L5: Carboniferous Period

- "Age of the Amphibians" - changes in plants: simple to complex - vascular plants - ^ larger, modern, better adapted - wide range - coal bearing deposits we use today are from this period - gymnosperms and basidiomycetes emerge

- blueprint for the body - common to all - diversified in Cambrian - very old, highly conserved

359-299 Ma

- swampy lowlands dominated by trees - insects diversify - coal deposits formed during this period - abundant sharks - marine life - prior to this period, land masses mostly in southern hemisphere, later land around equator(temperate zones)

wetter low lying regions

pine trees and cap fungi

- fungi help mobilize soil nutrients to give to plants - plants give sugars to fungi - symbiotic relationship

Early: Mississippian Period Late: Pennsylvanian Period (lot of land mass near equator, warm and mild climates) - early and late periods split by major extinction - extinction caused by tipping point in climate, got cold really quickly, impact on marine groups, drop in sea level, increase of land-->more habitable and diversity for land animals and plants

- external fertilization - aqueous development - gas exchange: lungs and skin - early development gills - carnivores (ate bugs) - simple lungs - limited metabolic scope due to undeveloped respiratory system (sit and wait predators) -moved like eels, "S-like movement" -couldn't live in dry habitats without impermeable skin which led to reptiles

Urodele: tail Anura: no tail (like frogs and toads)

- earliest sauropsid (1st reptile) - impermeable skin - 315 Ma - scales, amniotic eggs with 3 membranes (Amnion, Chorion, Allantois) -lived in dryer environments and avoided amphibeans

Benefit: allows reptiles to reproduce away from water >>> they become dominant vertebrates

- Air was filled with oxygen (31-33%) - allowed animals with less developed respiratory systems to grow larger (huge bugs) -dense forests and warm oceans

larger, thicker, lusher

pine trees -good construction material, don't decompose fast

1. Evolution - development of soil and higher water capacity of soil - mosses and fungi - woody plants with bark (protection and could grow higher with support) 2. Climate - warmer - Mississippian sea levels lower than Devonian - swamps - anaerobic decomposition

- decomposers, pathogens on agricultural products - reflect a maturing relationship between fungi and plants

comes from photosynthesis, very important, burning of coal pushed CO2 back into atmosphere faster than it returns through photosynthesis