Fig01 02

Kayla F. Geologic Timeline

  • Cambrian Period
    541 BCE

    Cambrian Period

    Trilobites were the dominant species, many of the species where marine. The dramatic burst of evolutionary changes in life on Earth also known as the "Cambrian Explosion".
  • Ordovician
    485 BCE

    Ordovician

    The area North of the tropics was almost entirely of ocean. Most of the world's land was collected into the southern supercontinent Gondwana, A mass extinction of ice
  • Silurian
    443 BCE

    Silurian

    Continental land masses were low and sea levels were rising. A mass extinction of dinosaurs, Brachiopods display the effects of this extinction well.
  • Devonian
    419 BCE

    Devonian

    Plants began to colonize the land, Lycophytes, horsetails and ferns grew to large sizes and formed Earth's first forests. Extinction events primarily affecting the marine communities.
  • Carboniferous
    358 BCE

    Carboniferous

    Famous for its vast swamp forests, the rainforest collapsed was a minor extinction.
  • Permian
    298 BCE

    Permian

    The merge of the super continent of Pangaea presented severe extremes of climate. All of the marine species went extinct during this period, Amphibians and reptiles were the dominant land species during this time period and gymnosperms replaced ferns, clubmosses, and horsetails as the dominant plants.
  • Triassic
    251 BCE

    Triassic

    Life outside of the ocean began to diversify, the first true mammals, themselves a specialized subgroup of therapsids, evolved during this period.
  • Jurassic
    201 BCE

    Jurassic

    The supercontinent Pangaea was split during this time period. Conifers dominated the landscape, most of the stegosaurid and enormous sauropod dinosaurs died out.
  • Cretaceous
    145 BCE

    Cretaceous

    A mass extinction that wiped out three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth.
  • Tertiary
    65 BCE

    Tertiary

    The Ice Age started to form during this time period, and the extinction of the plants and animals species carried on into this period time as well.
  • Quaternary
    2 BCE

    Quaternary

    Is subdivided into the Pleistocene Epoch, and is also known as the Great Ice Age.