- Permo-Carboniferous
The Permo-Carboniferous refers to the time period including the latter parts of the
Carboniferous and early part of thePermian period. Permo-Carboniferous rocks are in places not differentiated because of the presence of transitionalfossil s, and also where no conspicuousstratigraphic break is present.Permo-Carboniferous time, about 300 million years ago, was a period of great glaciation. The widespread distribution of Permo-Carboniferous glacial sediments in South America, Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, India, Antarctica and Australia was one of the major pieces of evidence for the theory of
continental drift , and led ultimately to the concept of a supercontinent,Pangea . Glacial activity spanned virtually the whole of Carboniferous and Early Permian time (A.G. Smith, 1997). Toward the end of the Carboniferous, around 290 million years ago,Gondwana , the southern part of Pangea, was located near the south pole. Glacial centres expanded across the continents, producing glacialtillite s and striations in pre-existing rocks. The Permo-Carboniferous ice sheet was so extensive that it would occupy a circle spanning 50 degrees of latitude centered on the pole (A.G. Smith, 1997).
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.