Pennsylvanian Time Period Essay

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Mother earth has gone through a lot of changes throughout its four and a half billion-year existence. Earth has seen many different climates and many different species. Because of these changes geologists have broken earths history into different time periods. One such time period was the Pennsylvanian time period. The Pennsylvanian time period is a subdivision of the Carboniferous period. The Pennsylvanian period saw the introduction of many different species that are still present today along with a very different climate and different geographical features than are present today.

Before getting into some of the physical features of the Pennsylvanian period it’s important to know exactly when it occurred. There have been some differing opinions as to how long it lasted exactly, but most scientists agree that the Pennsylvanian period lasted for approximately thirty million years. (Kazlev) The Pennsylvanian period is the younger of the two subdivisions of the Carboniferous time period. The Pennsylvanian time period occurred from about three hundred twenty three million years ago to about two hundred ninety million years ago. () The entire Carboniferous period, which lasted for about sixty-four million years, only makes up about 1.6% of the entire geologic time. ()

The climate of the Pennsylvanian period is very different from that of ours today. The climate can best be described as being similar to a rainforest. “The Pennsylvanian was the time of the great ‘Coal Swamp Forests’ which dominated the equatorial regions of the planet.” (Kazlev) There were extensive swampy regions that stretched across countries. Much of the world was underwater and is what allowed some of the species that emerged to be so successful. Even though ...

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...ecause of the coal that was produced during this time period it can be debated that the Pennsylvanian period, and really the entire Carboniferous period, is the most important period of time in the earths history. If it weren’t for the coal that was produced during this period many of the earths energy problems would not have been solved yet.

All good things must come to an end however and the Pennsylvanian time period did end. At the end of the Pennsylvanian time period there was extensive climate change and extinctions of some aquatic life. There were less seedless plants and more seeded plants. () Although the Pennsylvanian time period ended there was a lot accomplished during this time period for the earth. Humans today can be thankful for all of the things that happened during this time period because it has greatly helped the success of the earth today.

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