Geologic Time Scale

- Is used to represent evolutionary time.

- Shows significant events in the history of earth and of the evolution of living things.
EONS – the largest slices of time ranger from a half billion to nearly 2 billions years ago.

A) Proterozoic Eon
- it was marked by the existence of multicellular animal life.
- An era when the atmosphere began to have an oxygen.
- Began more than 2.5 billion years ago.

B) Phanerozoic Eon
- Existence of organisms that had skeletons or had shells.
- Began more than 500 million years ago.

C) Archaeozoic Eon
- 3.9 to 2.5 billions years ago.
- The first life-forms represented by single celled organisms appeared.

D) Hadean Eon
- 4.6 to 3.9 billion years ago.
- Earths formation from dust to gasses.

*The Proterozoic, Archaeozoic, and the Hadean Eons are sometimes collectively known as
Precambrian time which accounts for almost 90% of earth’s history.

ERAS – eon that is divided into smaller time intervals.

 Paleozoic Era (540 millions years ago)
- Many kinds of organisms lived during this era.
- When fossils record became rich with evidence of many marine organisms.
 Mesozoic Era (200 million years ago)
- Also called as the “Age of Dinosaurs”, and sometimes “Age of reptiles”.
- When many kinds of dinosaurs existed.
- Is also marked by the appearance of flowering plants.
 Cenozoic Era(66 million ago up to the present)
- Latest Era in the geologic timeline.
 - Composed of quaternary and Tertiary periods, which are characterized by the presence
of primitive mammals and modern human civilization.
- Called the “age of mammals”. During this Era mammals have evolved and adapted to
live in various environments.
 Periods – is one of the several subdivisions of geologic time that divides the
era into period.

*Proterozoic Eon is composed of Ediacaran/ Vendian Period

 Vendian/ Ediacaran Period

- Prokaryotic organisms began to appear during this period.
- Life in this period only thrived underwater, and only a few fossils existed because the
animals were soft-bodied.
*Paleozoic Era is divided into:
1) Cambrian Period
- organisms were noted to have body parts such as shells and outer skeleton.
e.g. Clams, Pikaia, arthropod, sponges, hallucigenia, plants, jelly fish, worms
*Brachiopads – small animals with two shells.
*Trilobites – Hard – shelled, segmented creatures.
- The most microscopic life forms in this period.

2) Ordovician and Silurian Period

- early forms of cephalopods (which include octopi squids appeared
- first form of land also appeared during this period.

3) Devonian Period
- “age of fishes”
- shark appeared in the later part of this period.
*ARCHAEPTERIS HIBERNICA – one of the fern like plants that thrived during the Devonian
period.
4) CARBONITEROUS and PERMIAN periods
REPTILES – animals with scaly skins that lay eggs with tough leathery shells evolved from
amphibians.
- Winged insects such as dragonflies and cockroaches.
- Giant forms and other plants formed vast swampy forest.

At the end of Paleozoic Era, many organisms became extinct, including trilobites, and many
amphibians.

Mesozoic Era was divided into:

*their extinction could have been brought about an asteroid impact / volcanism.

1)Triassic Period
- many organisms beginning of this period survived the mass extinction during the Permian
period, including fishes, insects, reptiles, and cone-bearing plants.
- about 251 million years ago, the first dinosaurs appeared, one of the earliest dinosaur species
belonged to the genus Coelophysis.

*Coelophysis- meat-eater that had light hollow bones to help them run swiftly on their legs.
- mammal also appeared in later parts of this period, which probably evolved from
mammal like reptiles.
- mammal during this period were very small.

2) Jurassic Period – dinosaurs became the dominant animals on land about 150 million years.

*Discraeosaurus- one of the largest dinosaur in this period.

*Archaeopteryx – one of the earliest known birds, made paleontologist believe that birds are
relative of dinosaurs
3) Cretaceous Period
- when reptiles were the dominant vertebrates on earth.
- several kinds of birds began to exist alongside pterosaur (flying reptiles).
- also the period when new kinds dinosaurs evolved.

*Iguanodon and Triceratops, species emerged or common herbivores.

*Tyrannosaurus rex and Spinosaurus, were some of the dominant carnivores in this period.
- other acratic organisms such as rays, sharks, corals, and sea stars, as well as marine reptiles
such as Mosasaurus and plesiosaurs dominated different bodies of water.

*Angiosperms – flowering plants, also during this period.

*The cretaceous period ended with a meteorite
- causes mass extinction.
*Tyrannosaurus rex – one of the largest and fiercest carnivore dinasaurs.

Cenozoic Era is divided into tertiary and quaternary periods:

Tertiary Period (66 million to 2.6 million years ago)
- Started with the emergence and primitive mammals.
- Marine mammals (whales and dolphins) thrived.
- Flowering plants and insects flourished on land.
- Grasses also emerged providing a vital food source that encourage the evolution of
today’s grass-eating mammals.

* Equus Simplcidens – a gazing horse that lived during the tertiary period.
*Quaternary Period (1.8 million years ago up to the present)
- “Age of Men” because the earliest modern humans believed to have existed at the start of this
period.

 Fossil record suggest that the earliest ancestors of our species called hominids,
appeared 4.5 million years ago, but did not look entirely like modern humans.
Homosapiens - modern humans, may have evolved as early as 100,000 years ago in Africa.

Mammoth – an animal that lived during this period.

Epochs – are finer subdivision shown in Cenozoic era parts of Mesozoic Era.

 Our Geologic Time Scale is an important tool that visually show Earth’s
history. With the help of this timescale, we can look at the past and identify the
organisms that have existed a long time ago.h