When Was the Carboniferous Period?

The Carboniferous is about 286 million to 360 million years ago in the geological age. It can be divided into two periods: the beginning of the Carboniferous (also known as the Mississippi, 320 to 360 million). Ten million years ago), and the post-Carbonian period (also known as the Pennsylvania period, 286 to 320 million years ago). The Carboniferous period is the fifth period of the Paleozoic, starting from about 355 million to 295 million years ago and lasting 65 million years. During the Carboniferous Period, the land area continued to increase, and terrestrial organisms developed unprecedentedly. The climate was warm and humid with swamps. Large-scale forests have appeared on the mainland, creating favorable conditions for the formation of coal. ^[1]

Carboniferous

The Carboniferous Period is a representative period of the great prosperity of the plant world. The Carboniferous began 350 million years ago, and lasted about 65 million years. The formation formed during this period was rich in coal, hence the name "Carbonian". According to statistics,

Carboniferous

Carboniferous (358 million-298 million years ago)-spectacular

According to the Carboniferous

In the Devonian period, the North American and North European-Russian plots were combined. Between this continent and the rest of the subsequent Gangwana supercontinent (today's Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia, and India) are partially oceans composed of different topography. In the Upper Devonian period, contact with the continents of North America, Northern Europe and Russia began.

stone

306 million years ago, the earth was in the late Carboniferous. The earth at this time is very different from what it is now: all the lands are connected to form a supercontinent: the Pangu continent (pan-continent). The Carboniferous Pangu continent is 99% covered by coniferous forests, and trees produce a large amount of oxygen, which makes the earth's oxygen content as high as 45%, which is twice that of today. At this time, there are two main types of overlords on land: amphibians and giant insects. The Carboniferous had a very high oxygen content, which promoted the evolution of insects. Amphibians evolved from teleost fish during the supermantle plume event, and because they had no competitors, they also evolved huge sizes.

The largest dragonfly today is only 18 cm long, but at that time there was a species called the giant-veined dragonfly, with a wingspan of 95 cm, relying on long wings to make them fly at 60 kilometers per hour. They rely on their huge size and extremely fast flight speed to become the overlord of the jungle. But they also have natural enemies: . The carcass is 2.2 meters long and weighs about 100 kilograms. It looks like a fat puppet. Like living amphibians, maggots feed on insects. There are also many types of giant insects, such as giant unicorns and giant salamanders.

There was an emerging species: reptiles. As of 2012, only one reptile at that time was found: the original lizard. It is 60 cm long. Reptiles are very different from amphibians. The eggs of reptiles are protected by hard shells and do not need to be produced in water. Their skin, unlike amphibians, has only a thin film, but has scales, which allows them to return to the water without a period of time to prevent dehydration. They also evolved an organ: the vocal cords.

The culprit of the disaster was coal. For 100 million years, the land has been completely covered by forests. Their dead branches form a layer of coal up to 30 meters thick and are spread all over the world. At that time, mantle magma activity was intense, generating high temperatures. The heat passes through the rocks and reaches the coal seam. Coal began to burn at high temperatures. One day, 306 million years ago, a pile of flames appeared on the ground. Immediately afterwards, more and more flames appeared. They burned trees. Falling burning trees ignited more trees, and soon there was a sea of fire nearby.

The extremely high oxygen content at that time accelerated the spread of the fire. The fire spread within 500 days. Animals in the jungle have nowhere to run, and most are burned to death. Although insects such as giant-veined dragonflies can fly, their eggs are impossible. Insects lost their habitat, and they could not always fly, eventually exhausted and fell into the sea of fire.

Ten years later, the fire continued to burn. They cover about 50% of the land. Most creatures in this range were burned to death. The fire did not continue to spread because of the mountains and rivers. However, the combustion of coal produced a large amount of harmful gases, which gradually spread to the world. These gases have caused the global greenhouse effect, with the average temperature rising by 5 degrees Celsius in ten years. This prevented the eggs of marine animals from hatching, which destroyed many animals.

Thirty years later, as the combustibles burned out, the fire stopped burning. In the area where the fire was burning, there was a thick layer of ash, which was formed by the burning of animals and plants. Surviving animals were starved to death because they had no food source.

The atmosphere is full of harmful gases, which in turn has destroyed many poorly breathing animals. These gases have continued to increase global temperatures. 100 years after the disaster, global temperatures may average 30 degrees Celsius.

One thousand years later, the toxic gases continue to evaporate and they block the sun. The light source on the earth's surface is only 50% of normal, which prevents plants from photosynthesis and a large number of plants die. Some animals with poor respiratory functions, such as maggots, have also died in large numbers.

Ten thousand years later, the toxic gas finally stopped volatilizing, but the animals and plants were severely damaged, and 50% of the land had almost no signs of life, and the earth began to enter a recovery period.

50,000 years have passed since the coal layer was burned, and the extinction event has basically ended. In this disaster, the amphibians were severely damaged and the maggots survived miraculously. Arthropods are less fortunate. Giant horses, giant-veined dragonflies, giant unicorns, giant salamanders and other animals are extinct, and the era of giant insects is over. The biggest beneficiaries of this disaster were the protozoans of mammals, birds, and reptiles, the primitive lizards. Their population grew during this disaster, and many different species have evolved over the next millions of years. Among marine animals, the trilobite was severely damaged and died in the next mass extinction event.

It is worth mentioning that reptiles have begun to diversify. They have become global overlords in a short time, and the earth has entered the era of reptiles up to 240 million years.

Burning coal, toxic gases, and high temperatures constituted a species extinction that caused 46% of species extinctions-the Carboniferous coal burning incident .