GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE

The Geologists

Geologists (scientists who
study Earth) have special
names for periods of time on
Earth. They name stages in the
history of Earth just as you
name stages in the life of a
person. You say a person was a
baby and then a child and then
a teenager and then a grown-
up. Geologists use the words
eon, era, period, and epoch
when they talk about the stages
of Earth.
Geologists divide 
eons into eras
just as you
divide years into
months. They
divide eras into
periods. They
divide periods
into epochs.
 The Geologic Time Scale

Geologists have 
created a geologic
time scale to
provide a common
vocabulary for
talking about past
events. The
practice of
determining when
past geologic
events occurred is
called
geochronology.
The Geologic Time Scale
Stratigraphy is a branch of
Geologists use several geology which studies rock
methods to determine layers and layering
geologic time. These (stratification).
methods include:
• physical
stratigraphy, or the
placement of events in
the order of their
occurrence, and
• biostratigraphy,
which uses fossils to
determine geologic
time
 If you were able to travel back to visit the
Archean Eonthe Archean, you would likely
Earth during
not recognize it as the same planet we inhabit
today. The atmosphere was very different from
what we breathe today; at that time, it was
likely a reducing atmosphere of methane,
ammonia, and other gases which would
be toxic to most life on our planet today. Also
during this time, the Earth's crust cooled
enough that rocks and continental plates
began to form.
calcareous structures
 Stromatolites increased in abundance throughout the Archean, but began to decline
during the Proterozoic. They are not common today, but they are doing well in Shark
Bay, Australia .
The Precambrian Era is Earth's first era of time. It began with
the creation of the Earth around 4.6 billion years ago and
lasted until 570 million years ago. The Precambrian saw many
drastic changes during this time. The five major events of the
Precambrian are:
1. The formation of the Sun and light.
2. The creation of the Earth.
3. The creation of the atmosphere through volcanic out-
gassing.
4. The creation of the oceans.  After rainfall, the Earth's
surface was cooled down and the rainwater collected into
low areas which formed oceans and seas. The ocean
became stable around 1 bya when no more salt from rocks
could be dissolved into the water.
5. The creation of life. 
During the Precambrian, continents began to form
and grow, driven by a mechanism similar to what is
now called plate tectonics. Also during this time,
the oceans and the atmosphere started forming
from the gases escaping the extremely hot,
semiliquid interior of the planet.
Life in the form of primitive bacteria may
have originated as early as four billion
years ago, perhaps at hot springs on the
sea floor.
All Precambrian life forms were usually simple
one-cell to simple multi-cell creatures. These life
forms were blind, brainless and soft bodied
creatures, in that they had no hard skeleton.
•Paleozoic Era (meaning "ancient life") lasted
from 543 million years ago until 248 million
years ago. This era is further divided into several
periods:
Cambrian Period
• The Cambrian period is a major division of
geological time, extending from about 542 to
488 million years ago.
• It is the first period in the broader Paleozoic era.
The Cambrian is characterized by the
appearance of a wide range of complex,
fossilizable multicellular organisms.
• The environment also became more hospitable,
with a warming climate and rising sea levels
flooding low-lying landmasses to create shallow,
marine habitats ideal for spawning new life-
forms.
The end of the Cambrian saw a series of mass
extinctions during which many shell-dwelling
brachiopods and other animals went extinct. The
trilobites also suffered heavy losses.
• Fossilized Trilobites
• Trilobites were primitive sea animals that
became extinct more than 200 million years ago.
The remains of these trilobites were preserved as
fossils in rock.
Early Life Forms
Ordovician Period
At this time, the area north of the tropics was
almost entirely ocean, and most of the world's
land was collected into the southern super-
continent Gondwana. Throughout the
Ordovician, Gondwana shifted towards the
South Pole and much of it was submerged
underwater.
• The Ordovician is best known for the presence of
its diverse marine invertebrates, including
graptolites, trilobites, brachiopods, and the
conodonts (early vertebrates).

• A typical marine community consisted of these

animals, plus red and green algae, primitive fish,
cephalopods, corals, crinoids, and gastropods.

• More recently, there has been found evidence of

tetrahedral spores that are similar to those of
primitive land plants, suggesting that plants
invaded the land at this time.
• From the Early to Middle Ordovician, the earth
experienced a milder climate in which the
weather was warm and the atmosphere
contained a lot of moisture.
• However, when Gondwana finally settled on the
South Pole during the Late Ordovician, massive
glaciers formed causing shallow seas to drain
and sea levels to drop.
• This likely caused the mass extinctions that
characterize the end of the Ordovician, in which
60% of all marine invertebrate genera and 25%
of all families went extinct.
 Silurian Period
• The Silurian (443 to 417 million years ago) was a
time when the Earth underwent considerable
changes that had important repercussions for
the environment and life within it.
• The Silurian witnessed a relative stabilization of
the earth's general climate, ending the previous
pattern of erratic climatic fluctuations.
• One result of these changes was the melting of
large glacial formations.
• This contributed to a substantial rise in the
levels of the major seas.
• Coral reefs made their first appearance during
this time, and the Silurian was also a remarkable
time in the evolution of fishes.
• Not only does this time period mark the wide
and rapid spread of jawless fish, but also the
highly significant appearances of both the first
known freshwater fish as well as the first
fish with jaws.
• It is also at this time that our first good evidence
of life on land is preserved, including relatives
of spiders and centipedes, and also the
earliest fossils of vascular plants.
Devonian Period
The Rhynie Chert in Scotland is a Devonian age
deposit containing fossils of both
Zosterophyllophytes and Trimerophytes, the two
major lines of vascular plants.
This indicates that prior to the start of the
Devonian, the first major radiations of the plants
had already happened. The oldest known
vascular plants in the Northern Hemisphere are
Devonian.
• The vegetation of the early Devonian
consisted primarily of small plants, the
tallest being only a meter tall.
• By the end of the Devonian, ferns,
horsetails and seed plants had also
appeared, producing the first trees and
the first forests. Archaeopteris, shown
below left, is one of these first trees.
Carboniferous Period
• The Carboniferous Period occurred from about
354 to 290 million years ago during the late
Paleozoic Era.
• The term "Carboniferous" comes from England,
in reference to the rich deposits of coal that
occur there. These deposits of coal occur
throughout northern Europe, Asia, and
midwestern and eastern North America.
• In addition to having the ideal conditions for the
beginnings of coal, several major biological,
geological, and climatic events occurred during
this time.
• One of the greatest evolutionary innovations of
the Carboniferous was the amniote egg, which
allowed for the further exploitation of the land
by certain tetrapods.
• The amniote egg allowed the ancestors of birds,
mammals, and reptiles to reproduce on land by
preventing the desiccation of the embryo inside.
There was also a trend towards mild
temperatures during the Carboniferous, as
evidenced by the decrease in lycopods and large
insects and an increase in the number of tree
ferns.
Permian Period
• The Permian period lasted from 290 to 248 million years
ago and was the last period of the Paleozoic Era.
• The distinction between the Paleozoic and the Mesozoic
is made at the end of the Permian in recognition of the
largest mass extinction recorded in the history of life on
Earth.
• It affected many groups of organisms in many different
environments, but it affected marine communities the
most by far, causing the extinction of most of the marine
invertebrates of the time.
• Some groups survived the Permian mass extinction in
greatly diminished numbers, but they never again
reached the ecological dominance they once had,
clearing the way for another group of sea life.
• On land, a relatively smaller extinction of
diapsids and synapsids cleared the way for other
forms to dominate, and led to what has been
called the "Age of Dinosaurs".
• Also, the great forests of fern-like plants shifted
to gymnosperms, plants with their offspring
enclosed within seeds. Modern conifers, the
most familiar gymnosperms of today, first
appear in the fossil record of the Permian.
• In all, the Permian was the last of the time for
some organisms and a pivotal point for others,
and life on earth was never the same again.
Triassic Period
• In many ways, the Triassic was a time of
transition.
• It was at this time that the world-continent of
Pangaea existed, altering global climate and
ocean circulation.
• The Triassic also follows the largest extinction
event in the history of life, and so is a time when
the survivors of that event spread and
recolonized.
• The organisms of the Triassic can be considered
to belong to one of three groups: holdovers from
the Permo-Triassic extinction, new groups which
flourished briefly, and new groups which went
on to dominate the Mesozoic world.
• The holdovers included the lycophytes,
glossopterids, and dicynodonts. While those that
went on to dominate the Mesozoic world include
modern conifers, cycadeoids, and the dinosaurs.
Jurassic Period
• The period’s most
distinguishing characteristic
was the dominance of
dinosaurs and other reptiles.
 Evidence that the Jurassic climate was warm and
moist is provided by widespread coral reefs and by the
remains of temperate and subtropical forests
consisting largely of the gymnosperms (cycads and
conifers), ginkgoes, and seed ferns. Angiosperms
(flowering plants) first appeared in the mid-Jurassic
Period.
Cretaceous Period
• The Cretaceous is usually noted for being the last
portion of the "Age of Dinosaurs", but that does
not mean that new kinds of dinosaurs did not
appear then.
• It is during the Cretaceous that 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.
• The breakup of the world-continent Pangaea,
which began to disperse during the Jurassic,
continued. This led to increased regional
differences in floras and faunas between the
northern and southern continents.
• Despite these mild conditions, several mass
faunal extinctions occurred toward the end of
the period. Five great reptilian groups—
dinosaurs, pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs,
and mosasaurs that had been dominant became
extinct.
 Mesozoic Era
(meaning "middle life") which lasted from
248 million years ago until 66 million
years ago. The Mesozoic Era is often
called the "age of reptiles." It is during
the Mesozoic

Era that mammals, birds, and flowering

plants first evolved. It is also the era in
which the ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs,
pterosaurs, and most importantly for us,
the dinosaurs lived! Even though
mammals first appeared early in the
Mesozoic, they didn't evolve much beyond
small rat-like creatures. In particular,
there were no bears, elephants, monkeys,
and especially NO PEOPLE during the
Mesozoic Era.
 •The Cenozoic Era is divided into two
periods: the Tertiary which lasted from
66 million years ago to 2 million years
ago, and the Quaternary.

•During these epochs, most of the

mammals with which we are familiar
evolved including whales, bats, monkeys,
and humans. Some other strange
mammals evolved and became extinct
during these times, including the saber
toothed tiger Smilodon, the rhinoceros-
like Teleoceras,
• Tertiary Climate: A Cooling Trend From
Tropics To Ice Age

• The beginning of the Tertiary Period was very

warm and moist compared to today’s climate.
Much of the earth was tropical or sub-tropical.
Palm trees grew as far north as Greenland. By
the middle of the tertiary, during the Oligocene
Epoch, the climate began to cool. This cooling
trend continued and by the Pliocene Epoch at
the end of the Tertiary Period, an ice age had
begun.
• The Rise of The Mammals
The extinction event at the close of the
Cretaceous Period wiped out the dinosaurs, large
reptiles, and many other species. This left room
for new animals to develop. The mammals
became the dominant animals. In fact, the
Cenozoic Era is often called the Age of
Mammals. Most of the main groups of
mammals were present by the Eocene Epoch.
With the dinosaurs and other large reptiles gone
mammals grew in size, numbers and diversity.
They filled ecological niches in the sea on land
and in the air.
 • Hominids: Human Ancestors
During the Pliocene the first hominids appeared;
these were our human ancestors.
• The Tertiary Was For The Birds
Birds did almost as well as mammals during the
Tertiary Period. Many of the birds we know
today were present. There were also many large
flightless birds that are now extinct. These birds
did particularly well before the mammals
developed so many species.
• Boney Fish and Sharks Develop New
Species
Fish species branched out during the Tertiary
Period. Sharks became more plentiful. Trout and
bass evolved.
• Flowering Plants Means Nectar For
Insects
The insect population increased in the Tertiary
Period. Bees and other insects that lived on
pollen and nectar of the flowering plants
prospered.
• The Tertiary Period Ends With An Ice Age and
Land Bridges
The cooling climate of the Tertiary Period led to huge
glaciers at the poles. The mountains of the world were
also covered by glaciers, including the newly formed
Himalayas and Alps. The huge amounts of water locked
up in the ice lowered the level of the sea and land bridges
appeared:
• Between Asia and North America
• Great Britain and Europe
• South East Asia and Borneo
• This enabled migrations of both plants and animals
across these land bridges.
• The Tertiary period which had begun hot and humid,
ended in a cold dry ice age.
Quaternary Period

• the Quaternary Period began with an ice age

about 1.8 million years ago. It is often called the
Age of Humans.
• It continues up to the present time and is the
period that we live in. The Quaternary Period is
divided into two epochs :
• The Pleistocene Epoch - 1.8 million to 11,000
years ago
• The Holocene Epoch - 11,000 years ago to
present
• Continents Arrive at Present Positions
During the quaternary period the positions of the
continents were much the same as they are
today. What has changed during this time is the
climate. The Pleistocene Epoch began with polar
ice sheets far bigger than they are now. At times,
the glacial ice reached far down into parts of
North America, Europe, and Asia. This is
commonly referred to as an Ice Age.
• The Climate of The Quaternary Period
Generally temperatures were cooler everywhere on earth
during this time. But the climate of the Pleistocene did
not stay the same throughout the entire Pleistocene. The
polar ice advanced and retreated. The earth warmed and
cooled. Scientists have cataloged over 60 cycles of glacial
expansion and contraction during the Pleistocene.

• Glaciers Lower Sea Levels

When the polar ice advances, huge amounts of water
become locked up in the ice. This causes sea levels to
drop. Land once covered by water is left high and dry.
During a time of advancing glaciers, the Bering land
bridge revealed itself between Alaska and Siberia. This
happened many times during the Quaternary Period.
• The Rise of Humans
For us, the most important development of the
Quaternary Period is the development of the
hominids: Humans. From the first primates in
the Tertiary Period to modern man, the hominid
species has evolved amazing abilities. The
earliest hominid fossils found so far date from
the late Tertiary Period. They were found in
Africa. As the Pleistocene Epoch continued,
hominids spread throughout the world. Their
larger brains allowed a level of thought and
feeling that was, and is, unique among the
animals. We think and solve. We change and
control. The future of our planet will be greatly
affected by the Age of Humans.
 • Early Humans
• Scientists have found
the remains of early
humans who lived
millions of years ago.
.
This early human
skeleton, nicknamed
Lucy, is more than 3
million years old.
•Australopithecus robustus which lived from 2 million to 1
million years ago,
References:
• Bengtson, S. (ed.) 1994. Early Life on Earth. Nobel Symposium 84.
Columbia University Press, New York.
• Schopf, J.W. (ed.) 1983. Earth's Earliest Biosphere: Its Origin and
Evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton. 543 pp.
• Hofmann, H.J. 1994. Proterozoic carbonaceous compressions
("metaphytes" and "worms"). Pp. 342-357 in S. Bengtson (ed.),
Early Life on Earth. Columbia University Press, New York.
• Holland, H.D. 1994. Early Proterozoic atmospheric change. Pp. 237-
244 in S. Bengtson (ed.), Early Life on Earth. Columbia University
Press, New York.