Carboniferous Period
358.9 – 298.9 million years ago · Paleozoic Era
The Carboniferous is named for the coal beds formed from its vast swamp forests. It was a time of giant insects, the first reptiles, and the collisions that stitched Pangea together.
At a glance
- Began
- 358.9 Ma
- Ended
- 298.9 Ma
- Duration
- 60 million years
- Era
- Paleozoic
- Climate state
- Icehouse (polar ice sheets)
- Land above sea level (PaleoDEM)
- ~26.5%
- Dinosaurs on our map
- 0
The world in the Carboniferous
Open the interactive map at 320 Ma → Elevation view
What Earth was like
Gondwana and Laurussia collided, raising the Variscan and Appalachian mountain belts. By the end of the period most land was joined into the supercontinent Pangea, stretching from pole to pole.
Climate
The Carboniferous began warm but turned into the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, one of the longest icehouse intervals of the Phanerozoic. Ice sheets covered southern Gondwana while tropical swamps thrived near the equator. Buried plant matter drew down carbon dioxide and oxygen levels rose.
Life
Forests of giant club mosses (Lepidodendron), horsetails and tree ferns dominated the tropics. High oxygen allowed giant arthropods such as the griffinfly Meganeura and the millipede Arthropleura. Amniotes, the first animals with eggs that could be laid on land, appeared, including the earliest reptiles.
Dinosaurs of the Carboniferous
There were no dinosaurs yet. The first dinosaurs appear in the Late Triassic, around 233 million years ago.
How it ended
Around 305 million years ago the tropical rainforests collapsed as the climate dried, fragmenting habitats. The period ended at 298.9 million years ago.
Key facts
- Much of the coal burned since the Industrial Revolution formed in the Carboniferous.
- Meganeura had a wingspan of about 70 cm.
- Atmospheric oxygen may have exceeded today’s 21%.
Data: land and sea
Across the Carboniferous, an average of 26.5% of Earth’s surface stood above reconstructed sea level (range 24.2–28.3%). Today the same model gives 31.8%.
Where this data comes from
- Continent positions: GPlates Web Service, Merdith et al. (2021) full-plate model, used for 250–540 Ma.
- Elevation and shorelines: PALEOMAP PaleoDEMs, Scotese & Wright (2018), doi:10.5281/zenodo.5460860, CC BY 4.0.
- Period boundaries: ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart (2023/09).
These are scientific reconstructions, not observations. Uncertainty grows the further back in time you go. About & data sources
Related reading
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- Plate tectonicsHow plates move, collide and build mountains and oceans.
- LearnArticles on countries, dinosaurs and supercontinents.
- FAQQuick answers about Pangea and the map.
- About & data sourcesWhere the reconstructions and fossil data come from.