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The geological history of our planet

The following table gives the times for the major periods of the Earth's geological history.

PERIOD EPOCH LASTED FOR BEGAN COMMENTS
QUATERNARY Holocene
Pleistocene
about 2 million years 2 million years ago  
Ice age begins
Ice age ends
TERTIARY Pleiocene
Miocene
Oligocene
Eocene
Paleocene
about 5 million years
19 million years
12 million years
16 milion years
10 million years
 



65 million years ago
First humans (Pleiocene)


Rise of many modern mammals (Oligocene)
Formation of Alps and Himalayas (Eocene)
Many mammals (Palaeocene)
Dinosaurs become extinct (end of Cretaceous)
CRETACEOUS   71 million years 136 million years ago Small mammals
JURASSIC   about 57 million years 192 million years ago Age of dinosaurs
Toothed birds
TRIASSIC   about 33 million years 225 million years ago First primitive mammals
PERMIAN   55 million years 280 million years ago Spread of reptiles and insects
CARBONIFEROUS   65 million years 345 million years ago Rise of reptiles
First fish and flying insects
DEVONIAN   about 65 million years 410 million years ago Amphibians evolved from fishes
Great explosion of plant life
Bony fishes, first insects.
SILURIAN   about 30 million years 440 million years ago Armoured jawless fishes
ORDOVICIAN   about 90 million years 530 million years ago First land plants
Molluscs
CAMBRIAN   about 40 million years 570 million years ago Algae
PRECAMBRIAN   about 4000 million years about 4600 million years ago First living organisms (3500-4000 million years ago)


 

A VERSION IN WORD IS AVAILABLE ON THE SCHOOLPHYSICS USB
 
 
 
 
© Keith Gibbs 2020