PALEOZOIC ERA (542 Mya Mya) Andrea Villalba, Fabiola Ferrabone, Alfredo de Obaldia, Nicole Cortez
About 400 million years ago the surface of Earth looked like this. The continents united to form Pangaea.
Cambrian Period ( Mya) Cambrian Explosion algae evolve most of the water is populated by armored arthropods (trilobites) Rodinia breaks up and becomes Gondwana Ordovician Period ( Mya) abundance of marine species first arthropods go ashore to colonize Gondwana Ordovician-Silurian extinction Silurian Period ( Mya) 4 continents corals, mollusks, and jawless fish evolution of vascular plants
Devonian Period ( Mya) fish evolve into the first tetrapods first trees evolve first amphibians evolve 70% of the species go extinct in the Late Devonian extinction Carboniferous Period ( Mya) tetrapods evolve into reptiles glaciation of Gondwana Permian Period ( Mya) Pangaea is formed Panthalassic Ocean surrounds Pangaea PERMIAN EXTINCTION
Environment continuous continental shift (Rodinia fragments into Gondwana) inicially warm during the Cambrian, followed by an ice age Pangaea’s interior was likely very dry
Flora mainly aquatic during the early Paleozoic small vascular plants beside lakes dense forests during the Carboniferous Period Cooksonia
Fauna vertebrates appear in the form of fish during the Devonian period arthropods fish evolve into tetrapods reptiles increase in number by the late Permian Trilobite Dimetrodon Tiktaalik rosae
Mass Extinction (Permian Period) Theories 1.Siberian Traps eruptions produced ash clouds 2.Greenhouse effect triggered by the sudden release of methane from the sea floor
Mass Extinction Consequences 95% of marine species died 70% of terrestrial vertebrates became extinct recovery of life on Earth took 10 million years
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