Eons: The Evolutionary History Of The Phanerozoic Eon

The Cambrian Period marks the beginning of the Paleozoic Era. This period gets its name from a place in Wales where the first examples of this type of ancient life was found. The period lasted for nearly 53 million years, from about 543 million years ago until 490 million years ago. The Cambrian Period marks an important point in the history of life on earth; it is the time when most of the major groups of animals first appear in the fossil record. This event is sometimes called the "Cambrian Explosion", because of the relatively short time over which this diversity of forms appears. It was once thought that the Cambrian rocks contained the

Major Biological Event: Life evolved and diversified greatly during this Era, in an event called the Cambrian Explosion. Plants began to grow on the land and jawed fish began to appear. The first forests made of small trees and bushes forms, populated by insects, reptiles, amphibians. However, this Era ended with a max extinction in which 96% of the populus went extinct.

The Permian mass extinction, that struck about 250 million years ago, caused a mass extinction of reef and shallow water communities. Groups that lived on the seafloor and filtered organic material from the water for nourishment suffered the greatest extinction. Those include corals, shelled in-vertebrates, and a variety of sea lilies. Others marine groups includes trilobites, zooplankton and snails. Even though these species died in the water, living organisms on land were not much better off. Terrestrial vertebrates and insects both experienced a big loss in each of their groups. Also suffering a big loss was the insect family due to the lack of plant life and food. Seventy Eight percent of reptiles became extinct and sixty seven percent of the amphibian family became extinct during this time period.

The Cambrian era which can also be known as the Paleozoic era was a result of the period known as “Snowball Earth” that took place over 700 million years ago. The earth had frozen over for more than 200 million years, covering the entire surface with ice a mile long thick in length, killing off all species except for tiny micro organisms, but finally the ice layer on the earth exploded. The layer exploded from the volcanic activity deep beneath the icy surface, but when it finally did explode, it caused an eruption of an enormous amount of carbon dioxide, creating what they call a “green house” effect. Creating the water to become generously oxygenated for life to begin again on earth, but this time, only in the water.

The Cambrian Period marks the beginning of the Paleozoic Era. This period gets its name from a place in Wales where the first examples of this type of ancient life was found. The period lasted for nearly 53 million years, from about 543 million years ago until 490 million years ago. The Cambrian Period marks an important point in the history of life on earth; it is the time when most of the major groups of animals first appear in the fossil record. This event is sometimes called the "Cambrian Explosion", because of the relatively short time over which this diversity of forms appears. It was once thought that the Cambrian rocks contained the

As it contrasts with previous ages, some geologists now propose the current geologic age to be the Anthropocene; a period in earth’s history characterized by the ubiquity of the species, Homo Sapiens, whose activities and influences have become so far reaching, that they rival, or in some instances, exceed, the forces of nature which have hitherto remained most dominant in the planet’s environmental system. (Crutzen, 2006)

The Cambrian Explosion, which happened 541 million years ago, marks a date when a huge number of complex, multi-celled organisms began developing all over the world. This burst of different species eventually led to the development of most well known creatures today. Scientists used the huge number of new fossils to determine a date through radioactive or carbon-40 dating. However, like most good things this huge outburst had to come to an end. A huge event nearing the end of the Paleozoic Era is the Permian Extinction. 251 million years ago marks the end of the Paleozoic Era with a bang: wiping out 90 percent of all earth's organisms. Theorized to be cause by acidic rain and volcanic fumes, the Permian Extinction is known by some scientists as the largest murder mystery ever. Through an even larger increase in fossils than before, scientists yet again determined the date of these fossils by using radioactive or carbon-40 dating. As the Paleozoic Era is nearing its end the next era is right on the

The movie “History of the World in 2 Hours” shifted my perspective on time; however, my perspective on culture did not shift, considering I have already been educated on the evolution of culture. After the film, I have become aware of how long humans lived on earth. It is astonishing to ruminate that humans only owned and occupied a small portion of history. Alex Filippenko simplified the understanding of the human’s civilization short time period by fracturing earth’s time to 14 years. He explained that earth’s complete formation would have been in 5 years, dinosaurs would have been extinct in 3 weeks, and the entire human history would have only been the last 3 minutes. Therefore, my perspective of the world’s history, humans was only the

5. The Cenozoic Era began about 65 million years ago and continues into the present, is the third documented era in the history of Earth. The current locations of the continents, inhabitants, including humans, existing today can be traced back to this period. The Cenozoic Era is divided into three periods. Paleogene Period (65-23 million years ago), which consists of the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene epochs); Neogene Period (23-2.6 million years ago), which includes the Miocene and Pliocene epochs); Quaternary Period (2.6 million years ago to the present), consisting the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs).

The most copious defined unit of time is the Precambrian division. This geological stretch of time is known as the first Supereon that comprises Earth’s history which lasted from the initial formation of the planet (about 4.6 billion years ago) to the phenomenal beginnings of the Cambrian period (dated at about 542 million years ago). This long stretch of time involved the transformation of the earth from a barren planet to one full of life. Three eons collectively comprise the Precambrian. These include the Hadean, the Archean and the Proterozoic. The Hadean eon was the first eon in earth’s history and refers to the birth of the solar system that occurred between 4.6 billion to 4 billion years ago. It began with a solar nebula, which consisted

I would like to present to you the history of life on earth of species that existed in the distant past. I find fossils from animals most interesting because they have walked in our earth before we were even made. It has taken me a very long time to find fossils buried and I have had to travel all over the world for many weeks this year. It has been exhausting but I am interested in finding the excavation because I believe it will help us with information about our environment. My team and I which includes my archaeologist agree that our findings are significant and through our equipment we have been able to determine how old our fossils are.

The Paleozoic era age approximately 300 million years (542 mya to 251 mya). This time period consists of two of the most important events in the history of animal life. In the beginning, multi celled animals underwent a dramatic explosion in diversity, this resulted in almost all living animal phyla appearing within a few million years. At the other end of the Paleozoic, it withstood the largest mass extinction in all of history. This event wiped out approximately 90% of all marine animal species. The causes of both these events are still not fully understood. Halfway in between this time period, animals, fungi, and plants began to colonize the land, insects emerged, and the limestone was deposited near the Burlington, Missouri area. During

Jurassic is a period of time with Dinosaurs, rodents and birds. There were also island seas consisting of sharks, sea monsters and blood-red planktons. The existing plants in that period were cycads, ferns and conifers. The Mesozoic era was about 245 million years ago to 65 years ago, so it almost lasted about 180 years in total. The Mesozoic era is divided into three periods of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. Mesozoic era means middle animals and it is the era, which the word’s fauna has changed from what is in the Paleozoic era and the most famous organisms of this era are dinosaurs. In the Mesozoic era, the extinction of more than 90 percent of species in the earth was observed and the reason behind it was mostly volcanic eruptions and climate changes. On the other hand, this era had massive changes that represented ecological niches and rise to new creatures such as rodent-size mammals and first dinosaurs. In Triassic, which was the first period of Mesozoic, the mammals and first dinosaurs existed. Later than that, the second period was Jurassic, which giant shaped dinosaurs and other kinds of dinosaurs were developed. Besides that the first flowering plants and primitive birds, with long teeth appeared in that era as well.

Like the king and his chessboard, we have trouble contemplating the vast eons of time that lie between us and the creation of the earth. Each day seems like a grain of rice, so small that it seems as though they could never add up to anything substantial. However, looking back allows us to put ourselves into perspective. By examining history, we can see that we have been on this planet for

The Mesozoic Era began around 250 million years ago and ended 65 million years ago. It is divided into three different periods, The Triassic, The Jurassic and The Cretaceous. In the Mesozoic Era Earth was extraordinaly different from what it is now. The climate was humid and tropical, the sea levels were constantly changing and even the shape of the Earth 's continents were different (Benson et al, 2010). The land was dominant by the dinosaurs but the oceans were populated by more rich and diverse marine reptiles. There were more than a dozen different groups of marine reptiles in the Mesozoic era, these groups contained pelagic and coastal predators and coastal herbivores. The three main predators of the oceans were the