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The cambrian period was the first period of the paleozoic era, and of the phanerozoic eon, The Cambrian lasted 55.6 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 541 million years ago to the beginning of the Ordovician Period 485.4 mya.
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The Ordovician Period lasted almost 45 million years, beginning 488.3 million years ago and ending 443.7 million years ago.* During this period, the area north of the tropics was almost entirely ocean
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The Silurian Period occurred from 443 million to 416 million years ago. It was the third period in the Paleozoic Era. It followed the Ordovician Period and preceded the Devonian Period.
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The Devonian Period occurred from 416 million to 358 million years ago. It was the fourth period of the Paleozoic Era. It was preceded by the Silurian Period and followed by the Carboniferous Period.
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The Carboniferous Period lasted from about 359.2 to 299 million years ago* during the late Paleozoic Era. The Carboniferous Period is famous for its vast swamp forests.
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The Permian period, which ended in the largest mass extinction the Earth has ever known, began about 299 million years ago. The emerging supercontinent of Pangaea presented severe extremes of climate and environment due to its vast size.
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The Triassic Period was the first period of the Mesozoic Era and occurred between 251 million and 199 million years ago. it followed the great mass extinction at the end of the permian period.
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The Jurassic was a geological period and system that spanned 56 million years from the end of the Triassic period 201.3 million years ago to the beginning of the cretaceous period
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The Quaternary period is the name for the time in which we live. It spans the two most recent geologic epochs, the Pleistocene and the Holocene. Fossils from the Holocene epoch are like the animals living today.
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Tertiary The older geological period of the Cenozoic era (compare Quaternary). It began about 65 million years ago, following the Cretaceous period, and extended to the beginning of the Quaternary, about 2 million years ago.
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The Cretaceous Period was the last and longest segment of the Mesozoic Era. It lasted approximately 79 million years, from the minor extinction event that closed the Jurassic Period about 145.5 million years ago.
