The Geologic Column

By Farah Pavon

  • Recent (Holocene) Epoch

    End of last Ice Age; rise of human civilization
  • Period: to

    Phanerozoic Eon

    Contains The Cenozoic, Mesozoic and Paleozoic Eras
  • Period: to

    Cenozoic Era

    Contains The Quaternary and Tertiary Period
  • Period: to

    Quaternary Period

    Contains Recent (Holocene) Epoch and Pleistocene Epoch
  • Period: to

    Masozoic Era

    Contains Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic Period

  • Pleistocene Epoch

    Ice Age; mass extinctions; rise of man

  • Jurassic Period

    Giant dinosaurs; early birds; first mammals

  • Miocene Epoch

    Rise of grazing mammals

  • Proterozoic Eon

    Simple multicellular sea creatures develop; algae and plankton develop; eukaryotic cells develop

  • Triassic Period

    First dinosaurs; rise of mammal-like reptiles

  • Permian Period

    Modern insects; reptiles spread; evergreens; extinction of trilobites
  • Period: to

    Paleozoic Era

    Contains Permian, Pennsylvanian, Mississippian, Devonian, Silurian, Ordovician and Cambrian Period

  • Pennsylvanian Period

    Giant insects; first reptiles

  • Oligocene Epoch

    Primitive apes; whales; first modern mammals

  • MIssisipian Period

    Amphibians spread; sharks and bony fish; winged insects

  • Archean Eon

    Earth becomes habitable; spontaneous generation of first cells; rise of bacteria and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae)

  • Hadean Eon

    Formation of earth (uninhabitable)

  • Devonian Period

    First amphibians; freshwater fish; wingless insects

  • Silurian Period

    Land colonized by arthropods and plants

  • Ordovician Period

    Trilobites abundant; vertebrates increase

  • Pliocene Epoch

    Peak of mammals; modern invertebrates
  • Period: to

    Tertiary Period

    Contains Pliocene, Miocene, Oligocene, Eocene, and Paleocene Epoch

  • Cambrian Period

    Sudden explosion of life; trilobites dominant; rise of other marine invertebrates; some vertebrates

  • Eocene Epoch

    First Horses

  • Paleocene Epoch

    Early mammals become dominant; rise of modern birds

  • Cretaceous Period

    Mass extinctions (including dinosaurs); flowering plants appear