The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 358.9 ± 0.4 Ma, to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 298.9 ± 0.2 Ma. The Carboniferous System has been subdivided into two subsystems, the Mississippian and the Pennsylvanian, and contains seven global stages. The Carboniferous world at the time was severely influenced by the formation of the supercontinent Pangea, which caused major changes in ocean circulation, high bioprovincialism, increased continental weathering rates, waxing and waning of Gondwanan ice sheets, strong fluctuations of global sea-level and cyclic marine sequences, extinction or decline of early Paleozoic biota, and appearance or rapid diversification of reptiles, land plants, amphibians, wingless insects, ...more >>