What happened during the Pennsylvanian Period?

By the Pennsylvanian Period, the evolution of terrestrial plants and animals had advanced to the point where true forests were developed in lowland, coastal sites. The presence of extensive, lush, swampy forests characterizes North America during the Pennsylvanian Period.

What were the continents like during the Carboniferous Period?

Geologically, the Late Carboniferous collision of Laurasia (present-day Europe, Asia, and North America) into Gondwana (present-day Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia, and India) produced the Appalachian Mountain belt of eastern North America and the Hercynian Mountains in the United Kingdom.

What animals or life forms lived during the Pennsylvanian Period?

Common Pennsylvanian marine fossils found in Kentucky include corals (Cnidaria), brachiopods, trilobites, snails (gastropods), clams (pelecypods), squid-like animals (cephalopods), crinoids (Echinodermata), fish teeth (Pisces), and microscopic animals like ostracodes and conodonts.

What was it like during the Pennsylvanian Period?

Pennsylvanian Subperiod, second major interval of the Carboniferous Period, lasting from 323.2 million to 298.9 million years ago. The Pennsylvanian is recognized as a time of significant advance and retreat by shallow seas. Many nonmarine areas near the Equator became coal swamps during the Pennsylvanian.

What was Earth like during the Pennsylvanian Period?

Significant glaciation marks the beginning of the Pennsylvanian with a resultant sea-level drop. Earth was in an ice age with a climate much like today—ice on both poles with wet tropics near the equator and temperate regions between.

How did Earth look during the Carboniferous Period?

Characteristic of the Carboniferous period (from about 360 million to 300 million years ago) were its dense and swampy forests, which gave rise to large deposits of peat. Over the eons the peat transformed into rich coal stores in Western Europe and North America.

What did the continents look like during the Permian period?

By the early Permian, the two great continents of the Paleozoic, Gondwana and Euramerica, had collided to form the supercontinent Pangaea. Pangaea was shaped like a thickened letter “C.” The top curve of the “C” consisted of landmasses that would later become modern Europe and Asia.