Age of AmphibiansThe Age of Trilobites was finally coming to a close. Life on land took hold in the Carboniferous. But evolution seemed to slow.
Plants started to use spores for reproduction, and by the end Reptiles emerged and then the ancestors of birds, mammals and reptiles could finally reproduce on land without an acqeous environment. Roamer's GapRoamer's gap began at the beginning of the Carboniferous where there were found to be very scarce amounts of terrestrial fossils for about 15 million years, its still a mystery if this is a mass extinction at all.
GeologyGondwana continued to drift north after crossing the south pole, and collided with Euramerica in the Mississippian epoch. This continent was located on the equator. This would become the western part of Pangaea- the east was what is now China.
ClimateThe early part of the Carboniferous was mostly warm; in the later part of the Carboniferous, the climate cooled.
The thicker atmosphere and stronger coriolis effect due to Earth's faster rotation (a day lasted for less than 23 hours in early Carboniferous) created stronger winds than today. The cooling and drying of the climate led to the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse . Tropical rainforests fragmented and then were eventually devastated by climate change. |
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