Purpleluvr1's+Carboniferous+Period

Carboniferous Period

Before we humans came or appeared on Earth, there were other living things that lived here. One of the big periods of time that have passed is the Carboniferous period. This time period was 360-286 mya (million years ago). It happened during the late Paleozoic Era, after the Devonian period and before the Permian period. There were many differences between these periods. In the Devonian there was for example, less living things, because there was less oxygen in the air. After the Carboniferous period, or the Age of the Amphibians, a lot of changes happened to the land and the living things. Pangea just finished forming, and that caused the climate to get hot and dry. At the end of the period there was a mass extinction. But right now during the Pennsylvanian, or the Carboniferous period, the land was full of plants, and there was 40% more oxygen in the air than now. And Pangea was just beginning to form. There were only a few things that happened in our Earth’s long and complicated history.

**Abiotic** During the [|Carboniferous period], there were a lot of changes occurring to the land. During this period, there were two continents: Gondwana and Laurasia. These two continents crashed, forming the bigger continent Pangea. Pangea was born somewhere along the equator. Most of the land was farther South than it is today, with North America and Europe on the equator. Since North America was on the equator, that meant that so was what is now the U.S and also Massachusetts. When you travel farther South, you know that the weather will be warmer and more tropical. Which is why most of the land was warm all year. Because of all the changes that were happening, you can see that it affected the climate and also the land, which is why the world now is so much different than before.

** Rocks/ Landforms/ Fossils ** Every day there are small changes that are happening to the world, but after a while all these changes make a big difference. Some of these rocks from the Carboniferous period can be found in North America. There are some coal deposits from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, that are right under the surface of the ground. There were also a lot of landforms that were starting to form. The first important one was Pangea. Pangea was made up of two super-continents, that just started to join. Another thing that started to form because of the formation of Pangea is the Appalachian mountains. These started to form when Gondwana and Laurasia crashed into eachother. Here are some of the fossils that were found from the Carboniferous period: the Archimedes Reversus, which was found in Illinois. The Dinichthys, which was a fish that was found in the sea. Another fossil that was found was the biggest bug that existed then, the Arthropleura which was 6 ft. but a vegetarian. There were many kinds of changes in the landforms, but it all created the [|Carboniferous period].

** Biotic ** Life on Earth during this period in our history was a lot different than what it’s like now. Imagine that you’re in the middle of a swamp forest. There were a lot of plants, and animals/insects that looked familiar to the ones now a day, but you’ve never actually seen before. The most common insects that you see are dragonflies that are 2 ½ ft. long! Some other really common insects that you see are snails, centipedes, scorpions, spiders and especially cockroaches. There are lots of plants, which means that there’s a lot of O2! This is why all of the animals and insects look so big. If you notice, there are some living things that weren’t here before, or after. There are the first reptiles, the first snails on land, and the first ancestors of birds. Some of the green plants and trees that you see all around are tree ferns, cycads, liverworts and club mosses. These are growing and spreading rapidly. Life was a lot different than now, but these things helped to create our world now.

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