Читать книгу Oceans For Dummies - Joseph Kraynak - Страница 55

The Carboniferous period (from 358.9 to 298.9 million years ago) was marked by a warm, humid climate with loads of oxygen and lots of forests, making this period famous for its swamps. Some animals called amniotes, began laying eggs with shells on land; these are the early ancestors of reptiles, birds, and mammals. But it wasn’t all about them; arthropods (insects) also began to take over the land — think giant dragonflies the size of seagulls.

Meanwhile, back in the ocean:

 Sharks begin their massive diversification with about 45 families emerging.

 Coral reefs flourish again, and invertebrate marine animals are common. Foraminifera (single-cell organisms with shells) become common.

 Nautiloids emerge, and while they represented a very diverse group of predators at the time, today only their ancestor the Nautilus remains (see Figure 3-4).

Source: Laurent Ballesta – laurentballesta.com

FIGURE 3-4: Modern Day Nautilus, which is still surprisingly similar to what they would have looked like in the past. This photo was taken at 110 meters (360 ft).

This period ended as the continents started to merge to form the most well-known supercontinent, Pangea. Because inland areas of this massive continent were too far from the ocean to get any moisture, large deserts emerged in Pangea, and forests died out (the carboniferous rainforest collapse). The amniotes we mention above (early reptiles) were better able to adapt to this drier climate and continued to diversify, while creatures that had dominated in earlier, wetter periods, such as amphibians, struggled.