Card Format
years ago
card number
Event
Units to the next event
_______________________________
100 meters (10 dekameters)
=
1 billion years
10 meters (1 dekameter)
= 100 million years
1 meter
=
10 million years
0.1 meter (dm) =
1 million years
0.01 meter (cm) = 100,000 years
0.001 meter (mm) = 10,000 years
______________________________________________________________
4.6 bya
#1
Precambrian Time begins
The estimated time of the formation of the earth, the earth was entirely molten.
200 my
2 dkm (10 meter lengths)
____________________________
4.4 bya
#2
Oldest dated mineral grain found.
400 my
4 dkm (10 meter lengths)
____________________________
4.0 bya
#3
Oldest rock, Oldest probable microfossils.
400 mya
4 dkm (10 meter lengths)
_____________________________
3.6 bya
#4
Oldest definitive evidence of life on Earth. Microfossils- Single cells, prokaryotes.
400 my
4 dkm (10 meter lengths)
____________________________
3.2 bya
#5
First stromatolites- layered hemispheres of algae and sediments, still found today in
Australia
1400 my
14 dkm (10 meter lengths)
_______________________________
1.8 bya
#6
First more complex forms of life, the eukaryotes. Organized nucleus. Still single cell
though.
600 my
6 dkm (10 meter lengths)
_______________________________
1.2 bya
#7
Oldest dated rock in South Carolina. It was found in Pickens County.
565 my
5.65 dkm (10 meter lengths)
______________________________
635 mya
#8
The first good fossils of metazoans- multi-cellular life evidence of jellyfish, soft corals,
worms, arthropods. Found as fossils in Australia. Fossils are RARE. All soft-bodied.
94 my
9.4 meters
8a
End of Precambrian Time, Cambrian Explosion
______________________________________________________________
541 mya
#9
Cambrian Period.
Beginning of Paleozoic Era
“Ancient Life”. All before was the PreCambrian (86% of all time).
First hard parts, more abundant fossils. Trilobites and brachiopods. Evidence from
stromatolites suggests 435 days/yr.
56 my
5.6 m
______________________________
485 mya
#10
Ordovician Period
First land plants, First jawed fish. Appalachians begin to form.
42 my
4.2 m.
____________________________
443 mya
#11
Silurian Period
Corals and other invertebrates are abundant. First boney fish. Piedmont collides with
North America.
24 my
2.4 m
_______________________________
419 mya
#12
Devonian Period
Fish become abundant. First insects. First amphibians.
First trees.
60 my
6m
____________________________
359 mya
#13
Mississippian Period
large coal swamps, sharks, crinoids; First land vertebrates
Glaciation in polar areas.
36 my
3.6 m.
_______________________________
323 mya
#14
Pennsylvanian Period
more coal, first reptiles
24 my
2.4 m.
____________________________
299 mya
#15
Permian Period
First archeosaurs. Glaciation in the southern hemisphere. Conifers develop.
Pangaea forms, Appalachian mountains form
41 my
4.1 m.
15a
End of the Paleozoic Era
Climate change and lowering of sea level causes a large mass extinction. Other
possible causes were volcanic activity and meteor impact.
_______________________________
252 mya
#16
Triassic Period.
Mesozoic Era “Middle Life” begins.
First dinosaurs, first mammals, North America and Africa begin rifting apart at the end of
the period.
51 my
5.1 m.
_____________________________
201 mya
#17
Jurassic Period
Dinosaurs! and first birds. Mountain building in western North America.
56 my
5.6 m.
_______________________________
145 mya
#18
Cretaceous Period
Angiosperms (flowering plants) appear. Many large dinosaurs.
79 my
7.9 m.
________________________________________________________
18a End of the Mesozoic Era
Probable large asteroid or comet impact at the Yucatan in Mexico caused the mass
extinction of the dinosaurs and many other forms of life.
______________________________________________________________
66 mya
#19
Cenozoic Era “Modern Life” begins.
Paleogene Period.
Mammals dominate. Mountain building- Alps in Europe, Himalaya- Asia, Andes- S.
America
43 my
4.3 m.
_______________________________
23 mya
#20
Neogene Period.
Grasses are abundant, First apes.
20.4 my
2.04 m
___________________________________________________________
2.6 mya
#21
Quaternary Period
Widespread glaciation. Advances and retreats of ice sheets up to about 15,000 years ago.
We are still in the Quaternary Period. Rise of human ancestors, humans from 200,000 ya
All of civilization has occurred in the last 6,000 years.
Less than 1 mm on our scale of 1 meter for 10 million years.
0.26 meters to the present
_______________________________
100 meters =
1 billion years
10 meters
= 100 million years
1 meter
=
10 million years
0.1 meter (dm) =
1 million years
1 centimeter
=
100 thousand years
1 millimeter
= 10 thousand years
0.1 mm
=
1 thousand years
(put your thumb and index finger together, then move apart to just see light, thickness of
a sheet of paper)