🧾 Summary Table
Level | Units | Mnemonic |
---|---|---|
Big Bang, Supernova, Star Formation | Big Super Star | |
Eons | Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic, Phanerozoic | Happy |
Eras | Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic | Put My Cake |
Paleozoic Periods | Cambrian → Permian | Come On Stupid Don’t Cause Problems |
Mesozoic Periods | Triassic → Cretaceous | Try Just Caring |
Cenozoic Epochs | Paleocene → Holocene | Put Egg On My Plate Please Honey |
Eons | Era | Period | Epoch | Age/Years Before Present | Life/Major Events | More Details |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Phanerozoic | Cainozoic | Quaternary | Holocene | 0 - 10,000 | Modern Man | Development of civilizations, agriculture, writing, industrialization, and digital technology. Climate stabilizes post-Ice Age. |
Pleistocene | 10,000 - 2 million | Homo Sapiens | Ice Ages dominate; Homo sapiens evolve and spread from Africa; coexistence with other hominins (e.g., Neanderthals); megafauna extinctions. | |||
Tertiary | Pliocene | 2 - 5 million | Early Human Ancestor | Hominins diversify (e.g., Australopithecus); global cooling trend continues; grasslands expand; North and South America connect. | ||
Miocene | 5 - 24 million | Ape: Flowering Plants and Trees | Apes and monkeys diversify; forests decline as grasslands expand; ancestors of modern animals appear. | |||
Oligocene | 24 - 37 million | Anthropoid Ape | First monkeys in South America due to continental drift; Antarctic ice sheet forms; mammal evolution accelerates. | |||
Eocene | 37 - 58 Million | Rabbits and Hare | Warm global climate; early whales and horses; diversification of mammals; modern plant families appear. | |||
Palaeocene | 57 - 65 Million | Small Mammals: Rats - Mice | Mammals begin rapid diversification post-dinosaur extinction; first large mammals; forests cover most land. | |||
Mesozoic | Cretaceous | 65 - 144 Million | Extinction of Dinosaurs | Flowering plants (angiosperms) spread; ends with mass extinction (asteroid impact); birds evolve from dinosaurs. | ||
Jurassic | 144 - 208 Million | Age of Dinosaurs | Dinosaurs diversify; first birds; conifers dominate plant life; early mammals remain small and nocturnal. | |||
Triassic | 208 - 245 Million | Frogs and turtles | First true dinosaurs and mammals appear; Pangaea starts to break apart; mass extinction ends period. | |||
Palaeozoic | Permian | 245 - 286 Million | Reptile dominate-replace amphibians | Supercontinent Pangaea fully formed; dry climate; mass extinction at end (over 90% of marine species gone). | ||
Carboniferous | 286 - 360 Million | First Reptiles: Vertebrates: Coal beds | Dense forests; high oxygen levels; giant insects and amphibians; coal-forming swamps dominate. | |||
Devonian | 360 - 408 Million | Amphibians | Age of Fishes; first tetrapods (land vertebrates); early forests; ammonites appear. | |||
Silurian | 408 - 438 Million | First trace of life on land: Plants | First vascular land plants; jawed fish appear; primitive insects and arachnids begin terrestrial colonization. | |||
Ordovician | 438 - 505 Million | First Fish | First vertebrates (jawless fish); diverse marine invertebrates; early land plants and arthropods colonize shorelines. | |||
Cambrian | 505 - 570 Million | No terrestrial Life: Marine Invertebrate | Cambrian Explosion: sudden emergence of complex life; first arthropods, mollusks, and echinoderms. | |||
Proterozoic | Pre-Cambrian | 570-2,500 Million | Soft-bodied arthropods | Evolution of multicellular life; Ediacaran fauna emerge; oxygen accumulates in atmosphere; eukaryotic cells evolve. | ||
Archean | 2,500-3,800 Million | Blue green Algae: Unicellular bacteria | Photosynthetic cyanobacteria release oxygen; Great Oxidation Event (~2,400 Mya); prokaryotic life dominates. | |||
Hadean | 3,800 - 4,800 Million | Oceans and Continents form - Ocean and Atmosphere are rich in CO₂ | Formation of Earth (~4,600 Mya); molten surface cools; formation of crust, oceans, and primitive atmosphere; no life yet. | |||
Origin of Stars | ~5,000 Million | Origin of the sun | Sun and solar system form from interstellar gas cloud; planets begin forming through accretion. | |||
Supernova | ~12,000 Million | Heavy elements like carbon, iron, and gold formed in massive star explosions; seeded the solar system. | ||||
Big Bang | ~13,700 Million | Origin of the universe | Space, time, matter, and energy emerge; universe begins expanding; hydrogen and helium form; cosmic background radiation appears about 380,000 years later. |