Carboniferous facts for kids

The Carboniferous was the geological period after the Devonian and before the Permian. It lasted from about 359 to about 299 million years ago. It is the fifth period of the Paleozoic era and the Phanerozoic eon.

In the U.S.A. the Carboniferous is divided into the Mississippian (lower part, 359–323.2 mya) and the Pennsylvanian (upper part, 323.2–299 mya). In Europe the terms lower, middle and upper are used.

Vertebrate evolution

The early tetrapods split first into two major groups: the amphibians, which laid their eggs in water, and the amniotes, who laid their cleidoic eggs on land. The amniotes gave rise to two groups both of which became dominant at different times. They were the synapsids, which eventually gave rise to the mammals, and the sauropsids, which gave rise to the dinosaurs and other reptiles. These momentous events took place in the lower part of the Carboniferous, the Mississippian.

Coal

The Carboniferous is named after the coal measures, the remains of peat formed by dense tropical wetland forests. New kinds of vascular plants with thick bark grew in the forests. Much of the coal came from this bark. This biota occurred in the upper part of the period, the Pennsylvanian, from 315–300 million years years ago.

These forests were on the equator, and the wetlands, which are always low-lying, stretched across the supercontinent of Laurussia. This included what is now North America in the west, through what is now Europe to China in the east. The river plain which was the heart of the wetland stretched 5000 km from eastern Canada to the Ukraine, and was 700 km wide.^p6

This kind of climate and geography has no exact parallel today, but the peat swamp forests in Indonesia and Malaysia, the Amazon Basin, the Mississippi River system and the Okefenokee swamp give some idea. The swamps were dominated by giant clubmosses, including Lepidodendron. They were the earliest trees, later replaced by conifers and flowering plants. Sometimes other plants from the levee got swept down by the river, such as horsetails, ferns and tree-like pteridosperms.

The wetland forests ended when the land level was raised by the pressure of the Gondwana continent against Laurussia. This caused the zone of contact to rise. The end of the coal measures marks the end of the Carboniferous period. China was too far away to be affected. There, the wetland forests continued for another 50 million years, into the Permian.^p30

Images for kids

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  Chart of regional subdivisions of the Carboniferous Period

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  Generalized geographic map of the United States in Middle Pennsylvanian time

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  Swamp forest in the Carboniferous

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  Lower Carboniferous marble in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Wasatch Mountains, Utah

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  Etching depicting some of the most significant plants of the Carboniferous

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  Ancient in situ lycopsid, probably Sigillaria, with attached stigmarian roots

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  Base of a lycopsid showing connection with bifurcating stigmarian roots

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  The upper Carboniferous giant spider-like eurypterid Megarachne grew to legspans of 50 cm (20 in).

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  Aviculopecten subcardiformis; a bivalve from the Logan Formation (Lower Carboniferous) of Wooster, Ohio (external mold)

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  Bivalves (Aviculopecten) and brachiopods (Syringothyris) in the Logan Formation (Lower Carboniferous) in Wooster, Ohio

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  Syringothyris sp.; a spiriferid brachiopod from the Logan Formation (Lower Carboniferous) of Wooster, Ohio (internal mold)

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  Palaeophycus ichnosp.; a trace fossil from the Logan Formation (Lower Carboniferous) of Wooster, Ohio

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  Conulariid from the Lower Carboniferous of Indiana

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  Tabulate coral (a syringoporid); Boone Limestone (Lower Carboniferous) near Hiwasse, Arkansas

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  The late Carboniferous giant dragonfly-like insect Meganeura grew to wingspans of 75 cm (2 ft 6 in).

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  The gigantic Pulmonoscorpius from the early Carboniferous reached a length of up to 70 cm (2 ft 4 in).

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  Arthropleura was a giant millipede that fed on the Carboniferous plants.

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  Mazothairos was a large palaeodictyopteran insect from Mazon Creek.

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  Helenodora inopinata, a Stem-group onychophoran known from Indiana

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  A Blattoid Cockroach found in Carboniferous rocks of France

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  Akmonistion of the Holocephali order Symmoriida roamed the oceans of the early Carboniferous.

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  Falcatus was a Carboniferous holocephalan, with a high degree of sexual dimorphism.

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  Dracopristis was a Ctenacanthiform elasmobranch from the late Carboniferous of New Mexico.

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  Ornithoprion was a small-sized Eugeneodont holocephalan that had an elongated lower jaw.

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  Allenypterus was a Coelacanth fish known from the Bear Gulch Limestone in Montana.

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  A fossil of Echinochimaera, a fish known from the Bear Gulch Limestone in Montana

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  Phanerosteon was a Bony fish belonging to the extinct order Palaeonisciformes.

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  Rhizodus was a large freshwater Rhizodont sarcopterygian from Europe and North America.

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  Squatinactis, a genus of Elasmobranch fish from Montana

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  The amphibian-like Pederpes, the most primitive tetrapod found in the Mississippian, and known from Scotland.

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  Hylonomus, the earliest sauropsid reptile, appeared in the Pennsylvanian, and is known from the Joggins Formation in Nova Scotia, and possibly New Brunswick.

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  Petrolacosaurus, the earliest known diapsid reptile, lived during the late Carboniferous.

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  Archaeothyris is the oldest known synapsid, and is found in rocks from Nova Scotia.

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  Coloraderpeton was a snake-like aïstopod tetrapodomorph from the late Carboniferous of Colorado.

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  Crassygyrinus was a carnivorous stem-tetrapod from the early Carboniferous of Scotland.

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  Microbrachis was a lepospondyl amphibian known from the Czech Republic.

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  Amphibamus was a dissorophoid temnospondyl from the Late Carboniferous of Illinois.

See also

In Spanish: Carbonífero para niños