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First Known Animals
1 Billion Years Ago
~ These are more advanced forms of algae and a wide variety of protozoa.
~ Large mountain chains form as the continents collide.
~ Plate tectonics slows to approximately the same rate as the present. -
Beginning of Paleozoic Era And Cambrian Period
543 Million Years Ago
~ Rodinia begins to break up into northern and southern portions.
~ The global climate is generally mild.
~ Plant life is limited to marine algae. -
Beginning of Ovdovician Period
490 Million Years Ago
~ The barren continents of Laurentia, Baltica, Siberia, and Gondwana are separated by large oceans.
~ Shallow seas cover much of North America at the beginning of the period.
~ As the seas recede, they leave a thick layer of limestone. -
Beginning of Silurian Period
443 Million Years Ago
~ The North American, European, and Asian land masses are situated on or near the equator.
~ Laurentia and Baltica collide.
~ Gondwana sits in the south polar region. -
Beginning of Devonian Period
417 Million Years Ago
~ Europe and North America collide, forming the northern part of the ancestral Appalachian mountain range.
~ Africa and South America are positioned over the South Pole.
~ The climate is generally warm and moist -
Beginning of Mississippian Period (need info)
354 Million Years Ago
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Beginning of Pennsylvanian Period
323 Million Years Ago
~ Two major land masses form: Laurasia and Gondwana
~ Coal-forming sediments are laid down in vast swamps.
~ Global climatic changes occur, changing from warm and wet to cooler and drier. -
Beginning of Permian Period
290 Million Years Ago
~ A single supercontinent, Pangaea, forms as Earth's landmasses collide and merge.
~ Extensive glaciation persists in what is now India, Australia, and Antarctica.
~ Hot, dry conditions prevail elsewhere on Pangaea, and deserts become widespread. -
Beginning of Mesozoic Era and Triassic Period
248 Million Years Ago
~ The general climate is warm, becoming semiarid to arid.
~ The Triassic Period, unlike the previous periods, is marked by few significant geologic events.
~ Pangaea covers nearly a quarter of the Earth's surface. -
First Bird (Pic and info)
225 Million Years Ago
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Beginning of Jurassic Period
206 Million Years Ago
~ The supercontinent of Pangea begins to breakup as North America separates from Eurasia and Africa.
~ The Atlantic Ocean begins to form.
~ Reptiles adapt to life in the sea, in the air, and on land. Dinosaurs are the dominant reptile on land -
First Mammals
200 Million Years Ago
~ Mammals are vertebrates.
~ These early mammals were small and furry and looked a lot like modern mice.
~ Despite these many mammal-like characteristics, it is thought they still laid leathery eggs. -
Beginning of Cretaceous Period
144 Million Years Ago
~ The continents—while not in their current positions on the Earth—are shaped much as they are today.
~ South America and Africa separate, and the Atlantic ocean widens.
~ A circum-equatorial sea, Tethys, forms between the continents of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. -
Beginning of Cenozoic Era and Paleocene Epoch
65 Million Years Ago
~ During the Paleocene, the vast inland seas of the Cretaceous Period dry up, exposing large land areas in North America and Eurasia.
~ Australia begins to separate from Antarctica, and Greenland splits from North America.
~ A remnant Tethys Sea persists in the equatorial region. -
Beginning of Eocene Epoch
55 Million Years Ago
~ Plate tectonics and volcanic activity form the Rockies in western North America.
~ Continental collisions between India and Asia culminate in the Alpine-Himalayan mountain system.
~ Antarctica and Australia continue to separate and drift apart. -
Beginning of Oligocene Epoch
34 Million Years Ago
~ Tectonic plate movement is still very dynamic
~ Africa and Europe nearly collide, closing the Tethys Sea and leaving as a remnant the Mediterranean Sea.
~ Volcanism and fragmentation of western North America is associated with the emplacement of major ore deposits. -
Beginning of Miocene Epoch
24 Million Years Ago
~ Modern ocean currents are essentially established.
~ A drop in sea level near the end of the Epoch isolates and dries up the Mediterranean Sea, leaving evaporite deposits on its floor.
~ The climate is generally cooler than the Oligocene Epoch. -
Beginning of Pliocene Epoch
5 Million years ago
~ Both marine and continental faunas were essentially modern,
~ In North America, rodents, large mastodonts and gomphotheres, and opossums continued successfully, while hoofed animals (ungulates) declined,
~ Alligators and crocodiles died out in Europe as the climate cooled -
Hominid Footprints in Footprint Tuff
3 Million Years Ago
~ hominin footprints, preserved in volcanic ash
~ Laetoli was first recognized by western science in 1935 through a man named Sanimu
~ hominid fossil footprints, discovered in 1976 by Mary Leakey -
Beginning of The Pleistocene Epoch
2 Million Years ago.
~ The Pliocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell.
~ It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era.
~ During the Pliocene epoch climate became cooler and drier, -
Today.
Now Tehe
~ We have tvs
~Cell Phones
~ Touch Boards
