The Late Paleozoic World

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Chapter 15

• The Late Paleozoic World

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Guiding Questions

• How did marine life of late Paleozoic time differ
  from that of middle Paleozoic time?
• How did terrestrial floras change on a global
  scale in late Paleozoic time?
• What changes occurred in terrestrial faunas
  during late Paleozoic time?
• What major biotic changes occurred in the latter
  part of Permian time?

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Late Paleozoic

• Carboniferous glaciation
• Abundant swamps
• Permian drying

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Late Paleozoic Life in the Sea

• Marine
• Ammonoids abundant
• Highly mobile
• Brachiopods
• Productids
• Cone-shaped shells
• Produced reefs

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Late Paleozoic Life in the Sea

• Crinoid meadows
• Significant contribution to early Carboniferous
  (Mississippean) limestone

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Late Paleozoic Life in the Sea

• Bryozoans
• Sheetlike colonial animals
• Trapped sediment in mounds
• Important contribution to limestone

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Late Paleozoic Life in the Sea

• Fusulinids
• Foraminifera
• Late Carboniferous radiation
• Up to 10 cm in length
• Guide fossil for Upper Carboniferous and Permian

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Late Paleozoic Life in the Sea

• Higher Mg-Ca ratio
• Aragonitic algae
• Important in late Carboniferous reefs
• Aragonitic sponges
• Play important role in Permian reefs

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Late Paleozoic Life on Land

• Extensive swamps developed
• Coal swamps dominated by lycopods
• Lepidodendron
• Up to 30 m tall
• Sigillaria

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Late Paleozoic Life on Land

• Seed ferns
• Abundant
• Small bushy plants
• Large and treelike
• Glossopteris

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Late Paleozoic Life on Land

• Sphenopsids
• Not found in coal swamps
• Levees and floodplains

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Late Paleozoic Life on Land

• Cordaites
• Upland plants
• Gymnosperms
• Naked seed plants
• Formed woodlands
• Conifers
• Cone bearing plants

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Late Paleozoic Life on Land

• Permian
• Gymnosperms came to dominate terrestrial
  environments

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Late Paleozoic Life on Land

• Winged insects
• Dragonflies
• Mayflies

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Late Paleozoic Life on Land

• Amphibians
• Reptiles

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Late Paleozoic Life on Land

• Reptiles
• Requires amniote egg
• Protects embryo
• No longer needs water for development
• Pelycosaurs
• Dimetredon
• Eryops

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Late Paleozoic Life on Land

• Therapsids
• Similar to mammals
• Legs no longer sprawling
• Complex jaws
• Endothermic
• Warm-blooded
• Ectothermic
• Cold-blooded

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Late Paleozoic Paleogeography

• Continents clustered near each other

• Early Carboniferous
• High sea level
• Warm, shallow seas
• Abundant limestone
• Evaporites on western North American continent

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Late Paleozoic Paleogeography

• Mid-carboniferous
• Mississippian
• Pennsylvanian
• Gondwanaland collided with Eurasia (Hercynian)
• Extended Appalachians
• Alleghenian mountains
• Formed Ouachita Belt
• Oklahoma, Texas
• Glaciers Sea level drops
• Later Carboniferous
• Increased latitudinal gradients
• Glaciation expanded

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Late Paleozoic Paleogeography

• Interior
• Low moisture
• Evaporites and dunes
• Reduced carbon burial
• Led to higher atmospheric CO2
• Global warming ended glaciation

• Permian
• Pangaea nearly complete
• Ural Mountains

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Late Paleozoic Paleogeography

• Western dunes

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Alleghenian Orogeny

• Mountain building shifted to eastern US
• Valley and Ridge
• Thrust faults
• Blue Ridge
• Grenville age rocks

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Alleghenian Orogeny

• Continued molasse deposition

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Southwestern U.S.

• Ouachita Mountains
• Westward continuation of Appalachians
• Fold and thrust belt of offshore deposits

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Southwestern U.S.

• Microplates also accreted to Central America

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Fountain Arkose

• Eastern flank of Front Range

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Cyclothems and Coal

• Cycles in coal beds that contain marine sediments
• Slight change in sea level
• Alternating transgressions and regressions

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Cyclothems and Coal

• Transgression
• Deposition of marginal marine peat on top of
  nonmarine deposits
• Capped with marine sediments

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Cyclothems and Coal

• Regression
• Reversed the sequence
• Oscillating glaciers led to changes in sea level

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Delaware Basin

• In Texas and New Mexico
• Economically important

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Delaware Basin

• Only flooded region in Permian
• Significant petroleum source
• Midland Basin
• Filled with sediment

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Delaware Basin

• Delaware Basin
• Carbonate and evaporite deposition
• Reef grew upward
• Waters receded and stranded reef
• Capitan Limestone

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Delaware Basin

• Early on benthic organisms received oxygen
• When basin deepened, bottom waters deepened,
  stagnated

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Glacial Striations

• South Africa

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Fossil Wood

• Antarctic Wood
• Growth was interrupted in winter

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Late Paleozoic Unconformity

• Global unconformity in marine sediments

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Late Phanerozoic Life

• Rates of Origination and Extinction

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Late Permian Anoxia

• Japan
• Uplifted rocks
• Gray chert replaced oxidized hematite

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Carbon Isotope Ratios

• Negative shift at Permian/ Triassic boundary

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