Geologic Timeline- Courtni Pawlak

  • Cambrian Period 570-500 MYA
    500 BCE

    Cambrian Period 570-500 MYA

    Trilobites were dominant, earliest record of marine life
  • Ordovician 500-435 MYA
    435 BCE

    Ordovician 500-435 MYA

    Echinoderms (starfish, sand dollars, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers). Invertebrates are dominant, mollusks become abundant. Earliest fish that are jawless and later, jawed and armored fish.
  • Silurian 435-395 MYA
    395 BCE

    Silurian 435-395 MYA

    Earliest terrestrial plants and animals. Tiktaalik Eurypterids develop.
  • Devonian 395-345 MYA
    345 BCE

    Devonian 395-345 MYA

    Armored fish go extinct, but there's an abundance of several species of fish. Earliest amphibians and ammonites.
  • Carboniferous 359-299 MYA
    299 BCE

    Carboniferous 359-299 MYA

    Many swamps on land and sponge reefs in the oceans. Reptiles appear. Early winged insects and cockroaches appear.
  • Permian 299-251 MYA
    251 BCE

    Permian 299-251 MYA

    Amphibians dominate the land. Early cone-bearing plants like pine trees appear. Period ends with the largest mass extinction known with 95% of all marine species and 50% of all animals going extinct.
  • Triassic 225-195 MYA
    195 BCE

    Triassic 225-195 MYA

    Earliest dinosaurs. Abundant cycads and conifers.
  • Jurassic 195-136
    136 BCE

    Jurassic 195-136

    Earliest birds and mammals. Abundant dinosaurs and ammonites.
  • Cretaceous 136-65 MYA
    65 BCE

    Cretaceous 136-65 MYA

    Earliest flowering plants. Climax of dinosaurs followed by their extinction. Great decline of brachiopods. Abundance of bony fish. Extinction of 65% of species including the dinosaurs.
  • Tertiary 65-1.8 MYA
    1 BCE

    Tertiary 65-1.8 MYA

    Earliest placental mammals, modern mammals, large running mammals.
  • Quaternary 1.8- Present
    1 BCE

    Quaternary 1.8- Present

    Large carnivores, Neanderthals, humans, and mastodons.