Climate - Extinctions

In Gondwana, continental ice sheets developed extensively, whose expansion and contraction led to sea level rise and fall. A significant drop in sea level caused a mismatch at the boundary between the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian periods, which threatened the global extinction of sea lilies and, in particular, the ammonite cephalopods.

The collapse of the tropical forests of the Carboniferous Period was a small extinction event that occurred about 305 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period. This event altered the extensive Carboniferous forests that covered the equatorial regions of continental Europe. The event is thought to have fragmented the forest into isolated "islands," leading to the dwarfing and extinction of many plant and animal species shortly thereafter.

The climate was unfavorable for the rainforest and the biodiversity in it. The rainforest was reduced to isolated patches confined to wet valleys and beyond. Only the original lycopsid rainforest biome survived this initial climate crisis. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations fell to their lowest global levels during the Pennsylvanian and early Permian periods.

Subsequently, global warming intensified and the climate reversed.