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noting or pertaining to a period of the Paleozoic Era, including the Pennsylvanian and Mississippian periods as epochs, occurring from 345 million to 280 million years ago.
(lowercase) producing carbon or coal.
the Carboniferous Period or System.
Historical Examples

At the close of Carboniferous times a marked change took place in the nature of the earth-movements.
The Principles of Stratigraphical Geology J. E. Marr

On the whole the Carboniferous seems to have been a time of subsidence in the West.
The Elements of Geology William Harmon Norton

Calamites are among the most abundant fossil plants of the Carboniferous period, and occur also in the Devonian.
The World Before the Deluge Louis Figuier

The first is in veins in the Carboniferous or mountain limestone.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines Andrew Ure

The Carboniferous genus, Pleuracanthus, has about 115 vertebræ.
A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 1 (of 2) David Starr Jordan

The species are chiefly confined to rocks of the Carboniferous age.
A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 1 (of 2) David Starr Jordan

Some of the forms reckoned as specific in the Devonian and Carboniferous formations may be really derivative races.
The Origin of the World According to Revelation and Science John William Dawson

Atrina; fossil and recent, from Carboniferous to present day.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 16, Slice 1 Various

Heer and Goldenberg suggested that Carboniferous cockroaches fed on the plants with which they have been found as fossils.
The Biotic Associations of Cockroaches Louis M. Roth

Their remains are found in the Devonian and Carboniferous deposits.
Directions for Collecting and Preserving Insects C. V. Riley

adjective
yielding coal or carbon
adjective
of, denoting, or formed in the fifth period of the Palaeozoic era, between the Devonian and Permian periods, lasting for nearly 64 million years during which coal measures were formed
noun
the Carboniferous, the Carboniferous period or rock system
adj.

1830 with reference the geological period, from a word formed in English in 1799 to mean “coal-bearing,” from Latin carbo (genitive carbonis) “coal” (see carbon) + -ferous “producing, containing, bearing,” from ferre “to bear” (see infer). The great coal beds of Europe were laid down during this period. As a stand-alone noun (short for Carboniferous Period) from 1940s.
Carboniferous
(kär’bə-nĭf’ər-əs)
The period of geologic time from about 360 to 286 million years ago. The term is used throughout the world, although this period of time has been separated into the Mississippian (lower Carboniferous) and Pennsylvanian (upper Carboniferous) in the United States. During this time, widespread swamps formed in which plant remains accumulated and later hardened into coal. See Chart at geologic time.