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GUIDE FOSSILS: Stromatolites and microfossils
GEOLOGICAL EVENTS: Formation of the Earth, solidification of the crust, formation of oceans and protocontinents. Beginning of plate tectonics.
BIOLOGICAL EVENTS: Emergence of single-celled life (bacteria, archaea), development of oxygenic photosynthesis and multicellular life.
CLIMATE EVENTS: Global glaciations and gradual increase in atmospheric oxygen, changes due to volcanic CO₂ and continental arrangement. -
GUIDE FOSSILS: Trilobites, Graptolites and Ammonites GEOLOGICAL EVENTS: They include the fragmentation of supercontinents, multiple orogenies and the final consolidation of the supercontinent Pangaea. CLIMATE EVENTS: Beginning with generally warm and stable conditions, passing through two major ice ages and culminating in an arid and dry climate as the supercontinent Pangaea was formed.
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LIVING BEINGS:
The Cambrian period is known for the "Cambrian explosion", a rapid diversification event where most modern animal groups (phyla) emerged. -
LIVING BEINGS:
During the Ordovician period, life underwent a great diversification in the oceans, in an event known as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification. Terrestrial life, on the other hand, was only just beginning to emerge. -
LIVING BEINGS: The Silurian period was characterized by the recovery of life after the mass extinction of the Late Ordovician and a crucial event in evolution: the substantial colonization of the land.
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LIVING BEINGS: The Devonian period is often called the "Age of Fishes" because of its explosive marine diversification. It also witnessed the consolidation of terrestrial life with the emergence of the first forests and insects, and, most importantly, the first amphibians.
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LIVING BEINGS:
The Carboniferous period is known for its vast swamp forests, which would eventually become the world's great coal reserves, and for the emergence of the first reptiles and the appearance of giant arthropods. -
LIVING BEINGS:
The Permian period was a time of transition toward a global supercontinent, Pangaea, and the emergence of the first dominant reptiles and synapsids (precursors to mammals). The period culminated in the largest mass extinction in Earth's history. -
GUIDE FOSSILS: Ammonites, Bivalves, and Gastropods GEOLOGICAL EVENTS: The fragmentation of the supercontinent Pangaea and the formation of the major mountain ranges on the west coast of America. CLIMATE EVENTS: It was characterized as a long-term "greenhouse" period, with global temperatures generally much warmer than today and an absence of polar ice caps.
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LIVING BEINGS:
The Triassic period was the first period of the Mesozoic Era and followed the Permian mass extinction. It was characterized by the slow recovery of life, the emergence of the first dinosaurs and primitive mammals, and the dominance of reptiles on land, in the sea, and in the air. -
LIVING BEINGS:
During the Jurassic period, life on Earth witnessed the heyday of the dinosaurs, which reached colossal sizes and dominated all terrestrial, aerial, and marine ecosystems. -
LIVING BEINGS:
The Cretaceous period was the final stage of the Mesozoic Era and the heyday of the dinosaurs, which reached their greatest diversity and size. It culminated in a mass extinction that ended the age of non-avian dinosaurs. -
GUIDE FOSSILS: Nummulites, Mammals.
GEOLOGICAL EVENTS: These processes included the formation of the major modern mountain ranges, the final separation of the continents to their current positions, and the Quaternary glacial cycles.
CLIMATE EVENTS: This period had a general trend towards global cooling after the warm climate of the Mesozoic, culminating in the Quaternary glaciations. -
LIVING BEINGS:
The Paleocene period, the first epoch of the Cenozoic Era, was characterized by the rapid recovery and diversification of life following the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The empty ecological niches were filled by the survivors, primarily mammals and birds. -
LIVING BEINGS:
The Eocene period was an era of very warm global climate and rapid diversification and evolution of mammals, during which the primitive forms of most modern mammal orders appeared. The name Eocene means "dawn of (modern) life." -
LIVING BEINGS:
The Quaternary period is characterized by recurrent glaciations, the evolution of hominids, and the presence of Pleistocene megafauna, which largely became extinct at the end of that period, giving way to the modern fauna of the Holocene.