Visean Age

Evidence for Plant Herbivory

The Visean Stage (347-331 Ma) is the second age in the Carboniferous Period, occurring after the Tournaisian age, and before the Serpukhovian age

Geologic Age

  • 346.7±0.4–330.9±0.3 Ma

Eon / Era / Period / Epoch

Above: The pinna of a medullosid seed fern, Neuropteris, with evidence of herbivory

What happened during this time?

Biological

Flora

  • Zygopteridales appear on the landscape

    • Frond pinnae which were small and planated.

    • Quadriserate fronds (pinnae borne at right angles to each other)

    • Other leaf types appear before this time, such as microphylls in clubmosses

  • Medullosid seed ferns also appear in the late Visean

Fauna

  • Some of the earliest evidence of plant herbivory during this time

  • Oldest known broken tetrapod bone: the forearm of Ossinodus pueri from Queensland, Australia.

    • Two-meter-long primitive tetrapod lived around 333 million years ago,

    • Fractured radius under a high-force, impact-type scenario indicating terrestrial habit