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Carboniferous

 This period is part of the
Paleozoic era.
 Cambrian
 Ordovician
 Silurian
 Devonian
 Carboniferous
 Permian

The Carboniferous is a Geologic Period that extends from about 280 to 340 million Years before the present. As with most older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified, but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain by 5-10 million years. The Carboniferous is named for the extensive coal beds from that age in England and Western Europe. The Carboniferous follows the Devonian and precedes the Permian Period. In North America the first third of the Carboniferous is called the Mississippian Period and the remainder is called the Pennsylvanian.

The Carboniferous is usually broken into Lower and Upper subdivisions. The Faunal stages from youngest to oldest are:

Carboniferous rocks in Europe and Eastern North America largely consist of a repeated sequence of limestone, sandstone, shale and coal beds. In North America, the Early Carboniferous is largely marine limestone which accounts for the division of the Carboniferous into two periods by North American workers. The Carboniferous coal beds provided much of the power for the Industrial Revolution and are still of great economic importance.

The large coal deposits of the Carboniferous primarily owe their existence to two factors. The first of these is the appearance of bark bearing trees (and in particular the evolution of the bark fiber lignin). The second is lower sea levels in the Carboniferous compared to the Devonian period which allowed for the development of extensive lowland swamps and forests in North America and Europe. It has been hypothesized that large quantities of wood were buried during this period because animals and decomposing bacteria had not yet evolved that could effectively digest the new lignin. It has also been observed that the extensive burial of organically produced carbon led to a buildup of surplus oxygen in the atmosphere resulting in concentrations upto 80% higher than today. The oxygen increase is implicated in increased wildfire activity, as well as the expression of gigantism in certain insects and amphibians whose size are constrained by respiratory systems that are limited in their ability to diffuse oxygen.

In Eastern North America, marine beds are more common in the older part of the period than the later part and are almost entirely absent by the late Carboniferous. More diverse geology existed elsewhere of course. Marine life is especially rich in crinoids and other echinoderms. Brachiopods were abundant. Trilobites became quite uncommon. On land, large and diverse plant populations existed. Land vertebrates included large amphibians.

The southern continents remained tied together into the Supercontinent Gondwana which collided with North America-Europe (Laurussia) along the present line of Eastern North America. In the same time frame, much of present Eastern Eurasia welded itself to Europe along the line of the Ural mountains. Most of the Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangea was now assembled although pieces of present East Asia still remained detached.