Introduction 1 Late Paleozoic 108 Ma 359 251 Ma a Climate change b Major economically significant deposition c Major plate movements d Evolutionoary pressure e End is marked by the largest ME of all Earth s history i End of ancient life 2 Carboniferous Period 60 Ma 359 299 Ma a Mississipian 359 318 Ma i Extensive limestone deposition high sea level ii Renewed marine diversification iii Glaciation 1 Marine ME b Pennsylvanian i Early glaciation ii Transgression 1 High intervariablility results in cyclothem formation c Extensive coal formation from burial of spore trees plants in swamps d Reptiles evolve from amphibians e Onset of Alleghenian orogeny 3 Permian Period 48 Ma 299 251 Ma a Late Carboniferous ice age ends b Therapsids evolve from reptiles c Continued Alleghenian orogeny i Appalachians and Ouachitas d Pangaea forms e Dry climate i Reduction in coal swamps Increased evaporates ii f Gymnosperms g Largest ME of Phanerozoic Marine Life 1 Renewed evolutionary radiation a Similar to Devonian seas 2 Re diversification of a Ammonoids swimmers b Sharks and ray fin bony fish i Outcompete armored heavy fish 1 Swimming fast seemed to become a survival necessity c Brachiopods productids anchored and protected selves with spines most successful group d Bryozoans important contributor to Mississipian limestones i Sheet like colonial animals ii Stood upright feeding on suspended organic matter e Crinoid meadows very diverse and abundant i Segmented stalks ii Part of Carboniferous limestone f Fusulinids large foraminifers protists i Shallow seafloor ii Carboniferous radiation to 5000 species iii iv Index fossils Important constituent of limestone 3 New reef builders a Aragonite sponge reef builders flourished in Aragonite seas i Mg2 Ca2 ratio was high Terrestrial Life 1 Life on land a Many changes i Numerous insects ii New kinds of trees iii Seed trees rose iv Reptiles rose over amphibians v Therapsids appear and come to dominate b Trees grew in late Carboniferous swamps Pennsylvanian 2 Burial of plant remains gives Carboniferous Perious it s name a Time of enormous plant biomass production and burial in swamps i Enormous volume of Carboniferous coal beds clearly wetlands were once far more extensive than today 3 Coal forming swamp plants a Lycopods i Lepidodendron b Ferns 1 30 m tall some up to 1 m across base i Undergrowth of tree like lycopods ii Both spore ferns and seed ferns iii A few seed fern grew as large as a tree Glossopteris is the most famous tree like seed fern 4 Upland floras expanded a Spore plants called Sphenopsids occupied higher ground b Higher ground also occupied by Cordaites i First true gymnosperms naked seed plants 5 Gymnosperms 6 Fauna a Become dominant woodland plant of the Permian i Cordaites and conifers ii Due to Permian s increasingly dry climate a Diversified in freshwater aquatic habitats i Ray fin fish ii Freshwater sharks no modern relatives Insects and other arthropods i ii Amphibians iii Mollusks b Diversified on land c New on land i Reptiles ii Therapsids 7 Devonian wingless insects joined by winged insects a Wingspan of 75 m 2 ft b Giant Pennsylvanian arthropods related to millipeds were up to 2 4 m c Large size indicates that oxygen levels in the atmosphere were higher 8 ft in length than today 8 Early Carboniferous a Amphibians were diverse had the land to themselves b Reptiles evolved from amphibians in the late Carboniferous i Skeletons closely resembled their amphibian ancestors ii Key evolutionary adaptation mutation amniote egg 1 Sac filled with nutritious yolk 2 Amnion sac that contains the embryo and fluid in which 3 A sac that collects waste products 4 An outer durable shell that protects the developing it develops embryo c Reptiles no longer needed proximity to water 9 Reptiles were diverse by early Permian a Pelycosaur fin backed reptiles b Diametrodon fin back the size of a jaguar with sharp teeth Late Paleozoic Life 1 Therapsids a Evolved from the Pelycosaurs reptiles i Resembled mammals 1 Legs verticle under body 2 3 Teeth differentiated Jaws complex and powerful Incisors a b Fangs c Molars 4 Endothermic a Warm blooded sustained levels of activity ii Dominated amphibians and reptiles by end of Permian 2 Life cycles of plants and animals had advanced towards a more fully terrestrial existence during the late Paleozoic a Spores seed b Amphibians reptiles c Two evolutionary adaptations allowing a world away from water Paleogeography 1 Early Carboniferous Mississippian a Gondwanaland moved towards Euamerica b Sealevel rose after Devonian deglaciation i Flooded cratons ii Limestone abundant 2 Late Carboniferous Pennsylvanian a Gondwanaland collided with Euamerica b Extended Appalachians formed Ouachita c Extensive swamps on interior i Burial of vast quantities of organic carbon d Large ice sheets on Gondwanaland Great Ice Age i e Unconformity from glaciation regression demarcates Mississippian from Pennsylvanian 3 Permian a Siberian sutures to Euramerica Gondwanaland b Forms Ural mtns i Dry conditions reduced the extend of swamps c Near complete assembly of Pangaea i SE Asia only landmass remaining d Pangaea landmass so large dry interior i Vast evaporate deposits Permian ii Reduction in carbon buried in swamps iii Atmospheric CO2 build up Regional Events 1 Alleghenian orogeny a Collision between Euramerica and Gondwanaland i Forms Appalachian Valley and Ridge fold and thrust belt pre Taconic orogeny passive margin sediments ii Blue Ridge mm basement Grenville orogeny elevated by large thrust fault iii Piedmont rocks deformed from proximity to zone of suturing b Ouachita mtns represent the SW continuation c Deformation was offshore i Deep water strata thrust over shallow water carbonates d Steep faults to NW resulted in a series of uplifts and basins i Ancestral Rockies 1 Evaporates in Paradox Basin from rainshadow 2 Pennsylvanian cyclothems a Extensive coal swamps along shallow epicontinental seas b Slow moving rivers entered broad coal swamps everglades c Cyclothems i Cycle of peat and marine deposits d Burial of carbon in swamps caused a CO2 decline and glaciation e Depositional environments shift with transgressions and regressions f Transgressive vertical succession of i Marine top ii Peat iii Non marine bottom 3 Delaware Basin Permian a Large thickness of sediment enormous quantities of petroleum b Reefs once flourished petroleum Eventually in filled with evaporates Earth Systems Shifts Phanerozoic 1 Weakened greenhouse warming