Subsequently, separate stratigraphic schemes were developed in Western Europe, North America, and Russia. The Old Red Sandstone was later considered Devonian in age. These four units were placed into a formalised Carboniferous unit by William Conybeare and William Phillips in 1822, and later into the Carboniferous System by Phillips in 1835. Four units were originally ascribed to the Carboniferous, in ascending order, the Old Red Sandstone, Carboniferous Limestone, Millstone Grit and the Coal Measures. in 1811, becoming an informal term referring to coal-bearing sequences in Britain and elsewhere in Western Europe. The term "Carboniferous" had first been used as an adjective by Irish geologist Richard Kirwan in 1799, and later used in a heading entitled "Coal-measures or Carboniferous Strata" by John Farey Sr.
The period is sometimes also called the Age of Amphibians, during which amphibians became dominant land vertebrates and diversified into many forms including lizard-like, snake-like, and crocodile-like. 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. Terrestrial animal life was well established by the Carboniferous Period. The Carboniferous is often treated in North America as two geological periods, the earlier Mississippian and the later Pennsylvanian. The first of the modern 'system' names, it was coined by geologists William Conybeare and William Phillips in 1822, based on a study of the British rock succession.
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. ə s/ KAHR-bə- NIF-ər-əs) 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. William Daniel Conybeare and William Phillips, 1822įAD of the Conodont Siphonodella sulcata (discovered to have biostratigraphic issues as of 2006) Ĥ3☃3′20″N 3☂1′26″E / 43.5555°N 3.3573☎ / 43.5555 3.3573įAD of the Conodont Streptognathodus isolatus within the morphotype Streptognathodus wabaunsensis chronoclineĥ0☁4′45″N 57★3′29″E / 50.2458°N 57.8914☎ / 50.2458 57.8914įalling from 120 m to present-day level throughout the Mississippian, then rising steadily to about 80 m at end of period Vertical axis scale: millions of years ago Subdivision of the Carboniferous according to the ICS, as of 2021.