, the first period of the Paleozoic era,—that of the first abundance of marine animals.

Carboniferous

, producing or containing coal.

Cenozoic

, the age of mammal dominance. It included the last great ice age, the time of the transformation of apes into man, and the rise of the higher mammals.

Comanchian

, that period of the Mesozoic era that gave rise to flowers and the higher insects.