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Cambrian 570 M - 500 M
First period of the Paleozoic era.
Earliest record of marine life- Trilobites are dominant.
Aftermath of mass extintion.
During Cambrian, life on Earth evolved dramatically. Few organisms survived the mass extintion and remained in the Cambrian Period. Early in the Cambrian period the first "Bivalves" and "Arthropods" appeared and triolobites. -
Ordovician 500 M- 435 M
Enchinoderms (starfish, sand dollar, sea urchin and sea cucumbers), Invertebrates are dominant, mollusks become abundant. Earliest fish that are jawless and later, jawed and armored fish.
During Ordovician period, a rich variety of marine life flourished in vast seas and plants appeared on land. -
Sulurian 435 M- 395 M
Earliest terrestrial plants and animals. Tikataalik Eurypterids develop. Sulurian period saw animals and plants emerge on land.Through most of the Sulurian period, drew close to series of extintion events like climate change. -
Devonian 395 M- 345 M
Armored fish go extinct, but abundance of several species of fish. Ealiest amphibians and ammonites. Devonian period is a part of the Paleozoic Era but also known as "Age of Fishes". Plants spread beyond wetlands during the Devonian period, with new types developing that could survive on dry land. Toward the end of the period, the first forests arose. -
Carboniferous 345 M- 280 M (Mississippian,Pennsylvanian)
Abundant sharks and amphibians. Large swamps and coal forming forests. Earliest reptiles. Scale trees and seed ferns. Carniferous coal was produced by bark bearing trees that grew vast lowland swamp forests. The growth of these forests removed huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atomosphere, leading to surplus of oxygen. -
Permian 280 M- 225 M
Extinction of many types of marine animals including trilobites.
The Permian seas came to be dominated by boney fishes.
The Permian represented the last gasp for much early prehistoric life. The Permian extinction-- the worst extinction event in the planets history and estimatedto have wiped out more than 90% of all marine species and 70% of land animals. -
Triassic 225 M- 195 M
Earliest dinosaurs, abundant cycads and conifers.
By the start of the Triassic period, all of Earth's land masses had formed into Pangaea, a super continent shaped like a giant C. Oceans filled with coiled sheled ammonites, mollusks and sea urchins that survived the Permian extinction. First corals appeared. Frogs, salamanders, crocadiles, turtles and snakes were on and off of Triassic coast, lakes and rivers. The Triassic period closed the way it began, -
Jurassic 195 M- 136 M
Earliest birds and mammals abundant dinosaurs and ammonites.
Dinosaurs, birds and rodents. Sea monsters, sharks, and blood red plankton. Forests of ferns, cycads and conifers. Warm, moist and tropical breezes was Jurassic. The period started with the breakup of super continent Pangaea which continued to accelerate. Dry climate gave a humid and drippy subtropical feel. -
Cretaceous 136 M- 65 M
Earliest flowering plants and climax of dinosaurs followed by their extinction. Great decline of brachiopads. Abundance of bony fish. Continents were on the move, busy remodeling the shape and tone of life on Earth. Beginning of the Cretaceous period, dinosaurs ruled the super continent Pangaea. Dominant groups shifted and many new types evolved.
Perished in the extinction event. -
Tertiary 65 M- 1.8 M
Earliest placental mammals, modern mammals, large running mammals. -
Quaternary 1.8 M- Present
Large carnivores, neanderthals, humans, mastodons.
