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570 BCE
Cambrian 570-500 MYA
Earliest record of Marine life. Trilobites. Fish. No life on land yet. -
500 BCE
Ordovician 500-435 MYA
Invertibrates dominant. Corals, mollusks, worms, primitive fish, and echinoderms (starfish). -
435 BCE
Silurian 435-395 MYA
Plants & animals. Fish adapt to rivers and freshwater -
395 BCE
Devonian 395-345 MYA
Fish spread across oceans. Amphibians. First forests. -
345 BCE
Carboniferous 345-280 MYA
Swamps & sponge reefs. Winged insects and cockroaches. -
280 BCE
Permian 280-225 MYA
Amphibians. Cone-bearing plants (pine trees). Mass extinction wiping out 95% of all marine species and 50% of all animals -
225 BCE
Triassic 225-195 MYA
Survivors of the Permian extinction populate land and oceans. Mammals, dinosaurs, and crocodiles appear. -
195 BCE
Jurassic 195-136 MYA
Dinosaurs dominate. Mammals are common but small. Feathered dinosaurs and birds. Ferns, cycads, and grasses. -
65 BCE
Cretaceous 65-145 MYA
Still dinosaurs. Marsupials, modern sharks, bees, and butterflies. Flowering plants. Period ends with a bang (mass extinction).