Carboniferous landscape. The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 358.9 million years ago, to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 298.9 mya. The name Carboniferous means "coal-bearing" and derives from the Latin words carbo ("coal") and fero ("I bear, I carry"), and was coined by geologists William Conybeare and William Phillips in 1822. Illustration from 1885.