Paleozoic Era

Approximate duration

Periods of the era

Devonian Period

Silurian Period

Carboniferous Period

Permian Period

Ordovician Period

Cambrian Period

Manifestations of life

jawless fishes (hagfish).

shelled organisms Examples: Trilobites.

plants with a vascular system

scorpions and millipedes

fishes like sharks and bony fishes.

lobe-finned fishes Example: coelacanth

giant cockroaches and dragonflies

Reptiles

synapsids (ancestors of mammals)

diapsids (gave rise to the dinosaurs)

Most important geological events

Cambrian explosion

550 -250 million years ago

The formation of Gondwanaland, Laurasia and Pangaea

Global temperatures