| Era | Period | Epoch | age (y B.P.) | Major Events | |
|
Cenozoic |
Quaternary | Holocene | 0 | -- | |
| 50 | Beginning of the Atomic Age (1942). | ||||
| 3000 | Beginning of the Iron Age. | ||||
| 10,000 | -- | ||||
| 11,600 | Intense deglaciation: giant floods down the Mississippi. | ||||
| Pleistocene | |||||
| 20,000 | Maximum of the last Ice age. | ||||
| 125,000 | Temperature maximum of the last interglacial; Appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. | ||||
| 250,000 | Disappearance of homo erectus; appearance of Homo sapiens "praesapiens". | ||||
| 1.5*106 | Disappearance of Paranthropus; appearance of Homo erectus. | ||||
| 1.64*106 | Appearance of Hyalinea baltica. | ||||
| Neogene
|
Pliocene
|
3.0*106 | Appearance of Australopithecus africanus. | ||
| 3.2*106 | Closing of the Central American isthmus; beginning of extensive northern glaciation. | ||||
| 3.6*106 | Appearance of Australopithecus afarensis. | ||||
|
Miocene
|
5.2*106 | Opening of the Gibraltar passage. | |||
| 6.2*106 | Isolation of the Mediterranean; salt deposits on its floor. | ||||
| 14.0*106 | Arrival of Antarctic sheet at ocean; Ramapithicus. | ||||
| Paleogene |
Oligocene
|
23.3*106 | Alpine orogenesis apex. | ||
| 30.0*106 | Aegyptopithecus. | ||||
| Eocene | 35.4*106 | Sudden expansion of Antarctic ice sheet; separation of Australia from Antarctica; appearance of artiodactyles; perrisodactyles, and apes. | |||
| 56.5*106 | Appearance of globorotalids; radiation of placental mammals; first primates; flowering plants spread. | ||||
| Paleocene | |||||
| 65.0*106 | --- |
|
Mesozoic |
Cretaceous | --- |
145.6*106 |
Giant
asteroidal impact; extinction of cycadeoidales, globotruncanids, ammonoids,
belemnoids, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, dinosaurs.
First angiosperm and marsupials; opening of the South Atlantic; the White Cliffs of Dover. |
| Jurassic
|
--- |
208.0*106 |
Opening of the North Atlantic; first coccoliths and planktic Foraminifera; first birds. | |
| Triassic | --- |
245.0*106 |
Palisades sill, New York; Carrara marble; appearance of dinosaurs, lizards, turtles; first mammals. | |
|
Paleozoic |
Permian | ---- | 290.0*106 | Appalachian-Alleghanian/Hercynian-Variscan orogenesis; New Red Sandstone in Europe; Glaciation in Southern Hemisphere; extinction of tetracorals, cystoids, placoderms. |
| Carboniferous | ---- | 362.5*106 | Widespread formation of coal; cyclothems; first reptiles, winged insects. | |
| Devonian | --- | 408.5*106 | Old Red Sandstone; Queenston-Juniata red beds; first sharks; first amphibia; Taconic-Caledonian orogeny; Lockport dolostone; first bony fishes; first trees. | |
| Silurian | --- | 439.0*106 | First corals, first vertebrates (jawless fish). | |
| Ordovician | --- | 510.0*106 | Appearance of trilobites, brachiopods, echinoderms, and shelled mollusks. | |
| Cambrian | ---- | 570.0*106 | Appearance of Archaeocyatha; Ediacaran fauna. | |
|
Proterozoic |
Ediacaran | --- | 590*106 | Appearance of metazoa. |
| --- | 1.7*109 | Increasing O2 in the atmosphere, appearance of eucaryota. | ||
|
Archean |
--- | --- | 2.7*109 | Oldest Stromatolites. |
| 3.5*109 | Earliest bacteria (heterotrophs). | |||
| 4.0*109 | Oldest terrestrial rocks. | |||
|
Hadean |
--- | --- | 4.6*109 | Age of meteorites and old lunar rocks. |
| 4.7*109 | Formation of Solar system. | |||
| 4.7*109 | Nucleogenesis in the region of the Solar system. | |||