Geological Time Scale

Era

Period

Epoch

Duration
in
Millions
of Years

Time from
beginning to
present
(Millions of
Years)

Geological
Conditions
End of last age.,
climate warmer

Recent

0.025

0.025

Pleistocene

Repeated
glaciations; Ice
ages

12

Continued rise
of mountains of
Western North
America:
volcanic activity

28

Sierra
and
cascade
mountains
formed;
volcanic activity
in
northwest
U.S.;
climate
cooler

Quaternary

Pliocene

Cenozoic
(Age of
Mammals)

Miocene

II

16

Tertiary

Oligocene

Eocene

11

19

39

Lands
lower,
climate warmer

58

Mountains
eroded;
no
continental
seas; climate
warmer

Plant Life

Decline of
Woody
plants; rise
of
herbaceous
ones
Great
extinction
of Species
Decline of
forests;
spread of
grasslands;
flowering
plants,
monocotyl
edons
developed

60

Age of man

Extinction of great
mammals; first human
social life

Man evolving: elephants,

Horses, Camels almost like
modern species.

Mammals
evolution;
apes.

Maximum
spread of
forests; rise
of
monocotyl
edons,
flowering
plants

Paleocene
17
75
Rocky Mountain Revolution (Little destruction of Fossils)

Cretaceous

Animal Life

Archaic mammals extinct;

rise of Arthropods; forerunners
of
most-living
genera of mammals

Placental
mammals
diversified and specialized,
hoofed
mammals
and
carnivores established
Spread of archaic mammals

135

Andes,
Alps,
Himalayas,
Rockies formed
late;
earlier
inland seas and
swamps; chalk,
shale deposited

First
monocotyledons;
first oak and
maple
forests;
gymnosperms
declined

Increase
of
dicotyledons,
cycads
and
conifers common
Gymnosperms
dominant
declining toward

Mesozoic
(Age of
Reptiles)

Jurassic

30

165

Continents fairly
high; shallow seas
over some of
Europe
and
western U.S

Triassic

40

205

Continents
exposed;
widespread

at height of
first man-like

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Dinosaurs
reached peak,
became
extinct;
toothed birds
became
extinct, first
modern birds;
archaic
mammals
common
First toothed
birds;
dinosaurs
larger
and
specialized;
insectivorous
marsupials
First
dinosaurs,
pterosaurs

desert conditions;
many
land
deposits

Permian

Pennsylvanian
Carboniferous

Paleozoic
(Age of
Ancient
life)

Proterozoic

Archeozoic

Appalachian Revolution ( Some loss of fossils)

25
230
Continents rose;
Appalachians
formed;
increasing
glaciations
and
aridity
25
255
Lands at first low;
great
coal
swamps

end; extinction of
seed ferns

and egg laying

mammals
;extinction of
primitive
amphibians

Decline
lycopods
horsetails

Many ancient
animals died
out; mammals
like reptiles;
modern
insects arose
First reptiles;
insects
common;
spread
of
ancient
amphibians
Sea lilies at
height; spread
of
ancient
sharks

of
and

Great forests of
seed ferns and
gymnosperms

Mississippian
Carboniferous

25

280

Climate
warm
and humid at
first, cooler later
as land rose

Devonian

45

325

Smaller
inland
seas; land higher,
more
arid;
glaciations

Silurian

35

360

Extensive
continental seas;
lowlands
increasingly arid
as land rose

First
definite
evidence of land
plants;
algae
dominant

Ordovician

65

425

Great
submergence of
land;
warm
climates even in
Arctic

Land
plants
probably
first
appeared;
marine
algae
abundant

Cambrian

80

505

Land low, climate

mild;
earliest
rocks
with
abundant fossils

Marine algae

Second Great Revolution (Considerable loss of fossils)

1500
2000
Great
sedimentation;
volcanic activity
later, extensive
erosion, repeated
glaciations

First Great Revolution (Considerable loss of fossils)

????
???
Great
volcanic
activity
some
sedimentary
deposition;
extensive erosion

Lycopods
and
horsetails
dominant;
gymnosperms
increasingly
widespread
First forests; land
plants
well
established; first
established

Primitive aquatic
plants-algae,
fungi

First
amphibians;
lung
fishes
sharks
abundant
Marine
arachnids
dominants;
first(wingless)
insets; rise of
fishes
First
fishes
probably fresh
water; corals,
trilobites
abundant;
diversified
molluscs
Trilobites,
branchiopods
dominant;
most modern
phyla
established
Various
marine
protozoa;
towards end,
molluscs,
worms, other
marine
invertebrates

No recognizable fossils; indirect

evidence of living things from
deposits of organic material in rock

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