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, marking a major period in Earth's history that usually spans several Geologic Periods. Below, you will find the story of the Earth outlined on this site.