Carboniferous rainforest collapse

The Carboniferous rainforest collapse was a late Carboniferous disruption, about 307 million years ago, that fragmented tropical coal forests and reorganized terrestrial ecosystems.

Late Paleozoic icehouse: A prolonged interval of global cooling and extensive glaciation during the late Paleozoic Era. Glacial climate shifts and falling sea levels formed the broader setting for forest disruption.
Coal forest: A humid, swampy forest ecosystem that accumulated abundant plant material later preserved as coal. These forests were the ecosystems most directly fragmented by the collapse.
Joggins Fossil Cliffs: A fossil-rich coastal site in Nova Scotia preserving Carboniferous forests and vertebrate remains. Its strata preserve a detailed record of coal-forest environments near the transition.
Paleoclimate proxy: A preserved physical, chemical, or biological measurement used to infer past climate conditions. Proxies help reconstruct the drying and temperature shifts associated with the collapse.
Coal swamp: A waterlogged forested environment where plant remains can accumulate and form peat. Coal swamps were common habitats within the forests undergoing fragmentation.
Pangaea: The supercontinent that assembled during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. Its continental interiors and changing geography influenced tropical climate patterns.
Lycopsid: A lineage of vascular plants that includes clubmosses and extinct tree-sized forms. Tree-sized lycopsids declined as wetland forests contracted.
Mazon Creek fossil beds: A fossil locality in Illinois renowned for exceptionally preserved Pennsylvanian plants and animals. Its fossils document diverse Carboniferous communities during the era of coal forests.
Paleobotany: The study of fossil plants and their evolutionary and ecological history. Plant fossils reveal the timing and regional variation of forest loss.
Peat: Partially decayed plant material accumulated in waterlogged conditions. Peat formation depended on the wet environments that contracted during the collapse.

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