fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: December 30, 2005 04:42AM
Phanerozoic EON
(544 mya to present)
"The age of visible life"
ERA Periods EPOCH Evolutionary Milstones
Cenozoic Era
(65 mya to today)
Quaternary (1.8 mya to today)
Holocene (11,000 years to today) Modern man radiates, "science"
appears and eventually computers and the Internet become ubiquitous.
Pleistocene (1.8 mya to 11,000 yrs) Neandertals appear and disappear; Homo
erectus and Homo sapiens appear
Tertiary (65 to 1.8 mya) Pliocene (5 to 1.8 mya) Ape-like ancestors of modern
humans (Hominids), the australopithecines
Miocene (23 to 5 mya) Grazing horses, antelopes appear
Oligocene (38 to 23 mya) Radiation of more modern animals: most modern bird
forms have appeared; most modern mammals have appeared.
Eocene (54 to 37 mya) First grasses appear, a resource for herbovores; trees
thrive. Some modern mammals appear: advanced primates; camels, cats, dogs,
horses & rodents
Paleocene (65 to 54 mya) Flowering plants begin radiation extending through the
Eocene. Small mammals radiate
Mesozoic Era
(245 to 65 mya) Cretaceous (146 to 65 mya)
Divided
as:
Upper;
Middle;
Lower
Major extinction includes dinosaurs and ammonites (K-T)
Appearances include: flowering plants (angiosperms); lizards; placental animals
(early mammals); snakes; social insects; marsupial and primitive placental
animals
Modern insect forms radiate
Jurassic (208 to 146 mya) Appearances include birds; crabs; frogs and
salamanders
Dinosaurs radiate to dominate the land
Triassic (245 to 208 mya) Breakup of Pangaea begins
Major extinction event: tabulate corals and conodonts disappear - ammonoids,
reptiles and amphibians decimated
Appearances include: dinosaurs; crocodiles; marine reptiles; turtles;
Pterosauria and mammals
Major groups of seed plants appear
Paleozoic Era
(544 to 245 mya)
Permian (286 to 245 mya)
Major extinction of invertebrates (P-T). Trilobites fade away forever. All but
articulate crinoids dissapear
Seedplants producing large trees
Carboniferous
(360 to 286 mya) Pennsylvanian (325 to 286 mya) Conifers & many winged
insects appear
Mississippian (360 to 325 mya) Reptiles appear. Trilobites become scarce
Devonian (410 to 360 mya) Mass extinction (F-F)
Land colonized by plants and animals
Appearances include: insects; sharks; amphibians (tetrapods); lung fishes and
earliest seed plants.
Extensive radiation of fishes.
Silurian (440 to 410 mya) Jawed fish, cartilaginous fish and vascular plants
appear. Primitive terrestrial predators: Arachnids.
Ordovician (500 to 440 mya) Mass extinction
First land plants; bryozoans appear. Trilobites begin to specialize.
Cambrian (544 to 500 mya) Tommotian (530 to 527 mya) Appearance of hard parts
and vision - fossils become common. Appearances include: vertebrates; jawless
fish; small shelly animals; conodonts; trilobites radiate repeatedly and reach
their peak diversity. First major radiation of animals
Precambrian Time
(4,500 to 544 mya)
"deep time on earth"
Proterozoic Era
(2500 to 544 mya) Vendian (650 to 544 mya) or Ediacaran No Epochs Extinction at
end of Vendian
Macroscopic, soft-bodied organisms radiating.
Oldest metazoans (multicellular animals) - Ediacaran Fauna.
Neoproterozoic (900 to 544 mya) - Late Macroscopic fossils of soft-bodied
organisms.
Chloroblasts arise from cyanobacteria through endosymbiosis.
Stromatolite diminishing.
Mesoproterozoic (1600 to 900 mya) - Middle Sexual reproduction appears (about 1
billion years ago)
First land fungi
Paleoproterozoic (2500 to 1600 mya) - Early More complex single-celled life with
aerobic metabolism begin diversification
Rusting of earth, depletion of oceanic Fe in banded iron formations
Peak of stromatolite with cyanobacteria oxygenating the atmosphere
Archaean
(3800 to 2500 mya)
Primitive Eukarya appear
Photosynthesis appears
Oldest fossils - Apex Chert of Australia (3.55 BYA) - Prokaryotes dominate
(Eubacteria and Archaea); simple cell forms form stromatolite
First life appears - Heterotrophic, anerobic, Asexual
Oldest sedimentary rocks (3.8 BYA)
Hadean
(4500 to 3800 mya) Earth's environment extremely hostile to life as we know it
fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: December 30, 2005 04:52AM
that one did'nt all come out so......let's try this one.......
Evolutionary Timeline
Time
(Myr ago) Event
4600 Formation of the approximately homogeneous solid Earth by planetesimal
accretion
4300 Melting of the Earth due to radioactive and gravitational heating which
leads to its differentiated interior structure as well as outgassing of
molecules such as water, methane, ammonia, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon
dioxide
4300 Atmospheric water is photodissociated by ultraviolet light to give oxygen
atoms which are incorporated into an ozone layer and hydrogen molecules which
escape into space
4000 Bombardment of the Earth by planetesimals stops
3800 The Earth's crust solidifies--formation of the oldest rocks found on Earth
3800 Condensation of atmospheric water into oceans
3500-2800 Prokaryotic cell organisms develop
3500-2800 Beginning of photosynthesis by blue-green algae which releases oxygen
molecules into the atmosphere and steadily works to strengthen the ozone layer
and change the Earth's chemically reducing atmosphere into a chemically
oxidizing one
2400 Rise in the concentration of oxygen molecules stops the deposition of
uraninites (since they are soluble when combined with oxygen) and starts the
deposition of banded iron formations
2000 The Oklo natural fission reactor in Gabon goes into operation
1600 The last reserves of reduced iron are used up by the increasing atmospheric
oxygen--last banded iron formations
1500 Eukaryotic cell organisms develop
1500-600 Rise of multicellular organisms
580-545 Fossils of Ediacaran organisms are made
545 Cambrian explosion of hard-bodied organisms
528-526 Fossilization of the Chengjiang site
517-515 Fossilization of the Burgess Shale
500-450 Rise of the fish--first vertebrates
430 Waxy coated algae begin to live on land
420 Millipedes have evolved--first land animals
375 The Appalachian mountains are formed via a plate tectonic collision between
North America, Africa, and Europe
375 Appearance of primitive sharks
350-300 Rise of the amphibians
350 Primitive insects have evolved
350 Primitive ferns evolve--first plants with roots
300-200 Rise of the reptiles
300 Winged insects have evolved
280 Beetles and weevils have evolved
250 Permian period mass extinction
230 Roaches and termites have evolved
225 Modern ferns have evolved
225 Bees have evolved
200 Pangaea starts to break apart
200 Primitive crocodiles have evolved
200 Appearance of mammals
145 Archaeopteryx walks the Earth
136 Primitive kangaroos have evolved
100 Primitive cranes have evolved
90 Modern sharks have evolved
65 K-T Boundary--extinction of the dinosaurs and beginning of the reign of
mammals
60 Rats, mice, and squirrels have evolved
60 Herons and storks have evolved
55 Rabbits and hares have evolved
50 Primitive monkeys have evolved
28 Koalas have evolved
20 Parrots and pigeons have evolved
20-12 The chimpanzee and hominid lines evolve
10-4 Ramapithecus exist
4 Development of hominid bipedalism
4-1 Australopithecus exist
3.5 The Australopithecus Lucy walks the Earth
2 Widespread use of stone tools
2-0.01 Most recent ice age
1.6-0.2 Homo erectus exist
1-0.5 Homo erectus tames fire
0.3 Geminga supernova explosion at a distance of roughly 60 pc--roughly as
bright as the Moon
0.2-0.03 Homo sapiens neanderthalensis exist
0.05-0 Homo sapiens sapiens exist
0.04-0.012 Homo sapiens sapiens enter Australia from southeastern Asia and North
America from northeastern Asia
0.025-0.01 Most recent glaciation--an ice sheet covers much of the northern
United States
0.02 Homo sapiens sapiens paint the Altamira Cave
0.012 Homo sapiens sapiens have domesticated dogs in Kirkuk, Iraq
0.01 First permanent Homo sapiens sapiens settlements
0.01 Homo sapiens sapiens learn to use fire to cast copper and harden pottery
0.006 Writing is developed in Sumeria
Geological Timeline
Era/Period/Epoch Time
(Myr ago)
Archaeozoic (Archean) era 5000-1500
Proterozoic era 1500-545
Paleozoic era Cambrian period 545-505
Ordovician period 505-438
Silurian period 438-410
Devonian period 410-355
Carboniferous (Mississipian/Pennsylvanian) period 355-290
Permian period 290-250
Mesozoic era Triassic period 250-205
Jurassic period 205-135
Cretaceous period 135-65
Cenozoic era
"Recent Life" Tertiary period Paleocene epoch 65-55
Eocene epoch 55-38
Oligocene epoch 38-26
Miocene epoch 26-6
Pliocene epoch 6-1.8
Quarternary period Pleistocene epoch 1.8-0.01
(Lower Paleolithic) 0.50-0.25
(Middle Paleolithic) 0.25-0.06
(Upper Paleolithic) 0.06-0.01
Holocene epoch 0.01-0
