Carboniferous literally means ‘coal-producing’. Last century, southern Limburg was famous for its collieries. Coal formed between 362.5 and 290 million years ago, out of thick deposits of peat, which in this period accumulated in extensive tropical swamps: southern Limburg was then was in a similar geographical position to Surinam now. The distribution of land and sea and the configuration of the continents was then very different from today! Southern Limburg was then where Surinam is now. In the former collieries, numerous fossils have been found of Sigillaria and Lepidodendron, horsetails and ferns were among the characteristic plants of these Carboniferous swamps.

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