Geologic Time Table

EON	ERA	PERIOD		EPOCH	DATES	AGE of
Phanerozoic	Cenozoic	Quaternary		Holocene	0-2	Mammals	Humans
				Pleistocene
		Tertiary	Neogene	Pliocene	2-5
				Miocene	5-24
			Paleogene	Oligocene	24-37
				Eocene	37-58
				Paleocene	58-66		Extinction of dinosaurs
	Mesozoic	Cretaceous			66-144	Reptiles	Flowering plants
		Jurassic			144-208		1st birds/mammals
		Triassic			208-245		First Dinosaurs
	Paleozoic	Permian			245-286	Amphibians	End of trilobites
		Carboniferous	Pennsylvanian		286-320		First reptiles
			Mississippian		320-360		Large primitive trees
		Devonian			360-408	Fishes	First amphibians
		Silurian			408-438		First land plant fossils
		Ordovician			438-505	Invertebrates	First Fish
		Cambrian			505-570		1st shells, trilobites dominant
Proterozoic	Also known as Precambrian				570-2,500		1st Multicelled organisms
Archean					2,500-3,800		1st one-celled organisms
Hadean					3,800-4,600		Approx age of oldest rocks 3,800

Note: Dates are in millions of years

Taken from: MODERN PHYSICAL GEOLOGY, Graham R. Thompson Ph.D., Jonathan Turk Ph.D., Saunders College Publishing

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Last modified August 4, 2006 by geology@uaf.edu

Background Image is a dinosaur track found by 2006 Geology Field Camp students Susi Tomsich and Jeremiah Drewel. Photo compliments of Jeremiah Drewel.