The Cambrian Period marks an important point in the history of life on earth; it is the time when most of the major groups of animals first appear in the fossil record. This event is sometimes called the Cambrian Explosion , because of the relatively short time over which this diversity of forms appears. It was once thought that the Cambrian rocks contained the first and oldest fossil animals, ...

The Paleozoic Era The Paleozoic is bracketed by two of the most important events in the history of animal life. At its beginning, multicelled animals underwent a dramatic explosion in diversity, and almost all living animal phyla appeared within a few millions of years. At the other end of the Paleozoic, the largest mass extinction in history wiped out approximately 90% of all marine animal ...

The Devonian 410 to 360 Million Years Ago The Rhynie Chert in Scotland is a Devonian age deposit containing fossils of both Zosterophyllophytes and Trimerophytes, the two major lines of vascular plants. This indicates that prior to the start of the Devonian, the first major radiations of the plants had already happened. The oldest known vascular plants in the Northern Hemisphere are Devonian.

Miller Museum Online Exhibit Our newest permanent exhibit and the first online exhibit from the Miller Museum of Geology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada Special thanks to the Canadian Geological Foundation for helping to make this exhibit possible at the Miller Museum Selected by November 1998 While most people know of the dinosaurs from a mere 70 million years ago, very few are ...

The Carboniferous 360 to 286 Million Years Ago The Carboniferous Period occurred from about 360 to 286 million years ago during the late Paleozoic Era. The term Carboniferous comes from England, in reference to the rich deposits of coal that occur there. These deposits of coal occur throughout northern Europe, Asia, and midwestern and eastern North America. The term Carboniferous is used ...

A HISTORY OF PALAEOZOIC FORESTS HANS KERP This paper was originally published in German in Natur und Museum ( 1996, Vol. 126, No. 12, pp. 421 - 430 ) under the title: Der Wandel der W lder im Laufe des Erdaltertums The December 1996 issue of Natur und Museum contains four contributions to Palaeozoic Palaeobotany and can still be ordered from: Gesch ftsstelle der Senckenbergischen ...

The Permian 286 to 245 Million Years Ago The Permian period lasted from 286 to 245 million years ago and was the last period of the Paleozoic Era. The distinction between the Paleozoic and the Mesozoic is made at the end of the Permian in recognition of the largest mass extinction recorded in the history of life on Earth. It affected many groups of organisms in many different environments, but ...

The Ordovician 505 to 440 Million Years Ago The Ordovician period began approximately 510 million years ago, with the end of the Cambrian, and ended around 445 million years ago, with the beginning of the Silurian. At this time, the area north of the tropics was almost entirely ocean, and most of the world's land was collected into the southern super-continent Gondwana. Throughout the ...

Paleontological exhibit of Ordovician, Trentonian, fossil fauna of Green Bay and De Pere, Wisconsin, is an educational resource for professional and amateur paleontologists and fossil collectors ...

The Silurian 440 to 410 Million Years Ago The Silurian (440 to 410 million years ago) was a time when the Earth underwent considerable changes that had important repercussions for the environment and life within it. The Silurian witnessed a relative stabilization of the earth's general climate, ending the previous pattern of erratic climatic fluctuations. One result of these changes was the ...

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News Release from the University of Washington ...

Synapsida: Systematics Synapsid classification has undergone tremendous change in recent years; most of the traditional groupings have been discovered to be paraphyletic. To represent this, we have used multiple lines drawn to paraphyletic groups in the cladogram above. Except for the Mammalia, all synapsid groups are extinct. Current hypotheses about early synapsid diversification suggest that ...

The Fossil Company - The Palaeozoic Era. An illustrated geological time line for the Palaeozoic era, which includes the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian periods.

The Red Hill Story Red Hill was very different 360 million years ago during the Devonian Age. Due to the continental drift, central Pennsylvania was located on the paleocontinent Laurussia (also known as Euamerica) some 20 degrees south of the equator. The climate was sub-tropic. To the east was the Acadian Mountains which rose to over 40, 000 feet (the Himalayas are a little over 20, 000 feet).

Home Browse Search Help Tree Contents Extras Sarcopterygii The lobe-finned fishes & terrestrial vertebrates Please note: The tree on this page is printed in a lighter color to indicate that it should be interpreted with caution because it has been taken from the literature with little critical evaluation by Tree of Life authors, editors, or peer-reviewers. Once the page has been revised by an ...