Fossils and the geological timescale
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Different fossils were laid down at different points in the geological timescale:
- Precambrian (3.8 billion to 570 million years ago)
- Cambrian (570 to 500 million years ago)
- First invertebrates
- Ordovician (500 to 440 million years ago)
- Silurian (440 to 410 million years ago)
- First land plants
- First land invertebrates
- Devonian (410 to 365 million years ago)
- First ferns and seed plants
- First insects
- First amphibians
- Carboniferous (365 to 290 million years ago)
- First flying insects
- First reptiles
- Permian (290 to 245 million years ago)
- Extinction of trilobites
- Triassic (245 to 210 million years ago)
- Jurassic (210 to 140 million years ago)
- First birds
- Cretaceous (140 to 65 million years ago)
- First flowering plants
- First primates
- Extinction of dinosaurs
- Extinction of ammonites
- Paleocene (65 to 55 million years ago)
- Diversification and spreading of mammals
- Eocene (55 to 38 million years ago)
- Oligocene (38 to 25 million years ago)
- First grass
- Miocene (25 to 5 million years ago)
- Pliocene (5 to 2 million years ago)