The Carboniferous (/ˌkɑːr.bəˈnɪf.ər.əs/ KAHR-bə-NIF-ər-əs)[6] is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period 358.9 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, 298.9 Mya. The name Carboniferous means "coal-bearing", from the Latin carbō ("coal") and ferō ("I bear, I carry"), and refers to the many coal beds formed globally during that time.[7]
The first of the modern 'system' names, it was coined by geologists William Conybeare and William Phillips in 1822,[8] based on a study of the British rock succession. The Carboniferous is often treated in North America as two geological periods, the earlier Mississippian and the later Pennsylvanian.[9]
Terrestrial animal life was well established by the Carboniferous period.[10] Tetrapods (four limbed vertebrates), which had originated from lobe-finned fish during the preceding Devonian, diversified during the Carboniferous, including early amphibian lineages such as temnospondyls, with the first appearance of amniotes, including synapsids (the group to which modern mammals belong) and reptiles during the late Carboniferous. The period is sometimes called the Age of Amphibians,[11]during which amphibians became dominant land animals and diversified into many forms including lizard-like, snakelike and crocodile-like.[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous
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