The Geologic Column

  • Era
    11,477 BCE

    Era

    Cenozoic: end of last Ice Age; rise of human civilization
  • mesozoic

    mesozoic

    mass extintions (including dinosaurs); flowering plants appear
  • quanternary

    quanternary

    recent (heolocene) Epoch
    plistocene Epoch
  • proterozoic

    simple multicelular sea creatures develop
  • Paleozoic

    Paleozoic

    modern insect; reptiles spread; evergreens
  • pennsylvanian

    pennsylvanian

    giant insects; first reptiles
  • mississippian

    mississippian

    amphibians spread; sharks and bony fish; winged insects
  • Devonian

    Devonian

    first amphibians;fresh wáter fish; wingless insects
  • Silurian

    Silurian

    land colonized by anthropods and plants
  • Ordovician

    Ordovician

    trilobites abundant; vertebrates increase
  • cambrian

    cambrian

    sudden explosión of life; tribolites dominant; rise of other marine invertebrates; some vertebrates
  • tertiary

    tertiary

    pilociene epoch
    miocene epoch
    oligocene epoch
    eocene epoch
    paleocene epoch