17 Facts About Carboniferous

Carboniferous is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period 358.

The name Carboniferous means "coal-bearing", from the Latin carbo and fero, and refers to the many coal beds formed globally during that time.

The Carboniferous is often treated in North America as two geological periods, the earlier Mississippian and the later Pennsylvanian.

Tetrapods, which had originated from lobe-finned fish during the preceding Devonian, became pentadactylous in and diversified during the Carboniferous, including early amphibian lineages such as temnospondyls, with the first appearance of amniotes, including synapsids and reptiles during the late Carboniferous.

Term "Carboniferous" had first been used as an adjective by Irish geologist Richard Kirwan in 1799, and later used in a heading entitled "Coal-measures or Carboniferous Strata" by John Farey Sr.

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The first attempt to build an international timescale for the Carboniferous was during the Eighth International Congress on Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology in Moscow in 1975, when all of the modern ICS stages were proposed.

Carboniferous is divided into two subsystems, the lower Mississippian and upper Pennsylvanian, which are sometimes treated as separate geological periods in North American stratigraphy.

European Carboniferous is divided into the lower Dinantian and upper Silesian, the former being named for the Belgian city of Dinant, and the latter for the Silesia region of Central Europe.

Global drop in sea level at the end of the Devonian reversed early in the Carboniferous; this created the widespread inland seas and the carbonate deposition of the Mississippian.

Carboniferous was a time of active mountain-building as the supercontinent Pangaea came together.

The Carboniferous is considered part of the Late Paleozoic icehouse, which began in the latest Devonian, with the formation of small glaciers in Gondwana.

In North America, the early Carboniferous is largely marine limestone, which accounts for the division of the Carboniferous into two periods in North American schemes.

The main Early Carboniferous plants were the Equisetales, Sphenophyllales, Lycopodiales, Lepidodendrales, Filicales, Medullosales and the Cordaitales.

Fronds of some Carboniferous ferns are almost identical with those of living species.

Freshwater Carboniferous invertebrates include various bivalve molluscs that lived in brackish or fresh water, such as Anthraconaia, Naiadites, and Carbonicola; diverse crustaceans such as Candona, Carbonita, Darwinula, Estheria, Acanthocaris, Dithyrocaris, and Anthrapalaemon.

Carboniferous amphibians were diverse and common by the middle of the period, more so than they are today; some were as long as 6 meters, and those fully terrestrial as adults had scaly skin.

One of the greatest evolutionary innovations of the Carboniferous was the amniote egg, which allowed the laying of eggs in a dry environment, as well as keratinized scales and claws, allowing for the further exploitation of the land by certain tetrapods.