The Carboniferous is one of the most alien periods in Earth’s history

During the Paleozoic life was quite different from today. While the Mesozoic was ruled by tetrapods on land, sea and air the early Paleozoic was a different matter. Tetrapods were making their first appearance on land during the Carboniferous but arthopods had reached land millions of years before vertebrates. Meganeura and Arthropleura are rightly pointed towards as examples of the “alien” nature of the Carboniferous but it is not just the fauna that makes the period strange - even the flora is different from what one would see in the modern day.

Many modern groups of plants become dominant in the Cenozoic or late Mesozoic. And yes, some lineages of Paleozoic plants have persisted into the modern day. But by and large the flora of the Carboniferous was much different from today’s. For me, this contributes to the allure of the period.