyropod cephalopod.
Freshwater and Lagoonal Invertebrates
Lakes and lagoons also hosted unique invertebrates.
- Giant Eurypterids: Some of the largest creatures were eurypterids, or "sea scorpions." Megarachne, for example, was a huge freshwater eurypterid.
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Megarachne was a large freshwater eurypterid, once thought to be a giant spider.
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Adelophthalmus was a type of eurypterid that survived past the Devonian.
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Hibbertopterus was one of the heaviest eurypterids.
Terrestrial Invertebrates: Giants on Land
The land was home to some truly enormous arthropods.
- Giant Millipedes: Arthropleura was a massive millipede-like creature that could grow up to 2.6 meters (over 8 feet) long! It was the largest land invertebrate ever.
- Giant Insects: The Carboniferous saw the first winged insects. Later, huge predatory insects like Meganeura, a giant dragonfly-like creature, had wingspans of about 75 cm (30 inches).
- Spiders and Scorpions: Early arachnids, including large scorpions like Pulmonoscorpius, also roamed the forests.
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The late Carboniferous giant dragonfly-like insect Meganeura had a wingspan over 60 cm.
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The gigantic Pulmonoscorpius reached a length of up to 70 cm.
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Arthropleura was a giant millipede that fed on Carboniferous plants.
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Homaloneura, a palaeodictyopteran insect.
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Helenodora inopinata, a stem-group onychophoran.
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A roach-like insect from Carboniferous rocks.
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Maiocercus was a trigonotarbid arachnid.
Fish: Sharks and Bony Swimmers
The Carboniferous seas were full of fish, especially sharks and their relatives (elasmobranchs).
- Diverse Sharks: Some sharks, like Psammodus, had flat teeth for crushing shells. Others, like Saivodus, were large predators.
- Bizarre Sharks: Some sharks had very unusual shapes, like Stethacanthus with its brush-like fin.
- Freshwater Fish: Many bony fish and some sharks also lived in the rivers and swamps.
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Akmonistion roamed the oceans of the early Carboniferous.
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Falcatus was a Carboniferous holocephalan with different forms for males and females.
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Dracopristis was a large shark from the late Carboniferous.
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Ornithoprion was a small shark-like fish with an elongated lower jaw.
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Allenypterus was a Coelacanth fish.
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Phanerosteon was a bony fish.
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Edestus was a large shark-like fish with unique tooth whorls.
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Rhizodus was a large freshwater fish.
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Squatinactis, a genus of shark-like fish with enlarged pectoral fins.
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Bandringa was a bizarre shark-like fish that resembled a paddlefish.
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Iniopelteryx was a holocephalan that might have "flown" in the water.
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Restoration of Strigilodus, a petalodont holocephalan.
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Tetrapods: From Water to Land
The Carboniferous was a key time for tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates).
- Amphibians Thrive: Early amphibians, some as long as 6 meters (20 feet), became the dominant land animals. They included groups like the Labyrinthodontia.
- First Reptiles: One of the most important developments was the evolution of the amniote egg. This egg had a hard shell, allowing animals to lay eggs on dry land without them drying out. This was a huge step for life on land.
- Early Reptiles Appear: The first true reptiles, like Hylonomus, appeared in the late Carboniferous. These early reptiles, including ancestors of modern mammals (called synapsids) and ancestors of modern reptiles and birds (called sauropsids), began to diversify. They had scaly skin and claws, which helped them live in drier places.
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The amphibian-like Pederpes, an early tetrapod from Scotland.
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Hylonomus, one of the earliest reptiles, found in Nova Scotia.
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Petrolacosaurus, the earliest known diapsid reptile.
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Archaeothyris is the oldest known synapsid.
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Coloraderpeton was a snake-like tetrapod from Colorado.
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Crassigyrinus was a carnivorous stem-tetrapod from Scotland.
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Microbrachis was a lepospondyl amphibian.
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Amphibamus was a temnospondyl amphibian from Illinois.
Fungi: Decomposers of the Ancient World
As plants and animals grew and diversified, so did land fungi. All the main types of fungi we see today were present by the late Carboniferous. They played a crucial role in breaking down dead plant material.
Major Events: Extinctions and Changes
The Carboniferous Period also experienced some significant events that changed the course of life.
Romer's Gap: A Mystery in the Fossil Record
The first 15 million years of the Carboniferous are sometimes called "Romer's Gap." This is because very few land animal fossils have been found from this time. Scientists debate if this gap means there were fewer animals or if conditions just weren't right for fossils to form. Recent studies suggest there was a drop in oxygen, which could have caused an ecological slowdown.
Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse
Towards the end of the Carboniferous, a major climate change event occurred. The vast tropical rainforests suddenly collapsed. The climate became cooler and much drier. This was likely due to intense glaciation and falling sea levels.
This event was tough for amphibians, who needed wet environments. Many amphibian species disappeared. However, reptiles, with their hard-shelled eggs and scaly skin, were better suited for the drier conditions. This event helped reptiles become more dominant on land.
See also
In Spanish: Carbonífero para niños
- List of Carboniferous tetrapods
- Important Carboniferous Lagerstätten (places with amazing fossils)
- Granton Shrimp Bed; 359 mya; Edinburgh, Scotland
- East Kirkton Quarry; c. 350 mya; Bathgate, Scotland
- Bear Gulch Limestone; 324 mya; Montana, US
- Mazon Creek fossil beds; 309 mya; Illinois, US
- Hamilton Quarry; 300 mya; Kansas, US
- List of fossil sites
Images for kids
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A chart showing how the Carboniferous Period is divided into smaller time units in different regions.
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