The coal forests
Swamp forests of thirty-metre clubmosses spread across the equator and bury carbon on an industrial scale.
- When
- Known to
- ± 10 million years
- Era
- Carboniferous, Paleozoic
Vast lowland wetlands across Euramerica fill with lycopsids — Lepidodendron and Sigillaria, giant relatives of today's ankle-high clubmosses, growing to forty metres with photosynthetic bark and shallow roots. Ferns, horsetails and early seed plants fill in beneath. Waterlogged, anoxic swamp floors prevent decay, and dead plant matter accumulates as peat and eventually coal. The period is named for it.