Summary

Summary Geological history

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Module
Biological Sciences

Institution
Bournemouth University Talbot Campus (BUTC)

A summary of all major periods in geological history, covering timespan, major environmental/ climate events and extinctions, example fossil sites and lists some important taxa from each time period

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Uploaded on August 14, 2021
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Written in 2021/2022
Type Summary

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Geological Time periods

Palaeozoic
Precambrian (4500 to 541 million years ago)

- Major events: largest geological time period, spanning from the formation of the earth to
the establishment of microbial and multicellular life. Formation of the atmosphere, snowball
earth and great oxidation event.

- Fossil sites: Ediacaran hills (Australia)

- Example species: Stromatolites, Kimberella, Dickinsonia, Spriggina, Mawsonites

Cambrian (541 to 485.4 million years ago)

- Major events: Cambrian explosion, evolution of hard-bodied animals, first vertebrates.

- Fossil sites: Burgess shale (Canada), Chengjiang (China)

- Example species: Anomalocaris, Haikouichthys, Hallucigenia, Wiwaxia, Opabinia

Ordovician (485.4 to 443.8 million years ago)

- Major events: cambrian-ordovician extinction, major diversity in marine life, non-vascular
plants include mosses, red and green algae, major glaciation triggering an extinction event.

- Fossil sites: Canning Basin (Australia), Lake Winnipeg (Canada)

- Example species: Cameroceras, Conodont, Megalograptus, Crinoids

Silurian (443.8 to 419.2 million years ago)

- Major events: began with extinction triggered by ordovician glaciation, first vascular land
plants, rising sea levels resulting in new aquatic ecosystems.

- Fossil sites: Appalachian Mountains, great lakes (USA)

- Example species: Cooksonia, Cephalaspis, Brontoscorpio, Pterygotus, Megamastax

, Devonian (419.2 to 358.9 million years ago)

- Major events: ‘age of fish’ – diversification of bony fish, separation of land mass into
Euramerica and Gondwana, earth's first forests consisting of horsetails and ferns, tetrapods
first appear.

- Fossil sites: red hill (Pennsylvania), Ohio state park (Indiana), Devonian fossil gorge (Iowa)

- Example species: Dunkleosteus, Bothriolepis, Hyneria, Archaeopteris, Hynerpeton,
Gondwanascorpio

Carboniferous (358.9 to 298.9 million years ago)

- Major events: swamp forests covering much of the earth's surface, arthropod gigantism due
to much elevated oxygen levels, minor extinction at the end of the period known as the
carboniferous rainforest collapse.

- Fossil sites – Joggin (Nova Scotia), East Kirkton quarry (Scotland), Mazon Creek (Illinois)

- Example species: Arthropleura, Meganeura, Stethacanthus, Lepidodendron, Petrolacosaurus,
Pulmunoscorpius, Cacops

Permian (298.9 to 251.9 million years ago)

- Major events: diversification of reptiles, appearance of ‘mammal-like reptiles ‘ (synapsids),
appearance of the first modern trees, end of the period saw the largest extinction event in
the history of life, wiping out ~95% of species, likely caused by a warming climate and
associated oceanic changes.

- Fossil sites – Ural Mountains (Russia), Texas red beds (USA)

- Example species: Dimetrodon, Seymouria, Edaphosaurus, Diplocaulus, Inostrancevia,
Glossopteris, Coelurosauravis

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