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 • Image Gallery
A milder climate 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous Period helped great tropical forests flourish across much of Europe, Asia, and North America—continents that were now gathered at the equator.
Fossils tell us that these forests included large ferns, horsetails, and other plants. Tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) and arthropods (AR-thruh-pods) were among the creatures that inhabited these forests. Shallow marine bays and rivers also bordered the forests and harbored both common and unusual acquatic life.
Scientists learn about Carboniferous plants and animals through a number of specimens and fossils from Mazon Creek near Chicago, one of the world’s best fossil sites.
The Mazon Creek area is prairie today. But 300 million years ago, it was covered with shallow bays bordering swampy forests. River currents flowing into the bays quickly buried organisms in the fine sediments before the remains could decay. Magnificent fossil records of Carboniferous life were the result.
Continue to Mazon Creek Plant Images. >>
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