Great Coal-Age Swamps

350–300 million years ago (EarlyLate Carboniferous)

Carboniferous reconstruction with horsetails (front-right), ferns and tree ferns (front-left), scale trees (tall trees in back), and seed ferns (in front of scale ferns)

What was the Earth like during this time?

Which plants dominate?

Above: Reconstructions of tree-sized clubmosses called scale trees

What plants are in the understory?

Above: Reconstruction of tree-sized horsetails, Calamites, during the Carboniferous

Medullosa

Above: A reconstruction of the Carboniferous seed fern, Medullosa. Note the seeds on the large fronds.

Why is this time called the "Coal Age"?

Above: Diagram of how peat turns into black coal

What animals lived during this time?

Above: Reconstruction of Meganeura 

Above: Reconstruction of Arthropleura

How long did the coal forests last?

Why are these plants no longer around?

What were the earliest trees?