Carboniferous period

In the Carboniferous period (another name - carbon), most of the land was two huge continents: Gondwana and Laurasia. In the early period, the climate was almost everywhere tropical or subtropical. Huge areas were occupied by shallow seas. Extensive low-lying coastal plains constantly flooded and swamps formed there.

In this humid and hot climate trees from tree ferns spread quickly. Such forests began to release a lot of oxygen, and soon the content of this gas in the atmosphere reached today's level. Some trees reached a height of forty-five meters. Plants rushed up so fast that invertebrate animals that lived in the soil did not have time to eat and then decompose them. As a result, the vegetation became more and more.

It is in the Carboniferous period that peat deposits begin to form. In swamps, they quickly went under water, forming the main coal deposits. Thanks to carbon fiber, people can extract coal and produce various substances from it (for example, coal tar).

In the Carboniferous bog, there were dense thickets of horsetails and calamites, a large number of huge trees (plains and sigillaries, among others). Such conditions were an ideal habitat for the first amphibians - crinodone and ichthyosteg, for arthropods (spiders, cockroaches, dragonflies meganews).

At that time, not only plants, but also other organisms were cultivated. First of all, these are arthropods that came out of the water, which subsequently gave rise to a group of insects. Since that moment, their march on the planet began. Now there are about a million species known to modern science. According to some estimates, about thirty million scientists have yet to be discovered.

Flora and fauna of the Carboniferous

In the Carboniferous period, the formation of coal, which was formed due to the fact that the fallen trees did not have time to decompose and go under the water. There they turned into peat and coal. Among the vegetation at that time, ferns up to forty-five meters in height, with leaves longer than a meter, prevailed. In addition to the trees, huge mosses and horsetails grew. The trees had a very shallow root system. For this reason, everything around them was littered with their trunks. In this forest it was wet and warm. Ferns reached the height of modern wood. They could exist only in a humid environment. In the Carboniferous period, the first seed plants appear.

Many swamps and creeks became ideal spawning grounds for early amphibians and countless insects. The first spiders appeared. Among the tall trees flew huge butterflies, flying cockroaches, podenki and dragonflies. In the slowly rotting vegetation lived giant centipedes (gubonogie and dvuhparnogo). The eyes of the amphibians were bulging and settled on the top of a flat and broad head. This helped the arthropod to catch food. Soon, evolution spawned giant amphibians (up to eight meters in length), as well as creatures without legs reminiscent of modern snakes. Large organisms preferred to still hunt in the water, and their small brethren gradually migrated to land.

The first reptiles appear - microsaurs, which looked like small lizards with short and sharp teeth, with which they broke the hard covers of insects. Their skin was more moisture-permeable and gave them the opportunity to spend their lives outside water bodies. And the food for them was more than enough: centipedes, worms and numerous insects. Reptiles gradually no longer need to return to the water to lay eggs. They began laying eggs in a leathery shell. The cubs were small copies of their parents.