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When you hear the word Carboniferous, you notice the word ‘carbon’ in the name. That refers to the great amount of coal deposits in Mississippi and Pennsylvania. During the Carboniferous era major biological, geological, and climatic events occurred.

North America was sitting on the Equator, with New Hampshire located just to its south. That means the climate was tropical- very warm and wet. This played a key role in bringing up the development of the amphibians, some of which were huge. They were not the only animal type around, but they were the dominant one. The conditions were excellent for huge fern forests and vast coal swamps. Coal swamps are called that today because that is where all the plants grew that turned into coal later on. They were very lush and green, not black and dirty. These swamps were converted to cal by being buried under sediments and then squeezed under great pressure and heat. Before the Carboniferous era there was the Devonian era, which consisted mainly of small plants, the tallest being only a meter tall. By the end of the Devonian, ferns, horsetails and seed plants had also appeared, producing the first trees and forests. In the next era, after the Carboniferous era there was Permian, which lasted from 290 to 248 million years ago. Permian was recognized of the largest mass extinction recorded in the history of life on Earth. Many groups of organisms in many different environments were affected. However, it affected marine invertebrates of the time.