Carboniferous Period Research Paper

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Carboniferous Period
The Carboniferous Period was a time period in the Geological Time Scale that came after the Devonian Period and ended at the beginning of the Permian Period. It lasted from 359 to 298 million years ago. The Carboniferous got its name from the large amount of coal deposits that were found during this time scale. In North America, the period is often separated into two, the Mississippian and the Pennsylvanian.
During this time period, the environment had a lot of swamps. The lands barely rose above sea level which flooded the forest which made it into swamps. These extensive swamps also had a lot of coal in them. We can most of our coal reserves today to the Carboniferous time period. Without the Carboniferous time period, we wouldn’t have our coal reserves today which led to significant advancement in our human history.
The global climate during this time was extremely humid and tropical. Again this helped the swamps during the Carboniferous period prosper. This humid and hot climate led to the outbreak of terrestrial plant life. Large trees grew everywhere which gave off so much oxygen. When the plants and tress died during this time, they sank in the water which didn’t have any bacteria. This made them not get decomposed and it formed peat beds. After many years of peat beds over peat beds, it made coal which is why there were a lot of coals coming from this time. The oxygen level during this time was very high. The oxygen level was a lot higher during this time than it is right now in present day Earth. The oxygen level was so high that insects were as big as today’s raccoons. Because of this scientist figured out why so much animal species back then were much bigger than they are now.
During the Carboni...

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...iod. The glacier formation led to the enormous decrease of the sea level which dried out the swamps. Swamps form because of the water level was high and flooded the forest so the low sea level really affected the huge swamps areas of the Carboniferous period. The climate changed from hot and humid to cool. The plants couldn’t adapt to this change so most of the ones that flourished during the time period died off but it led to new plants forming. Most of the amphibians that were prosperous during this time also couldn’t adapt to the environmental climate change so most died off. The insects also couldn’t live through the change. The reptiles however made it through the climate change. They were able to adapt unlike all the other species they lived with during the carboniferous period. These environment changes eventually led to a new time period, the Permian Period.

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