Carboniferous Animals & Coal Forests

361Paleozoic

Adults retained external gills, extending a juvenile condition through life.

362Paleozoic

Forward-facing toes show an early tetrapod using a more effective terrestrial gait.

363Paleozoic

A reinforced skull and fang-like teeth belonged to a powerful river predator.

364Paleozoic

A long trunk and deep tail propelled it through murky water.

365Paleozoic

The ear region and sturdy limbs suggest more terrestrial activity than in many contemporaries.

366Paleozoic

Many individuals were entombed inside hollow tree stumps.

373Paleozoic

The limbs vanished entirely while the skull and spine retained tetrapod construction.

390Paleozoic

Broad net-veined wings carried an early aerial predator through oxygen-rich forests.

391Paleozoic

Huge triangular wings and long tail filaments belonged to a giant mayfly relative.

392Paleozoic

Thoracic winglets accompanied four large wings in an extinct flight architecture.

393Paleozoic

A shield-like pronotum and flat wings mark an early cockroach-mantis relative.

394Paleozoic

An enlarged prothorax carried a row of prominent spines.

395Paleozoic

Its wing venation pushes the cockroach-like pattern deep into the Carboniferous.

423Paleozoic

Firm fern-like pinnules belonged to a seed plant rather than a true fern.

425Paleozoic

A wingspan near half a meter made it a major aerial predator.

426Paleozoic

Leaf-like thoracic lobes accompanied four functional wings.

436Paleozoic

A two-meter eurypterid swept the bottom rather than sprinting after prey.

438Paleozoic

Huge conical teeth armed a multi-meter freshwater lobe-finned predator.

441Paleozoic

Males carried a denticle-covered anvil-shaped structure on the back.

446Paleozoic

A small light body combined traits near the ancestry of modern amphibians.

475Paleozoic

Tiny sac-like structures in coal balls resemble an early ascomycete.

479Paleozoic

A palm-like crown belonged not to a fern but to an extinct heterosporous seed-plant relative.

480Paleozoic

Hollow jointed stems let an early horsetail relative grow as a tall shrub or small tree.

482Paleozoic

Smaller than Meganeura but still broad-winged, this griffinfly hunted above coal forests.