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Precambrian Time
There is very little plant life during this period.(1) Nearly half of the valuable mineral deposits in the world occur in the rocks of this period.(11) -
Period: to
Maria Mescolin - p.6
Geological Timescale -
Cambrian
The presence of stromatolites indicates that shallow seas covered much of Earth during intervals in this period.(10) Trilobites appear.(22) -
Ordovician
Shelled brachiopods appear.(23) Colonies of tiny invertebrates call graptolites florished and vertibrates appear, Fish did not have jaws or teeth and their bodies were covered with bony plates.(30) -
Silurian
Eurypterids (sea scorpions), sea stars and coral become more common.(24) Vascular land plants and animals, such as scorpions begin to evolve on land.(33) -
Devonian
Huge plants begin to develop, early amphibians form.(31) Age of Fishes, fish that can breath out of the water and spend time on land form.(37) -
Mississipian Period
Swamps and forests cover the land.(2) Ichthyosaurs are living in the ocean, new invertebrates call ammonite develop.(34) -
Pennsylvanian Period
Giant cockroaches appear.(4) Coal deposits form.(15) -
Permian
Early reptiles resembling large lizards appear.(21) Environmental change causes mass extinction of sea invertibrades (trilobites and eurypterids) as the seas retreat.(38) -
Triassic
Welcome to the world of the Dinosaur! Enter the squirrel sized dinosaur and the first forest dwelling mammals appear.(16) Small rodents evolve.(29) -
Jurassic
Whoa those dinos are getting big and dominate the land - Lizard-hipped and bird-hipped appear - carnivores and herbivores have arrived.(13) Flying reptiles called pterosaurs are in the air now.(3) -
Cretaceous
First flowering plants appear - angiosperm.(5) Impact hypothesis - dinosaur mass extinction.(35) -
Paleocene
Himalayas develop due to uplifting caused by the Indian subcontinent and Eurasian continents colliding.(6) First primates evolve.(12) -
Eocene
Flying squirrels, whales and bats appear.(17) First modern horses appear.(26) -
Oligocene
Various species migrated between continents across land bridges.(18) Many early mammal become extinct, clams and snails flourish.(27) -
Miocene
Appalachian Mountains are created because of the collision of tectonic plates and savannahs form.(8) World wide temperatures drop about 4 degrees celsius (39.5 degrees fahrenheit).(25) -
Pliocene
Species that did not evolve to survive extreme cold moved to warmer climate areas or became extinct (dire wolf and giant ground sloth).(20) Mediterranean sea dries up and refills several times due to tectonic forces and dropping sea levels.(36) -
Pleistocene
Homosapien (modern humans) appeared and are hunters.(9) Antartic icecaps begin to form.(32) -
Holocene
The last glacial period ended and sea levels rose, Great Lakes formed.(19) Modern human developed agriculture and used tools made of bronze and iron.(28) -
Anthropocene
Some scientists believe that human kind has caused mass extinctions of plant and animal species, polluted the oceans and altered the atmosphere.(7) There is argument as to when this epoch began, some scientists think it began with the industrial age in the early 1800's other think it began with the atomic age in the 1950's.(14)
