| EON |
ERA |
AMERICAN
PERIODS |
EUROPEAN
PERIODS |
EPOCHS |
LIFE EVENTS
|
Phanerozoic |
Cenozoic |
Quaternary |
Neogene |
Holocene
or Recent |
. |
| Pleistocene |
Extinction of megafauna at end of Pleistocene
H. erectus, H. sapiens |
| Tertiary |
Pliocene |
Hominids |
| Miocene |
grazing horses; antelopes |
| Paleogene |
Oligocene |
Radiation of more modern mammals |
| Eocene |
First appearances include: horses; camels; cats;
dogs; rodents; advanced primates. |
| Paleocene |
Archaic mammals diversify |
| Mesozoic |
Cretaceous |
Cretaceous |
Commonly
Paleozoic
and
Mesozoic
Periods
are
subdivided
into
EARLY
MIDDLE
and LATE
Epochs |
Major Extinction at end of Cretaceous that includes
dinosaurs and ammonites;
First appearances include:
angiosperms (flowering plants); snakes; modern lizards;
social insects (ants, bees etc.); marsupial and placental mammals |
| Jurassic |
Jurassic |
First appearances include: birds; crabs; frogs
and salamanders; rudist clams. |
| Triassic |
Triassic |
First appearances include:
hexacorals; oysters; dinosaurs; turtles; crocodiles; marine reptiles; mammals; |
| Paleozoic |
Permian |
Permian |
Major extinction of invertebrates
First appearances include:
therapsids (a group of mammal-like reptiles) and archosaurs (stem reptiles) |
| Pennsylvanian |
Carboniferous |
First appearances include
pelicosaurs (a group of mammal-like reptiles); winged insects; conifers |
| Mississipian |
First appearances include:
reptiles |
| Devonian |
Devonian |
First appearances include:
sharks; amphibians; lung fishes; seed plants; insects. |
| Silurian |
Silurian |
First appearances include:
jawed fishes; vascular land plants. |
| Ordovician |
Ordovician |
First appearances include:
land plants; bryozoans |
| Cambrian |
Cambrian |
Appearance of hard parts. Fossils become common.
First appearances include: vertebrates; jawless fishes; conodonts;
small shelly fossils at beginning of Cambrian. |
| Proterozoic* |
Late |
Ediacaran
(=Vendian) |
Ediacaran |
No epochs |
Extinction at end of vendian |
No
other periods before the Ediacaran
~1.0 BY Sexual reproduction |
| Middle |
. |
| Early |
~2.0 BY Eukaryotic cells |
| Archean* |
Late |
~3.0 BY Photosynthesis |
| Early |
~3.9 BY First appearance of life |
| Hadean* |
No Eras |
. |