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Major Events on Eras - Daniella Garcia - Coggle Diagram
Major Events on Eras - Daniella Garcia
Paleozoic Era
First Vertebrates and Land Plants
The first vertebrates, including the jawless fish, evolved during the Ordovician.
First insects may have evolved at this time, along with lands and plants.
Animals Reach Land
The Devonian period was also when vertebrates began to live on land
The first land vertebrates were lungfish with strong, muscular fins.
The first amphibians evolved from these lungfish
Mass Extinction
A major change occurred and most species of life on Earth died out during the worst extinction event in Earth's history.
A mass extinction, an event during which many types of living things became exctinct at the same time.
Scientists estimate that about 90% of all ocean speacies and 70% of species on land died out.
Animals and Plants Evolve Further
During this period, the amniote egg (an egg filled with special fluids) evolved.
This adaptation allowed animals to lay eggs on land without the eggs drying out.
This adaptation coincides with the appearance of reptiles in the fossil record.
Pangea
Over the course of the era, Earth's continents slowly moved together to form a great landmass, or supercontinent called Pangea.
The formation of Pangea caused deserts to expand in the tropics and sheets of ice to cover land closer to the South Pole.
The Cambrian Explosion
Organisims with hard shells evolved
All animals lived in the sea and were invertebrates
Many new life forms appeared in a very short time
Mesozoic Era
Flowering Plants
The Cretaceous Period was the last and longest of the Mesozoic periods, here birds evolved better adaptations for flying and replaced flying reptiles.
One of the most important events was the evolution of the flowering plants and anglosperms.
Another Mass Extinction
At the end of the era another mass extinction happened.
Scientists believe that this happened when an asteroid struck earth.
This asteroid wiped out more than half of plant and animal groups.
Reptiles and Birds
During the Jurassic Period (the second period of the Era) dinosaurs dominated the land.
The sea was filled with life forms such as sharks, rays and crocodiles.
In the late Jurassic Era the first birds appeared, the were called Archaeopteryx, the sky also had flying reptiles.
First Mammals
Mammals first appeared during the Triassic Period, but mammals during this period were very small, they were about the size of a mouse.
Age of Reptiles
The plants and animals that survived included fish, insects, reptiles and cone-bearing plants.
During the First Period of the Mesozoic Era the dinosaurs appeared, this was called the Triassic Period.
Cenozoic Era
Mammals Thrive
Earth's climate became gradually cooler over time.
As the continents drifted apart, ocean basins widened and mammals such as whales and dolphins evolved.
Birds and mammals became very large
Forests thinned, making space for flowering plants and grasses to become more dominant.
Humans
Homo Erectus, an ancestor of modern humans, appears in the fossil record near the start of the period, while modern humans appeared about 190,000 years ago.
Ice Ages
Large sheets of ice began to appear on Earth's surface
Earth's climate continued to cool and warm in cycles, causing a series of ice ages followed by warmer periods.
During an ice age, about 30% of Earth's surface was covers in thick glaciers