The Carboniferous Period

Tropical Paradise

Not only insects, reptiles and plants reached gigantic proportions in the tropical climate of the Carboniferous, life also flourished in the water. Sharks and bony fish hunted through the shallow seas where huge coral reefs stretched out. For 50 million years, the earth was a tropical paradise.

This is also how one of our most important raw materials came into being: coal. For as soon as the plants died, they were transformed into coal over millions of years under air seal and high pressure. Finally, 290 million years ago, the first ice age fell upon the tropical paradise and the creatures of the Carboniferous. Many species that could not adapt to climate change became extinct.