Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, or being the geologic division of the Paleozoic Era from about 359 to 299 million years ago. The Carboniferous Period follows the Devonian Period and precedes the Permian Period and includes the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Periods. It is characterized, especially in the Pennsylvanian, by swamp formation and deposition of plant remains that later hardened into coal.
- adjective Producing or containing carbon or coal.
- noun The Carboniferous Period.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Containing or yielding carbon or coal.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Producing or containing carbon or coal.
- adjective (Geol.) the age immediately following the
Devonian , orAge of fishes , and characterized by the vegetation which formed the coal beds. This age embraces three periods, theSubcarboniferous , theCarboniferous , andPermian . See Age of acrogens, underAcrogen . - adjective (Geol.) the series of rocks (including sandstones, shales, limestones, and conglomerates, with beds of coal) which make up the strata of the
Carboniferous age orCarboniferous period . See the Diagram underGeology .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective geology of a
geologic period within thePaleozoic era ; comprises the lower, middle and upperMississippian and lower, middle and upperPennsylvanian epochs from about 345 to 280 million years ago, whencoal was laid down - proper noun geology the Carboniferous period
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of or relating to the Carboniferous geologic era
- adjective relating to or consisting of or yielding carbon
- noun from 345 million to 280 million years ago
Etymologies
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Examples
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* Starting about 340 million years ago, we might almost call the Carboniferous the amphibian equivalent of the age of dinosaurs.
THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH RICHARD DAWKINS 2009
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* Starting about 340 million years ago, we might almost call the Carboniferous the amphibian equivalent of the age of dinosaurs.
THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH RICHARD DAWKINS 2009
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The very name Carboniferous originated in the fact that the rocks of this geologic period contain productive coal beds in so many parts of the world.
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The Carboniferous was the age of lycopods and amphibians, as the
The Elements of Geology William Harmon Norton 1900
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Permian, to the Carboniferous, which is the bottom or landing of the
Time and Change John Burroughs 1879
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We now come to what are known as the Carboniferous rocks, of which the lower series is known as the mountain limestone, and above it come the "coal measures," containing numerous beds of coal, sometimes of great thickness.
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Since the industrial revolution, humans have been releasing into the atmosphere fossil carbon dioxide, which was fixed way back in the Carboniferous period, a couple of hundred million years ago, and this has been extracted as oil and coal and we burn it.
Rebecca Novick: Global Warming: The Un-tellable Story Rebecca Novick 2012
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In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
Elections 2006/2008 2009
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As I have mentioned before – it took 20 million years to capture and fossilise the forests and micro-organisms of the Carboniferous Period - giving us our coal and oil.
Leaders TV Debate – Law & Order Summary SHOCK! « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2010
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Since the industrial revolution, humans have been releasing into the atmosphere fossil carbon dioxide, which was fixed way back in the Carboniferous period, a couple of hundred million years ago, and this has been extracted as oil and coal and we burn it.
Rebecca Novick: Global Warming: The Un-tellable Story Rebecca Novick 2012
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