SUPEREO N n/a
EON Phanerozic Faneros+zoi=vi sible life
ERA
PERIOD
EPOCH
holos+kainos=entirel y recent
EVENTS Quarternary ice recedes. Rise of civilization. Sahara forms from savannah. Agriculture begins. Bronze and Iron ages. Little Ice Age. Industrial Revolution. Combe-Capelle Fourishing and extinction of many large mammals. Evolution of modern humans. Glaciations. Last glacial maximum, last glacial period. Dawn of stone-age culures. Clay statues and engravings. Lake Toba supervolcano erupts causing volcanic winter that pushes humanity to the brink of extinction. Homo habilis-H. erectus-H. ergaster-H. neanderthalensisParanthropus Intensification of Icehouse contitions. Cool and dry cliate. Homo habilis appears. Australopithecus Ice ages. Orogeny in northern hemisphere. Modern mammal and bird families becone recognizable. Grasses becoe ubiquitous. First apes appear. Orogeny of the Alps. Carpathian orogeny. Hellenic orogeny. Cooling climate. Rapid evolution and diversification of fauna. Cooling climate. Archaic mammals. First grasses. Reglaciation of Antarctica and formation of its icecap. Tropical climate. Modern plants appear. Extiction of the first dinosaurs. Alpine orogeny in Europe begins. Indian Subcontinent collides with Asia Himalayan orogeny starts. Flowering plants proliferate. New types of insects. New types of dinosaurs (Tyrannosaurus). Modern sharks appear. Primitive birds. Marsupials and placental mammals. Beginning of the orogenies of the Rocky Mountains. Gymnospermes (conifers) and fern common. Stegosaurs. Mammals common but small. First birds and lizards. Break up of the Pangaea nto Gondwana and Laurasia. Nevadan orogeny. . Archosaurs, dinosaurs, pterosaurs. Crocodilia and firs mammals appear. Modern corals. Modern insect clades. Andean orogeny Landmasses unite into supercontinent Pangaea creating the Appalachians. Cone-bearing gymnospermes replace coal-age
Holocene
Quaternary Pleistocene
Pilocene Cenozoic Neogene Miocene Proconsulidae primates Oligocene Eocene Paleogene Paleocene Late Middle Early Late Jurassic Mesozoic Triassic Paleozoic Poermian Middle Early Late Middle Early Lopingian Guadalupian
Cretaceous
Cisuralian Pennsylvanian Carboiferous Mississippian Late Middle Early Silurian
Devonian
Ordovician
Cambrian Homo Precambri an Neoproterozoic Proterozoic Mesoproterosioc Paleoproterozoic Archean Neoarchea n Mesoarche an Paleoarche an Edicaran Cyrogenian Tonian Stenian Ectasian Calymmian Statherian Orosirian Rhyacian Siderian
Ludlow/Cayugan Wenlock Llandovery/Alexa ndrian Late Invertebrates diversify into many new types. Early corals. First Middle green plants and fungi. Ice age at end of period. Early Furongian Series 3 Cambrian explosion-major diversification of life. Numerous Series 2 fossils. Trilobites sponges. Prokaryotes, protist, fungi, algae. Terreneuvian First multi-celled animals. First sponges. Soft jellied creatures. Fossils still rare. Rodinian landmass begins to break up. Antarctica tapers off. Rodinia supercontinent. Simple multicelled eukaryotes. Pan-African orogeny.
flora. Beetles and flies evolve. Marine life flourishes. Uranian Winged insects radiate suddenly. Amphibians common and diverse. First rptiles and coal forests. Highest-ever athmospheric levels. Uralian orogeny. Large primitive trees. Firs land vertebrates and amphibious sea-scorpions live amid coal-formig coastal swamps. First ferns appear. Firs seed-bearing plants. First trees. First wingless insects. Trilobites and armoured agnaths decline. Jawed fishes rule the seas. First amphibians still aquiatic. Anti-Atlas mountains and Appalachian mountains. First vascular plants. First jawed fishes. Many armoured jawless fish. Trilobites and mollusks diverse. Beggining of Caledonian orogeny and Scandinavian mountains. Australian continent tapers off.
Platform covers continue to expand. Green algae colonies in the seas. Platform covers expand First single-celled life: protists with nuclei. Columbia is the primordial supercontinent. The athmosphere becomes oxygenic. Verdefort and Sudbury Basin asteroid impacts. Huronian glaciation. Oxygen catastrophe: banded iron formations forms. Stabilisation of most modern cratons. Possible mantle overturn event. First stromatolites (colonial cyanobacteria possibly). Oldest macrofossils.
First known oxigen producing bacteria. Oldest definitive microfossils. Oldest cratons on earth.
Hadean
Eoarchean Early Imbrian Nectarian Basin Groups Cryptuc
Simple single-celled life (bacteria and archaea). Oldest probable microfossils. Indirect evidence of primordial life. The end of the Late Heavy Bombardment of the inner solar system. Oldest known rock (4030 Milion years). The first life forms and self-replicating RNA (ARN) molecules. Oldest known mineral (Zircon). Formation of Moon (4533 Ma) probably from giant impact. Formation of Earth (4567.17 Ma to 4570 Ma).
