Carboniferous period
Ancient swamp era
The Carboniferous period is a geological era roughly 359 to 299 million years ago, when vast swamps covered much of the Earth.
Dead plant matter accumulated and compressed into the coal deposits that give the period its name—carbon-bearing.
Carboniferous fossils reveal giant insects and early amphibians.
- MississippianNative of a southern state
- peat bogWetland accumulating decomposed vegetation
- PennsylvanianNative of Keystone State
- geologic timeEarth's age measured epochally
- swampWaterlogged land with vegetation
amphibians · coal seams · tree ferns · giant insects · fossil fuels · glaciation · arthropods · Devonian · tropical climate · trilobites · anthracite · Permian · rainforest · ancient forests · lignite · dragonflies · oxygen levels · humid
- coalanthracite, bituminous, lignite, coal seam, hard coal
- Paleozoic eraCambrian period, trilobites, brachiopods, Burgess Shale, ancient oceans
- blastoidscalyx, theca, spiracles, side plates, ambulacral groove
- fossil fuelspetroleum, crude oil, natural gas, coal, anthracite
geological time position
Carboniferous periodPrecambrian
Earliest geological eon
Cretaceous period · Jurassic period · modern era · Anthropocene · Cambrian period