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The presence of stromatolites indicates that shallow seas covered much of earth during intervals in this period. Nearly half of the valuable mineral deposits in the world occur in the ricks of this period.
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Geologic Timescale
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Trilobites appear and shelled brachiopods appear.
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Colonies of tiny invertebrates call graptolites florished and vertebrates appear, Fish do not have jaws or teeth and their bodies were covered with bony plates. There is very little plant life during this period.
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Eurypterids (sea scorpions), sea stars, and coral become more common. Vascular land plants and animals, such as scorpions begin to evolve on land.
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Huge plants begin to develop, early amphibians form. Age of fishes, fish that can breathe out of water and spend time on form.
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Swamps and forests cover the land. Early reptiles resembling large lizards appear.
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Giant cockroaches appear. Coal deposits form.
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Appalachian Mountains are created because of the collision of tectonic plates & savannah forms. Environmental change causes mass extinction of sea invertebrates (trilobites & eurypterids).
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Welcome to the world of the dinosaur! Enter the squirrel sized dinosaur & the first forest dwelling mammals appear. Ichthyosaurs are living in the ocean, new invertebrates call ammonite develop.
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Flying reptiles called pterosaurs are in the air now. Whoa these dinos are getting big & dominate the land- Lizard-hipped and bird-hipped appear - carnivores and herbivores have arrived.
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First flowering plants appear - angiosperm. Impact hypothesis - dinosaur mass extinction.
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First primates evolve. Small rodents evolve.
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Flying squirrels, whales and bats appear. World wide temperature drops about 4 degrees celsius (39.2 degrees Fahrenheit).
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Himalayas develop due to uplifting caused by the Indian subcontinent and Eurasian continents colliding.
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Antarctic icecaps begin to form. Mediterranean Sea dries up and refills several times due to tectonic forcesa dn dropping sea levels.
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Various species migrated between continents across land bridges. First modern horses appear.
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Homosapien (modern humans) appeared and are hunters. Species that did not evolve to survive extreme cold moved to warmer climate areas or became extinct (dire wolf and giant ground sloth).
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The last glacial period ended and sea levels rose, Great Lakes formed. Modern human developed agriculture and used tools made of bronze and iron.
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Some students believe that human kind has caused mass extinctions of plant and animal species, pollutes the oceans and altered the atmosphere. There is argument as to when this epoch began, some scientists think it began with the industrial age in the early 1800's others think it began with the atomic age in the 1950's.
