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Cambrian Period 570-500 MYA
Abundence of Chordates, which resembeled clams and Arthrpods, the ancersters of insects and crustaceans. During this time earth was cold, but slowly warming. during this time supercontinant Rodiana broke apart. A mass extinction occured at the end of this period. -
Ordovician Period 488-443 MYA
Full of early marine inrvertebrates, there was also algae, primitive fish, cephalopods, corals, crinoids, and gastropods. During this period nearly everything north of the tropics was ocean because of the supercontinient Gondwana was in the south and slowly moving to the southpole. Later this period when Gondwana reached the southpole it casued glaciers formed and caused sea levels to drop leading to the mass extinction of this period. -
Silurian Period 443-416 MYA
Earth underwent big changes that had important repercussions for the environment and life within it, one result of these changes was melting glaciers that allowed sea levels to rise. Coral reefs started appearing. This period was also a time for the evolution of fish. In the oceans, there was a widespread of crinoids, a continued proliferation and expansion of the brachiopods, and the oldest known fossils of coral reefs. Also during this time there was the first clear eveidence of life on land. -
Devonian Period 419-358 MYA
Smallar plants started to show up in great numbers producing ferns, horsetails and seed plants and the first trees and forests. During the Devonian, two major animal groups colonized the land. The first tetrapods — land-living vertebrates — appeared during the Devonian, as did the first terrestrial arthropods, including wingless insects and the earliest arachnids. In the oceans, brachiopods flourished. Crinoids and other echinoderms, tabulate and rugose corals, and ammonites were also common. -
Carboniferous Period 359.2-299 MYA
Tropical and humid, widespead of swamps. Tese swamps resulted in the coal we have today. The supercontient Pagea was slowly coming togetherso more area was covered with water. Shallow, warm waters often flooded the continents. Attached filter feeders such as bryozoans, particularly fenestellids, were abundant in this environment, and the sea floor was dominated by brachiopods. Trilobites were increasingly scarce while foraminifers were abundant. The heavily armored fish from the Devonian. -
Tirassic Period 248-206 MYA
Life on land started to become more diverse with rodent-size mammals and the first dinosaurs. At the start of this period the land masses have formed the supercintinent Pangea, which soon broke apart. the oceans were filled with things like sea urchins and mollusks and Giant reptiles such as the dolphin-shaped ichthyosaurs showed up. But this was all ruined with a bout of violent volcanic eruptions, climate change, or perhaps a fatal run-in with a comet or asteroid—had triggered an extinction. -
Permian Period 299 - 251 MYA
Biggest mass extinction in history, this affected many groups but mainly the marine communities. This mass exinction lead to plants offspring being inclosed in seeds. -
Jurassic Period 199.6 - 145.5 MYA
Big plant eating dinosaurs feeding on lush ferns and palm-like cycads and bennettitaleans and smallar vicious carnivores stalking the herbivores. Oceans were full of fish, squid and coiled ammonites. Vertebrates took to the air, like the pterosaurs and the first birds. -
Cretaceous Period 145-65 MYA
The first ceratopsian and pachycepalosaurid dinosaurs appeared. Also during this time, we find the first fossils of many insect groups, modern mammal and bird groups, and the first flowering plants. This was not very different from the Jurassic age, yet the Cretaceous saw the first appearance of many lifeforms that would go on to play key roles in the coming Cenozoic world. But this age ended when the earth was hit with an astriod causeing the extinction of the dinosaurs. -
Tertiary Period 65-1.8 MYA
After the age of the dinosaurs came the Teriary period. This period has an abundence of mammals, but other animals such as reptiles and vertebrates are still around but are not as large as they once were because of the cooling earth. Durring this period the supercontinents are spilting and are moving to where the are today. -
Quaternary period 1.8 MYA - Present
Climate change and the developments it spurs carry the narrative of the Quaternary, the most recent 2.6 million years of Earth's history. Glaciers advance from the Poles and then retreat, carving and molding the land with each pulse. Sea levels fall and rise with each period of freezing and thawing. Some mammals get massive, grow furry coats, and then disappear. Humans evolve to their modern form, traipse around the globe, and make a mark on just about every Earth system, including the climate.
