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cambrian 570-500 MYA
The cambrian period produced the most intense burst of eveloution. Its the era that marks our very firt fossils and vertabrates. these are the first animals that had a back bone. -
ordovician era 505-438 Million Years Ago
a variety of marine life appeared in the waters and the first plants began to appear on land, before the second largest mass extinction of all time ended the period. -
Silurian era 438-408 Million Years Ago
Animals and plants finally emerge on land. Fish were now changing and extending their feeding options from vacuuming meals off the seabed. A group called "acanthodians", or spiny sharks, evolved more vicious mouths with jaws. These fish are the first true jawed fish -
Devonian 408-362 Million Years Ago
When the Devonian period was about 416 million years ago the planet was changing its appearance. The supercontinent of Gondwana was heading northward, away from the South Pole, and a second supercontinent began to form that straddled the Equator. "Known as Euramerica, or Laurussia, it was created by the coming together of parts of North America, northern Europe, Russia, and Greenland". -
Carboniferous 362-290 Million Years Ago
Amphibians were also growing in size. There were predatory species that resembled modern-day crocodiles. With vicious teeth, they reached lengths of almost 20 feet (6 meters). Some amphibians developed a thicker, scaly skin, solving the problem of them drying out if away from water too long. They also reduced their reliance on wetland habitats through a "crucial evolutionary adaptation known as the amniote egg" -
Triassic 250 to 200 Mya
"During the Triassic, both marine and continental life show an adaptive radiation beginning from the starkly impoverished biosphere that followed the Permian-Triassic extinction. Corals of the hexacorallia group made their first appearance. The first flying vertebrates, the pterosaurs, evolved during the Triassic." -
Jurassic 199 Mya (million years ago) to 145 Mya
"Dinosaurs, birds, and rodents. Crumbling landmasses and inland seas. Sea monsters, sharks, and blood-red plankton. Forests of ferns, cycads, and conifers. Warm, moist, tropical breezes. This was the Jurassic" The plant-eating sauropod Brachiosaurus stood up to 52 feet tall, 85 feet long, and weighed more than 80 tons. Diplodocus, another sauropod, was 90 feet long. -
Cretaceous 145 to 65 mya
Oceans filled yawning gaps between isolated continents shaped much as they are today. Flowering plants were spreading across the landscape. -
Tertiary 65-2 Million Years Ago
"During this time mammals diversified quickly. Some examples are marsupials, insectivores, bears, hyenas, dogs, cats, seals, walruses, whales, dolphins, early mastodons, hoofed mammals, horses, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, oreodonts, rodents, rabbits, monkeys, lemurs, apes, and humans" -
Quaternary 2-0 Million Years Ago
Mammoths roamed the lands. Cattle, deer, and of course, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens
