Paleozoic Era Life starts in the seas and moves onto land 570,000,000 years ago to 225,000,000 years ago Six periods: Cambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian Carboniferous Permian
Cambrian Period (570-500 MYA) Cambrian Explosion – Most major animal phyla are found in the fossil record (mostly aquatic invertebrates with exoskeletons). Burgess Shale – major fossil site located in Canadian Rockies
Ordovician Period (500-435 MYA) 1st vertebrates - jawless fish (filter feeders) The vertebrate protects the spinal cord, which carries signals from the brain throughout the body. The lamprey of today is a parasite. The hagfish is a scavenger.
Silurian Period (435-395 MYA) 1st jawed fish (later evolved into sharks-made of cartilage). Ozone (O3) layer formed which blocks harmful UV radiation; life could evolve on land. 1st land plants (mosses & ferns) followed by 1st land animals (arthropods-spiders & scorpions).
Devonian Period (395-345 MYA) “Age of the Fish” (giant armored fish). 1st bony fish (scales and swim bladder for buoyancy).
Devonian Period (395-345 MYA) 1st vertebrates on land – amphibians Evolved from the lobed-fin fish which include some species of lungfish.
Carboniferous Period (345-280 MYA) North America is at the equator (tropical swamps form coal deposits) Amphibians & insects dominate and become large (dragon flies-1m wing span; cockroaches-10 cm long). 1st reptiles
Permian Period (280-225 MYA) Reptiles dominate. Pangaea begins to form (Appalachian Mnts; dry climate; ice age in the southern hemisphere) Mass Extinction (90% of all species go extinct-mostly marine invertebrates). Early Permian reptiles, Cacops in front & Casea in back. The middle Permian reptile, Anteosaurus.
Mass Extinction One of the Big FIVE Mass Extinctions