Geologic Events

Phanerozoic: Emergence of "visible" life

Cenozoic: An era of angiosperm and mammal diversification

Quaternary: Modern age and recent ice ages

Holocene: Current age... Recent Mass Extinction?

Pleistocene: Most recent ice age

Tarantian: Extinction of humans, other than Homo sapiens

Ionian: An age of global drying and glaciation; mammoth steppe dominates

Calabrian: An age of global drying and glaciation

Gelasian: An age of horses

Neogene: Age of modern plants and large mammals

Pliocene: Increase in grasslands and savannas

Piacenzian: An age of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis)

Zanclean: Refilling of the Mediterranean Sea

Miocene: Rise and diversification of grasslands

Messinian

Tortonian

Serravallian

Langhian

Burdigalian

Aquitanian

Paleogene: Diversification of flowering plants and mammals

Oligocene: First grasslands

Chattian

Rupelian

Eocene: Forests from pole to pole

Priabonian

Bartonian: Oldest known carnivorous plant

Lutetian

Ypresian

Paleocene: Recovery from Mesozoic extinction

Thanetian

Selandian: Angiosperms rebound

Danian: Recovery from K-Pg extinction

Mesozoic: An era of cone-bearing seed plants

Cretaceous: Origin of angiosperms

Late Cretaceous: Fifth Mass Extinction of Animals

Maastrichtian: Chicxulub meteorite impact

Campanian

Santonian

Coniacian

Turonian

Cenomanian

Early Cretaceous: Origin of angiosperms

Albian

Aptain

Barremian: Direct evidence of angiosperm macrofossils

Hauterivian

Valanginian: First evidence of flowering plant pollen

Berriasian

Jurassic: Age of conifers, ginkgoes, and sauropods

Late Jurassic

Tithonian

Kimmeridgian

Oxfordian

Middle Jurassic: Age of conifer domination

Callovian

Bathonian

Bajocian

Aalenian

Early Jurassic

Toarcian: Large marine extinction/turnover

Pliensbachian: Five distinct vegetative biomes

Sinemurian

Hettangian

Triassic: Age of diversifying gymnosperms, and dawn of dinosaurs

Late Triassic: Fourth Mass Extinction of Animals

Rhaetian

Norian

Carnian

Middle Triassic

Ladinian

Anisian

Early Triassic

Olenekian: Recovery from greatest extinction event

Induan

Paleozoic Era: Rise of land plants; Age of pteridophyte domination

Permian: An age of increasing global temperatures and drying

Late Permian: Largest Mass Extinction of Animals

Changhsingian: Third Mass Extinction of Animals

Wuchiapingian

Middle Permian: Plants with adaptations for drought

Capitanian: Probable Mass Extinction

Wordian

Roadian:

Early Permian: Hold-over of Carboniferous swamps

Kungurian

Artinskian

Sakmarian

Asselian: Forests of ancestral tree ferns, Noeggerathians, Sigillaria, and horsetails

Carboniferous: An age of expansive coal swamps

Pennsylvanian: The age of coal swamps

Gzhelian: Brief domination of Marattioid tree ferns

Kasimovian: Climate change devastated tropical rainforests

Moscovian: Large lycopsids interspersed with cordiates and sphenopsids

Bashkirian: expansion of arborescent lycopsid swamps

Mississippian: Age of weedy pteridosperms and early tetrapods

Serpukhovian: leaf shape diversity peaked

Visean: Megaphylls, or true leaves, in ferns appear

Tournaisian: arborescent lycopods, sphenophyllophytes, equisetophytes, and pteridosperms

Devonian: Adaptive radiation of land plants

Late Devonian:_Second Mass Extinction of Animals_

Famennian: Evidence of the first seed plant

Frasnian: Rise of woody plants

Middle Devonian: first trees appear on the landscape

Givetian: The origin of forests

Eifelian: Land plants spread across equator

Early Devonian: new land plant habitats emerge

Emsian: Plants increasing in height

Pragian: Age of the Rhynie Chert

Lochkovian: Trimerophytes appear

Silurian: An age of diversification of land plants and fishes

Přídolí

Ludlow: oldest vascular cells found

Ludfordian

Gorstian

Wenlock: Land plants probably throughout landscape

Homerian:

Sheinwoodian:

Llandovery: Massive ecological change-over

Telychian:

Aeronian:

Rhuddanian:

Ordovician Period: Age of the earliest land plants

Late Ordovician:_First Mass Extinction of Animals_

Hirnantian: Glaciation events

Katian

Sandbian

Middle Ordovician: Great Ordovician Biodiversity Event

Darriwilian: Increase in plant miospores

Dapingian: Earliest plant sporangium

Early Ordovician: Evidence of earliest plant spores

Floian: Earliest confirmed plant micro-fossils

Tremadocian

Cambrian Period: Diversification of algae and marine invertebrates

Proterozoic: Evolution of eukaryotes; diversification of bacteria

NeoProterozoic: Snowball Earth Event(s)

Ediacaran: _Possible Mass Extinction of Metazoans_

Cryogenian: An age of planet-wide glaciations

Tonian: Diversification of acritarchs

MesoProterozoic: The origin of sexual reproduction

Stenian: Super-continent Rodinia forms

Ectasian: Earliest direct evidence of eukaryotes

Calymmian: Breakup of Columbia Super-continent

PaleoProterozoic: Increase in Earth's oxygen

Statherian: Rise of complex, single-celled life

Orosirian: Extensive mountain building

Rhyacian: An age of high volcanism; possible early eukaryotes

Siderian: The Great Oxidation Event

Archean: Origin of life

Neoarchean: Beginning of oxygen-forming photosynthesis

Mesoarchean: Direct evidence of life

Paleoarchean: Oldest indirect evidence of life

Eoarchean: The possibility of life on Earth

Hadean: Earth's origins, before the advent of life