First appearance of the Conodont Hindeodus parvus.
Upper boundary GSSP
Meishan, Zhejiang, China 31°04′47″N119°42′21″E / 31.0798°N 119.7058°E / 31.0798; 119.7058
Upper GSSP ratified
2001
The Paleozoic (/ˌpæli.əˈzoʊ.ɪk,-i.oʊ-,ˌpeɪ-/PAL-ee-ə-ZOH-ik, -ee-oh-, PAY-;[1] or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma at the start of the Mesozoic Era.[2] The Paleozoic is subdivided into six geologic periods (from oldest to youngest):
Cambrian
Ordovician
Silurian
Devonian
Carboniferous
Permian
Some geological timescales divide the Paleozoic informally into early and late sub-eras: the Early Paleozoic consisting of the Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian; the Late Paleozoic consisting of the Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian.[3]
The name Paleozoic was first used by Adam Sedgwick (1785–1873) in 1838[4] to describe the Cambrian and Ordovician periods. It was redefined by John Phillips (1800–1874) in 1840 to cover the Cambrian to Permian periods.[5] It is derived from the Greek palaiós (παλαιός, "old") and zōḗ (ζωή, "life") meaning "ancient life".[6]
The Paleozoic was a time of dramatic geological, climatic, and evolutionary change. The Cambrian witnessed the most rapid and widespread diversification of life in Earth's history, known as the Cambrian explosion, in which most modern phyla first appeared. Arthropods, molluscs, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and synapsids all evolved during the Paleozoic. Life began in the ocean but eventually transitioned onto land, and by the late Paleozoic, great forests of primitive plants covered the continents, many of which formed the coal beds of Europe and eastern North America. Towards the end of the era, large, sophisticated synapsids and diapsids were dominant and the first modern plants (conifers) appeared.
The Paleozoic Era ended with the largest extinction event of the Phanerozoic Eon,[a] the Permian–Triassic extinction event. The effects of this catastrophe were so devastating that it took life on land 30 million years into the Mesozoic Era to recover.[7]
Recovery of life in the sea may have been much faster.[8]
^"International Commission on Stratigraphy". stratigraphy.org. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
^"Geological timechart". British Geological Survey. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
^Sedgwick, Adam (1838). "A synopsis of the English series of stratified rocks inferior to the Old Red Sandstone – with an attempt to determine the successive natural groups and formations". Proceedings of the Geological Society of London. 2 (58): 675–685, esp. p. 685. Archived from the original on 2023-04-10. Retrieved 2018-07-15.
^"Penny cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. v.17 Org-Per". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
^
Sahney, S. & Benton, M.J. (2008). "Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 275 (1636): 759–65. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.1370. PMC 2596898. PMID 18198148.
^
"Dead-ammonite bounce". Science & technology. The Economist. 5 July 2010.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
The Paleozoic (/ˌpæli.əˈzoʊ.ɪk, -i.oʊ-, ˌpeɪ-/ PAL-ee-ə-ZOH-ik, -ee-oh-, PAY-; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three geological eras of the Phanerozoic...
(/ˌkɑːrbəˈnɪfərəs/ KAR-bə-NIF-ər-əs) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period 358.9...
The late Paleozoic icehouse, also known as the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA) and formerly known as the Karoo ice age, was an ice age that began in the...
ən, dɛ-/ də-VOH-nee-ən, deh-) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era during the Phanerozoic eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end...
beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleozoic Era; the following Triassic Period belongs to the Mesozoic Era. The concept...
Monoplacophora, inarticulate brachiopods and hyoliths. Fauna II, known as "Paleozoic", described as a "Brachiopod-rich assemblage", accounts for most of the...
91°W / 43.5; -91The Driftless Area, also known as Bluff Country and the Paleozoic Plateau, is a topographical and cultural region in the Midwestern United...
KAYM-; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years...
-VISH-ən) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian...
Devonian Period, 419.2 Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozoic Era. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's...
Mesozoic is the middle of the three eras since complex life evolved: the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic. The era began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic...
divided into three eras: the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic, which are further subdivided into 12 periods. The Paleozoic features the evolution of the...
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (/koʊliːˈɒptərə/), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases...
The Paleozoic Museum was a proposed museum of natural history in Manhattan near Central Park. Planning and initial construction for the museum proceeded...
be confused with Mosasaurus), which arose in the Permian period of the Paleozoic era. During the Mesozoic era, many groups of reptiles became adapted to...
†Cephalaspidomorphi Infraphylum Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates) Class †Placodermi (Paleozoic armoured forms; paraphyletic in relation to all other gnathostomes) Class...
assembly of Gondwana was a protracted process during the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic, which remains incompletely understood because of the lack of paleo-magnetic...
and Pensacola Mountains. Antarctica became glaciated during the Late Paleozoic icehouse beginning at the end of the Devonian period (360 Ma), though...
Cambrian as small filter feeders; they continued to evolve through the Paleozoic, diversifying into many forms. The earliest fish with dedicated respiratory...
pasture land. The Central Lowlands is a rift valley mainly comprising Paleozoic formations. Many of these sediments have economic significance for it...
Pacific and Iapetus margins of Gondwana during the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic". Earth-Science Reviews. 69 (3–4): 249–279. Bibcode:2005ESRv...69..249C...
oldest range of mountains in the country, originating from the end of the Paleozoic Era around 300 million years ago. Their geological composition includes...
unclear. Fossilized insects of enormous size have been found from the Paleozoic Era, including giant dragonfly-like insects with wingspans of 55 to 70 cm...
are overlain unconformably by younger Paleozoic units. Little is known about the stratigraphy of the Paleozoic. Of the >40,000 wells drilled in the San...
sedimentary argillite, dating back to 1.7 billion years ago. During the Paleozoic, western North America lay underneath a shallow sea, which deposited many...
area of Montgomery County, Virginia. During the earliest part of the Paleozoic, the continent that would later become North America straddled the equator...
Buchs, D. M.; Bagheri, S.; Martin, L.; Hermann, J.; Arculus, R. (2013). "Paleozoic to Triassic ocean opening and closure preserved in Central Iran: Constraints...
Retrieved 26 September 2010. Davies (2008) p. 75 "The Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic Era: 542 to 488 Million Years Ago". palaeos.com. 11 April 2002. Archived...
An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems...
Late Paleozoic group of small forms, likely more closely related to amniotes than Lissamphibia) Subclass Temnospondyli† (diverse Late Paleozoic and early...
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