C |
Quaternary |
Holocene |
0.01 |
|
E |
|
Pleistocene |
1.0 |
Earliest Humans |
N |
Tertiary |
Pliocene |
5 |
Earliest Hominids |
O |
|
Miocene |
24 |
Earliest Primates |
Z |
|
Oligocene |
37 |
|
O |
|
Eocene |
58 |
Earliest grasses, division of mammals |
I |
|
Paleocene |
65 |
Earliest large mammals |
C |
|
|
|
|
EXTINCTION OF DINOSAURS AT THE CRETACEOUS-TERTIARY BOUNDARY 65
MILLION YEARS AGO |
|
|
M |
Cretaceous |
Upper |
98 |
|
E |
|
Lower |
144 |
Earliest flowering plants, dinosaurs in ascendance |
S |
Jurassic |
|
208 |
Earliest birds and mammals |
O |
Triassic |
|
245 |
Age of dinosaurs begins |
Z |
|
|
|
|
O |
|
|
|
|
I |
|
|
|
|
C |
|
|
|
|
|
|
P |
Permian |
|
286 |
Age of the amphibians |
A |
Carboniferous |
|
|
Widespread coal swamps |
L |
Pennsylvanian |
|
320 |
Earliest reptiles |
E |
Mississippian |
|
360 |
Earliest winged insects |
O |
Devonian |
|
408 |
Earliest vascular plants (ferns and mosses) and amphibians |
Z |
Silurian |
|
438 |
Earliest land plants and insects |
O |
Ordovician |
|
505 |
Earliest corals |
I |
Cambrian |
|
570 |
Earliest fish, Age of Trilobites |
C |
|
|
|
|
|
|
P |
|
|
|
|
R |
|
|
|
|
E |
|
|
|
|
C |
Proterozoic Eon |
|
2500 |
Earliest colonial algae and soft-bodied invertebrates |
A |
|
|
|
|
M |
|
|
|
|
B |
|
|
|
|
R |
Archean Eon |
|
4000 |
Life appears: earliest algae and primitive bacteria |
I |
|
|
|
|
A |
|
|
|
|
N |
|
|
|
|