Story of Earth's History

Geologists divide the Earth history into geologic periods, and while these are useful as a common language for all scientists, in reality, they are human-constructed. Most geologic periods are demarcated because they indicate the beginning/ending of well-known fossils, or mark catastrophic events.

In order to make geologic information more digestible, this section was created to bracket the major changes in Earth's history, with a focus mostly on plant evolution. Due to the close link between plants and the environment, you may find these divisions are more understandable. Different people could look at Earth's history and make different geologic divisions. For example, the Geologic Timescale may not correlate well with the origin and extinction of major plant groups (e.g. Mesozoic Era)

Each section is successive to the next, and marks a major period in Earth's history that usually spans several Geologic Periods. Below you find the story of the Earth outlined on this site:

History of early Earth

  • 4,600–2,500 million years ago

Oxygen changes the world

  • 2,500–635 million years ago)

Life moves onto land

  • 635–425 million years ago

Origin of the first marsh environments

  • 425–390 million years ago

Evolution of trees and early forests

  • 390–350 million years ago

Dominance of swamps on Earth

  • 350–300 million years ago

Largest extinction event in Earth's history

  • 300–230 million years ago)

Dominance of cone-bearing plants

  • 230–145 million years ago

Origin of flowering plants

  • 145–66 million years ago

Diversification of flowering plants

  • 66 million years ago – present