The Events of the

Geologic Time Scale

December, 2019
 Paleozoic Era

During the Paleozoic time, that lasted 542 mya until 291 million years, Fishes
and creatures of land and water flourished, and reptiles showed up. Mass termination
happened by the end of the Paleozoic era. The plates of the earth were in a single
supercontinent called “Pangea”.

Cambrian Period

         “Cambrian Explosion” or an explosion of sudden appearance of new species:

Trilobites were an invertebrate species that had a great number of species that
lived in shallow sea and had also the first animal that had eyesight. Mollusks, worms,
sponges and echinoderms were the common animals that lived in Cambrian seas.
There were other living things present then that don't fit into any of the categories we
know about today, because of the global climate there were major losses of species and
shifting from deep ocean to shallow sea area.

Ordovician Period

During the Ordovician Period, the surface of the earth was all life on was in the
oceans. The only land life was in the form of very primitive plants very near the water
line of the coasts, probably mosses and algae and were of a non-vascular nature. In
475 mya, aquatic animals were well diverse by the time plants and fungi moved onto
land. Life back then was inhabited by invertebrate marine species. Animals that lived in
shallow seas were mostly: Corals, Mollusks, Annelids or Worms, Arthropods, etc. 

Silurian Period
             Vascular Plants such moss first appeared in the late Ordovician, the first known
plant to have an upright stalk, and vascular tissue for water transport. The first known
air-breathing animals were arthropods. Millipedes, centipedes and the earliest arachnids
first appeared in the Silurian. They were the first animals to leave fossils which explore
on land, they also resemble scorpions. Since arachnids are exclusively predatory, this
represents the first terrestrial food web. All of these fossils are in to be jawless fishes.
The fishes were depicted to have fed on organic matter on the seafloor.
 
 
 
Devonian Period
Plants had begun to spread on the land during the Silurian Period, continued to
progress by the Devonian Period. By the end of the Devonian Period, the atmosphere
increased the oxygen content as plants produce causing a sufficient support to have
larger animals to live on land. Vertebrate animals were developed, where fish have
bones now. About 375 mya, amphibians appeared on the land allowing them to have a
spacious environment, sufficient food, plenty of oxygen and shelter. In 380 mya, earliest
known tetrapod is Tiktaalik roseae, this fossil creature is considered to be the transition
between the fish and amphibian. It can either crawled or paddled in shallow tropical
areas during the late Devonian Period. 

 
Carboniferous Period
 Giant tree ferns is one of the sources for the huge coal deposits formed during
the period. As amphibians diversify, the reptiles first appeared in this time of period.
About 310-320 mya reptiles evolve from amphibians that caused them to diverged in 2
lines: insect eating lizard and mammal like reptile. Also, for the first winged insect to
appear. Considering as one of the most dominant insects during the Carboniferous
period, cockroaches they not be different compare on today but except for their size.
 

Permian Period

Plant life consisted mainly of ferns and seed-ferns, with new plants like conifers
and gingkoes coming into prominence. The lifestyle of Reptiles began to diversified
into both carnivorous and herbivorous terrestrial lifestyles. The giant Carboniferous
insects continued for a while, before extinction. Meanwhile, new groups of insects
like beetles and flies, with more complex life cycles, continued to emerge. At the
end of the Paleozoic era, the greatest mass extinction happened causing to wipe
out species that are new predators, be in habitat loss and other species that result
in extinction. 
 
 
Mesozoic Era
The Mesozoic era began about 251 mya and lasted some 185 million years. A
collision of a large extraterrestrial body with Earth may have resulted in dramatic climate
changes that played a role in this mass extinction.

Triassic period
The first dinosaurs were terrestrial reptiles that lived during in 245 mya.
Therapsids and thecodonts are the dominant Triassic groups on land. As well as the
ocean have marine reptile groups: plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. the first flying mammal
to appear were insectivores that are small sized and evolved from therapsids.
Pterosaurs are considered as the first ever flying reptiles that underwent diversification
in the era. They went on to dominate the Jurassic.
 
Jurassic Period
Mammals arose late in about 200 mya. First birds and also giant reptiles
appeared in this period, commonly were toothed birds. Birds were considered in a
reptilian group called archosaurs, where crocodiles and dinosaurs are also in the group.
Crocodiles are considered as giant reptiles in both land and water, both birds and
crocodiles share similarities in their behavior. To major continents were formed during
181 mya, they were named “Laurasia and Gondwana”. First flower also appeared, in
about 160 mya, angiosperms outnumbered all other plants. 

Cretaceous period
About 100 mya, land shifted and broke out of one big supercontinent into smaller
ones divided into: North America, South America, Africa, India, Australia, Antarctica,
and Eurasia. Back then, Dinosaurs widespread up until it reached to perished from
the extinction event. Rapid dispersal of flowering plants that helped to spread more
were enhanced with the help of insects from bees and wasps to ants and beetles. It
quickly outnumbered ferns, conifers, gingkoes, and cycads.
 
 
Cenozoic Era
The era extends from 66 mya to the present, flowering plants, birds, insects, and
mammals diversified greatly. Human ancestors appeared in Africa during the Late
Miocene and Early Pliocene epochs

Paleogene
Most animals were small until the mass extinction that occur in 65 mya. The loss of
many reptiles paved way for rapid diversification of many larger animals like whales,
horses, elephants and other mammals began to diversify as well as the plants.
Flowering plants and Vascular plants became increasingly prominent, providing new
types of food and habitat for animals to survive. Primates arose in 60 mya.

Neogene
About 12 mya, tectonic movements caused a period of great mountain building resulting
in a climatic shift that had massive ecological consequences. Expansion of grasslands
and deserts that paves to grazing animals. Modern whales were developed and other
mammal species continued to diversify. In 4.4 mya, Ardipithecus, an extinct species,
were depict as the oldest representative of the hominin lineage. Australopithecus
afarensis, which were the fossils of Lucy, and africanus are the existing members of
Austral piths during 4 - 2.5 mya. “Early homo” lived from 2.5 to 500,000 years ago.

Quaternary
In Pleistocene epoch was an ice age that witnesses the now extinct large mammals.
10000 years ago, depending on which native animals and plants were available for the
farmers for them to domesticate, agriculture became the main importance to replace the
lifestyle of a hunter-gatherer. It improved the flow of both transportation and
communication with better technologies to thrive into a better economy. It also
progresses the ability to explore the world or migrate in to new lands and gather new
resources.
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