-
multicelled animals underwent a dramatic "explosion" in diversity, and almost all living animal phyla appeared within a few millions of years
-
Almost every metazoan phylum with hard parts, and many that lack hard parts, made its first appearance in the Cambrian.
-
- Animals with shells appeared Solar brightness was 6% less than today.
-
- diverse marine invertebrates, such as trilobites,
became common
- First vertebrates appear in the ocean.
- First green plants and fungi on land.
- Fall in atmospheric carbon dioxide.
- 450 mya: Start of Andean-Saharan ice age.
- 443 mya: Glaciation of Gondwana.
- Mass extinction of many marine invertebrates. Second largest mass extinction event. 49% of genera of fauna disappeared.
- diverse marine invertebrates, such as trilobites,
became common
-
- 420 mya: End of Andean-Saharan ice age.
- Stabilization of the earth's climate
- Coral reefs appeared
- First fish with jaws - sharks
- Insects (spiders, centipedes), and plants appear on land
- 420 mya: End of Andean-Saharan ice age.
-
- Ferns and seed-bearing plants (gymnosperms) appeared
- Formation of the first forests
- Earth day is ~21.8 hours long.
- Wingless insects appeared on land
- 375 mya: Vertebrates with legs, such as Tiktaalik appeared.
- Atmospheric oxygen level is about 16%
- First amphibians appear
- 374 mya: * Mass extinction of 70% of marine species. This was a prolonged series of extinctions occurring over 20 million years. Evidence of anoxia in oceanic bottom waters, and global cool
- Ferns and seed-bearing plants (gymnosperms) appeared
-
-
- 350 mya: Beginning of Karoo ice age.
- Large primitive trees develop
- Forests consist of ferns, club mosses, horsetails, and gymnosperms.
- Oxygen levels increase
- Vertebrates appear on land
- First winged insects.
- Seas covered parts of the continents
- Animals laying amniote eggs appear (318 mya)
- 350 mya: Beginning of Karoo ice age.
-
- 310 mya: First reptiles
- Atmospheric oxygen levels reach over 30%
- Earth day is ~22.4 hours long. The Moon is 375,000 km from Earth.[31]
- Giant arthropods populate the land
- Transgression and regression of the seas caused by glaciation
- Deposits of coal form in Europe, Asia, and North America
- 310 mya: First reptiles
-
- 275 mya: Formation of the supercontinent Pangea
-
- Conifers and cycads first appear
- Earth is cold and dry
- Sail-backed synapsids like Edaphosaurus and Dimetrodon appeared
- 260 mya: End of Karoo ice age.
- 251 mya: * Mass extinction (Permian-Triassic)
- Possible 480km-wide meteor crater in the Wilkes Land region of Antarctica [26]
- Period of great volcanism in Siberia releases large volume of gases (CO2, CH4, and H2S) [8]
- Oxygen (O2) levels dropped from 30% to 12% Carbon dioxide (CO2) level was about 2000 ppm E
- Conifers and cycads first appear
