Late Paleozoic Carboniferous to Permian 354-251mya Overview Mississippian and Pennsylvanian combine to make up Carboniferous Period Name comes from extensive.

Late PaleozoicCarboniferous to Permian

354-251myaOverview

• Mississippian and Pennsylvanian combine to make up Carboniferous Period

• Name comes from extensive coal deposits formed from remains of plants that grew during this time

• Glaciations during Carboniferous—extinction

• 2 major extinctions in Permian—second one was greatest mass extinction of all time!

Late Paleozoic marine life• After the end Devonian extinction, some

organisms never fully recovered (tabulate corals, stromatoporoids, placoderms)

• Some diversified:– Ammonoids– Sharks– Brachiopods– Crinoids– Fusulinids (great diversity in Permian)– Bryozoans

Late Paleozoic marine life

Mississipian rocksLimestone deposition• Period named for large proportions of limestone

that were deposited in the • Well exposed in the upper Mississippi valley• Road cut on I-172 near Quincy, IL

http://www.wiu.edu/users/mflam/virtual/BurlingtonLs/Burlington.html

Pennsylvanian rocksCoal formation• Coal is well exposed in the state of Pennsylvania• Most geologists call the two periods the Carboniferous

and refer to the Lower and Upper Carboniferous

Diorama of Pennsylvanian coal swampDenver Museum of Natural History

Life on Land• More plant fossils in Carboniferous strata than in any

other geologic interval• Coal deposits formed from plant remains in lowland

swamps• Coal represents an enormous biomass of plants• Coal swamp plants:

– Lepidodendron and sygillaria—both are types of lycopod trees

– Ferns—seed ferns that reproduce by seeds instead of spores like modern ferns

• Glossopteris was a seed fern!

• Other plants– Sphenopsids—seed ferns and spore plants– Cordaites—tall trees; belong to gymnosperm group (cones)

Coal swamp plants• Lepidodendron

Note leaf scars on the trunk. (Trees grew to 30 m tall; 90 ft).

• Ferns—grew at the feet of the trees forming undergrowth

• Sphenopsids (like Calamites) were spore-bearing and similar to living horsetails or scouring rushes

• Often interpreted as living in moist areas, even perhaps standing water

• (paleoenvironmental information courtesy of Dr. Richard L. Leary, Curator of Geology (Paleobotany), Illinois State Museum)

•Cordaites—fig. 15-10

• Cordaites--primitive trees; no lineage of descendants survives today

• Example below:– Strap-shaped leaves which increasing in width from base to

tip– Leaf veins ran parallel with the long axis of the leaf,

resemble the monocot veins of corn leaves

•Mazon Creek fossils

Fossil web page

Life on Land

• Insects had important ecological roles – Food for other animals

• Consume and decompose plants and animals

• Insects first appeared in Devonian - wingless. Wings appeared by the Late Carboniferous.

http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/fossils/insect.html

Life on Land• Vertebrates--Amphibians

– First appeared Late Devonian – Aquatic or semi-aquatic – Eggs and young in water – Broad spectrum of shapes, sizes, and modes of life. – Were up to 20 feet in length (but most living

amphibians are small).

http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/160/160S07_18.html

Life on Land• Vertebrates--Reptiles • First appeared in the Pennsylvanian • First found in Nova Scotia inside hollow

trees filled with sediment

http://www.agiweb.org/news/evolution/examplesofevolution.html

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/tetrapods/amniota.html

Life on land—reptiles cont.

• Key feature in the origin of reptiles is the development of the amniotic egg– Durable outer shell protects embryo from drying – Egg can be laid on land – Yolky part of egg provides nutrition; sac contains

embryo and another sac collects waste products. – Eliminated need to lay eggs in water, allowing

vertebrates to live and reproduce on dry land for the first time.

– Amniotic egg probably evolved in Carboniferous – First fossil eggs are early Permian

Paleogeography

Middle Mississippian Paleogeography of North Americahttp://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/nam.html

• Warm,shallow seas led to limestone and evaporite deposition—fig. 15-17

Paleogeography

Early Pennsylvanian

• Gondwanaland collided w/ Euramerica—formed Pangea (not fully formed until Permian)

• This collision resulted in the Alleghenian orogeny—the 3rd stage of Appalachian mtn. building

• Global cooling due to great carbon sinks of the coal swamps

• Ice age—extinction—drop in sea-level

Paleogeography• Dry habitats expanded due to the configuration

of the continents—most land was far away from moisture-providing oceans

Mississippian paleogeography

Pennsylvanian paleogeography

Permian paleogeography