biology

• First

  horses

  appear

  and

  tropical

  plants

  dominate (Paleocene)
• Grasses spread and whales, rhinos, elephants and

  other large mammals develop. Sea level rises and

  limestone deposits form in S.C. (Eocene)
• Dogs, cats, and apes appear (Oligocene)
• Horses, mastadons, camels,

  and tigers roam free in S.C.

  (Miocene)
• Hominids develop and the

  Grand

  Canyon

  forms

  (Pliocene)
• Modern humans develop

  and

  ice

  sheets

  are

  predominantIce

  age

  (Pleistocene)
• Holocene Humans flourish

  (Holocene)
• Cretaceous

  • Atlantic Ocean forms

  • Mammals feed on dinosaurs

  • Flowering plants and grasses

  appear

  • Australia and Antarctica split

  apart

  • Tyrannosaurus rex evolves

  • Impact

  event

  devastates

  Earth
• Jurassic

  • Largest dinosaurs evolve

  • Major maritime radiation

  • First ceratopsians evolve

  • Pangaea supercontinent splits

  up

  • Stegosaurus evolves

  • Missing link between dinosaurs

  and birds appears
• Triassic

  • First dinosaurs appear

  • First

  mammalssmall

  rodents appear

  • Life and fauna re-diversify

  • Rocky Mountains form.

  • First turtle fossil from this

  period

  • Pangea breaks apart
• Permian

  • Great climate variation

  • Ancestors of mammals

  evolve

  • Rise of dimetrodons

  • Formation of Pangaea

  • Worst extinction event in

  Earth’s history

  • Major drop in sea levels
• Carboniferous

  • Diversification of insects and

  arachnids

  • Highest ever oxygen levels

  • Extensive formation of coal

  beds

  • Decline of trilobites

  • Evolution of the first reptiles

  • Climate change leads to

  rainforest collapse
• Devonian

  • Forests spread across the

  land

  • The Golden Age of Fish

  • Tetrapods colonise the

  land

  • Development of reefs

  • First insects learn to fly

  • Mass extinction event
• Silurian

  • First land plants appear and

  land animals follow

  • Laurentia collides with Baltica

  and closes Iapetus Sea.

  • Coral reefs expand and land

  plants

  begin

  to

  colonize

  barren land.

  • First millipede fossils and sea

  scorpions (Euryptides) found

  in this period.
• Ordovician

  • The 1st animals with bones

  appear, though dominant animals

  are still trilobites, brachiopods and

  corals.

  • A very cold time in Earth’s history:

  there was a great extinction due

  to ice caps in present-day Africa

  • Four main continents: Gondwana,

  Baltica, Siberia and Laurentia
• Cambrian

  • Explosion of life

  • All existing phyla come into being

  at this time

  • Life forms in warm seas as oxygen

  levels rise enough to support life

  • Dominant

  animals:

  Marine

  invertebrates

  (trilobites

  and

  brachiopods)

  • Supercontinent Gondwana forms

  near the South Pole (note position

  of present-day Florida)

  Trilobite

  B