In geology, the Carboniferous was the seventh geological period, 250,000,000 years ago. This era marked the formation of the coal beds. It is the great group of strata which lie between the Old Red Sandstone below and the Permian or Dyas formation above, and is named from the quantities of coal, shale, and other carbonaceous matter contained in them. They include the coal measures, millstone grit, and mountain limestone, the first being uppermost and containing the chief coal-fields that are worked. Iron-ore, limestone, clay, and building-stone are also yielded abundantly by the carboniferous strata which are found in many parts of the world often covering large areas. The thickness of the coal measures in South Wales has been estimated at 10,000 to 13,000 feet. As coal consists essentially of metamorphosed vegetable matter, fossil plants are very numerous in the carboniferous rocks, more than 1500 species of them having been named, a large proportion of which are ferns, tree, lycopods and large horse-tail like plants. The animals include insects, scorpions, amphibians, numerous corals, crinoids, molluscs, cephalopoda, sharks and other fishes. Research Carboniferous
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Abbreviations
Rocks & Minerals
Research Carboniferous
