The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya (million years ago), to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya (ICS, 2004, chart). The Carboniferous was a time of glaciation, low sea level and mountain building, diversification and extinction; a minor marine and terrestrial extinction event among animals and plants (Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse) occurred in the middle of the period caused by climate change. Image:Sauerstoffgehalt-1000mj.svg Image:Phanerozoic Carbon Dioxide.png Image:All palaeotemps.png Haq, B. U.; Schutter, SR (2008). "A Chronology of Paleozoic Sea-Level Changes". Science 322 (5898): 64–68. doi:10.1126/science.1161648. PMID 18832639.  Gradstein, Felix M.; Ogg, J. G.; Smith, A. G. (2004). A Geologic Time Scale 2004. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521786738.  Sahney, S., Benton, M.J. & Falcon-Lang, H.J. (2010). "Rainforest collapse triggered Pennsylvanian tetrapod diversification in Euramerica" (PDF).