1. LECTURE 5: Carboniferous Pd (Mississippian & Pennsylvanian) 360 mya- 286 mya and Permian Period 290 mya – 248 mya

2. Why is it Called the Carboniferous Period?
Continents were clustered at the equator

3. Why is it Called the Carboniferous Period?
Swampy tropical forests covered the continents
Seedless Tracheophytes: tall ferns, horsetails and lycophytes dominated

5. Why is it Called the Carboniferous Period?
Latin terms: Carbo (coal) and ferre (to bear)
The forests are called coal forests
Plants that lived in these forests 300 million years ago became coal mined for fuel today
Dead plant material accumulated and pressure left compressed carbon—coal—behind

6. What is Chicago’s Mazon Creek Area?
Before the Carboniferous Period, Chicago had been an underwater reef, but during this time it became a great forest
This site produces some of the world’s best fossils from the Carboniferous Period
Plants, centipedes and millipedes, scorpions and other arachnids, and even small amphibians
Some Arthropods were GIANTS
Tully Monster (Illinois State Fossil)

7. 2 meters Long Millipede

8. Tully Monster Tullimonstrum gregarium Marine, Carnivore (blown ashore)

9. What Significant Events Occurred During the Carboniferous?
Radiation of Tetrapod Diversity
Amniotic Egg Appears
The shell and amniotic fluid prevent the developing embryo from drying out
FIRST REPTILE

10. Radiation of Terrestrial Tetrapods
Amphibians
Fish-like bodies were replaced with large predators with long snouts, short sprawling limbs and flattened heads
Non-amniotic
Layed eggs in water
Anthracosaurs
Reptile- Like amphibians
non-amniote tetrapods and amniotes with holeless skulls
Descendents to Reptiles and Synapsids (mammal-like)

11. Reptile and Synapsid Diversity
Holes in their skull differ
Reptiles
One or more holes, but these holes are never located directly behind the eye sockets
Anapsids
No openings
Early Reptiles
Diapsids
2 openings
only group living today: Lizards, snakes, turtles, and crocodiles, as well as dinosaurs and their living descendants: birds
Synapsids
Single opening just behind each eye socket
The only synapsid group living today are the Therapsid cynodonts (Mammals)
a palate that separates the nasal passage from the mouth. This palate allows cynodonts to breathe and chew at the same time—something you can do that other synapsids could not do

12. ONLY LIVING REPTILES
US-ALL MAMMALS

13. What was Hylonomus lyelli ?
First animal adapted to life fully on land (FIRST REPTILE) 320 mya
Anapsid
20 cm (8 in.) long, counting the tail
Lizard-like reptiles were insectivores
Females probably deposited amniotic eggs on land in moist, sheltered areas

14. What was Archaeothyris?
First Synapsid

15. What was Petrolacosaurus?
Oldest Diapsid Reptile
2 holes

17. What Adaptations for Land are Seen in Early Reptiles?
Amniotic Egg
A yolk provides food for the developing embryo
Moisture and oxygen are absorbed through the porous shell
Eggs develop outside the mother's body (Oviparous)
Dry, Scaly Skin
The scales are thickenings of the outside layer of skin and are mostly made of keratin
Cold- Blooded: Ectothermic (like Amphibians)
They depend on the environmental temperature for the warmth that they need (low metabolism- until they are warm)
Defense Mechanisms
Bony shells,sharp teeth, camouflage and warning colors

18. Quokka

19. What were the Significant Events During the Permian Period?
Supercontinent Pangaea
Three basic environments—arid, tropical, and temperate
Amniotes became common
Reptiles and synapsids
(Therapsids- mammalian ancestors)
—spread across the supercontinent
Mass Extinction #3

20. How does Climate Affect Plant Diversity?
Arid (Dry)
Zones near the equator quenched by rain in the summers, but drier the rest of the year
Most spore-bearing plants, such as ferns, need wet conditions for sperm to swim to the egg. They did better nearer the equator where there was seasonal moisture
Zones slightly further from the equator were arid desert year-round
Seed-bearing plants could survive in the driest zones because their sperm is transported inside a pollen grain
Tropical Everwet
Some zones near the equator were wet and green
Ferns (Seedless Tracheophytes), seed ferns, palm-like cycads, and cordaites (relatives of today’s conifers)
Cool Temperate
Some zones were closer to the poles and had a climate that was cool and had distinct seasons
To conserve resources when temperatures cool, some plants lose their leaves, growing new ones when temperatures warm up
As plants differed based on their climate, animals that inhabited each of these environments differed, too

21. Glossopteris (Leaves that have fallen) Walchi piniformis (Conifer with Seeds)

22. PERMIAN REPTILES Diapsid reptile skull Cyonosaurus longiceps
Youngina romeri
Cyonosaurus longiceps
Synaspid

23. What was Tetraceratops insignis?
First Therapsid
Synapsid Reptile
Group that gave rise Mammals

24. Permian Reptiles

25. What Caused the 3rd Mass Extinction?
Global warming
Scientists aren't exactly sure what triggered this mass extinction
Volcanic eruptions of this size would have released enough gases to trap heat in the atmosphere
Today, massive lava flows dating to the end of the Permian Period cover vast areas in Siberia.
Most devastating mass extinction in Earth’s history
It lasted from roughly 251 million to 250 million years ago
Over 90% of marine animals and 80% of land animals (ALMOST ALL LIFE)