"Mosses, lycopods, sphenopsids, ferns, seed ferns and cordaites." The next part of the description we have of the Pennsylvanian is a laundry list of plant kinds which sounds like an ecosystem or habitat, not a period of time.
Extensive Swamps in Lowlands
Most of the sedimentary deposits assigned to the Mississippian are coal beds in the Mississippi valley. The coal is the remains of swamp habitat that was buried in a world-wide flood.
