Palæos: Paleozoic		Pennsylvanian Epoch
CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD		Bashkirian Age

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The Bashkirian Age

The Bashkirian Age of the Pennsylvanian Epoch: 318 to 312 million years ago

Paleozoic Era     Cambrian Period     Ordovician Period     Silurian Period     Devonian Period     Carboniferous Period        Mississippian Epoch             Tournaisian Age          Viséan Age          Serpukhovian Age       Pennsylvanian Epoch          Bashkirian Age          Moscovian Age          Kasimovian Age          Gzhelian Age    Permian Period

Introduction Important Fossil Sites Major Events Stratigraphy Geography Climate Plants Invertebrates Vertebrates

Introduction

The later Middle Carboniferous; the first of the four epochs that make up the Pennsylvanian subperiod. The Euramerican tropics are dominated by great lowland swamps, characterized by Lycopsid, Sphenopsid, and Medullosan plants, and inhabited by many types of invertebrates, stem tetrapods and the occasional primitive reptile. Meanwhile, Gondwana is covered by spreading ice sheets.

Important Fossil Sites

The Bear Gulch locality in Montana provides an important glimpse of Carboniferous fish life.

Major Events

Polar Gondwana covered in ice. The great Coal Swamps (or mires) become an important biome.

Stratigraphy

Based on the stratotype of the Moscow Basin / Urals. Incorporates the Namurian B and C and Westpahlian A of the Western Europe.

Divided into five ages. The Marsdenian, Kinderscoutian, and Yeadonian are based on Namurian goniatite zones defined in the British Isles, and collectively make up the Early Bashkirian. The Chermshanskian and Melekesskian are part of the standard Russian sequence and are used to define the Late Bashkirian

Geography

Low lying tropical wetlands in Euramerica.  

Climate

Glaciation in Gondwana, however, the equatorial regions remain tropical.  

Life

Plants

The equatorial wetlands enable the rise of the great Carboniferous Coal Swamps (or mires). Important plants include Lepidophloios, Diaphorodendron, Paracyclopodites, Sigillaria, Calamites, Sphenophyllum, Psaronius, and Medullosa.  

Invertebrates

Goniatites suffer a mass extinction but a few lineages continue onto the following Bashkirian epoch.

Insects and other terrestrial invertebrates flourish on land.  

Vertebrates

Chondrichthyes are diverse in seas, and current forms are joined by a new lineage, the Eugeneodontida. Osteichthyes are common in fresh water, and include both the Rhizodontiformes and the Osteolepiformes. In the ponds, rivers and swamps and on land stem tetrapods continue to constitute the majority of tetrapods, whilst amniotes include the earliest known Captorhinidae (clade Eureptilia), Hylonomus.

Class: Tetrapoda Order: Anthracosauroidea Suborder: Gephyrostegida Family: Gephyrostegidae Bruktererpeton Horizon: Locality: Comments: possibly a terrestrial form

Class: Reptilia Plesion: Eureptilia Order: Captorhinida Family: Protorothyrididae   Hylonomus Horizon: Locality: Comments: the earliest known reptile