Carboniferous coal was produced by bark-bearing trees that grew in vast lowland swamp forests. Vegetation included giant club mosses, tree ferns, great horsetails, and towering trees with strap ...

Imagine a world where giant insects and bizarre creatures ruled ... something extraordinary lurked among the dense ferns and towering club mosses: Pulmonoscorpius, a scorpion as long as a child ...

Their fast, determinate growth meant the giant club mosses generated enormous quantities ... which partly explains why late Carboniferous climates tended to be relatively cool.

Some Carboniferous coals include lots of material from ancestors of conifers, which contained more lignin than their giant club moss relatives, making these coals particularly lignin-rich.

John Serrao , during the Carboniferous Period, or "Coal Age," the small evergreen plants known today as club mosses grew as much as 100 feet tall. They flourished in steamy jungles and were ...