Coal. May be common knowledge but new to me and fascinating.

[Michael Weber]

I never knew until now that nearly all coal was produced over a relatively short geological time from 360 to 300 million years ago. 360 million years ago existing fungi and bacteria could decompose all plants of that time, returning the nutrients back to the soil. The nutrient cycle. Eventually evolution produced a molecule called lignin in plants. Lignin enabled woody plants to develop and quickly trees became a dominant species quickly covering the earth. But, when the trees died there were no existing fungi or bacteria that could decompose the new plants with the lignin molecules. Consequently when trees died they did not decompose and simply piled up and got squished over the eons eventually become fossilized then becoming coal. After 60 million years a bacteria that can digest lignin molecules eventually evolves, spreads rapidly due to the abundant food source, and coal production ends.
source of info was a you tube video. If you want to see it search YouTube for “Why almost all coal was made at the same time” By Steve Mould (ironically)

[Doug Garson]

I never knew until now that nearly all coal was produced over a relatively short geological time from 360 to 300 million years ago. 360 million years ago existing fungi and bacteria could decompose all plants of that time, returning the nutrients back to the soil. The nutrient cycle. Eventually evolution produced a molecule called lignin in plants. Lignin enabled woody plants to develop and quickly trees became a dominant species quickly covering the earth. But, when the trees died there were no existing fungi or bacteria that could decompose the new plants with the lignin molecules. Consequently when trees died they did not decompose and simply piled up and got squished over the eons eventually become fossilized then becoming coal. After 60 million years a bacteria that can digest lignin molecules eventually evolves, spreads rapidly due to the abundant food source, and coal production ends.
source of info was a you tube video. If you want to see it search YouTube for “Why almost all coal was made at the same time” By Steve Mould (ironically)

Interesting, no coincidence one type of coal is called lignite coal. Another example of natural changes taking thousands of years while man made changes take decades.

[Mike Henderson]

Wikipedia says that coal was produced over a longer period of time:

The wide, shallow seas of the Carboniferous Period provided ideal conditions for coal formation, although coal is known from most geological periods. The exception is the coal gap in the Permian–Triassic extinction event, where coal is rare. Coal is known from Precambrian strata, which predate land plants—this coal is presumed to have originated from residues of algae.^[19][20]

[Bill Dufour]

My Uncle was an oil company paleontologist. He could look at pollen and tell the age of the rock and know if they had to go deeper or they had gone to deep and hit nothing. Of course he was only good in several parts of the world. But they were good areas to know like the coast of California, west africa and east asia.
He said paleontologists get paid inverse to the power of the microscope used.
I know after he retired he turned down jobs paying $1,000 a day. This was in the 1980's when $1,000 was real money.
Bill D.