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Paleozoic Era

Connor Duncan

Created on September 30, 2023

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Transcript

Gorgonopsid

Placoderm

Paleozoic Era

541 to 251.9 Million Years Ago (MYA)

Silurian Period

Carboniferous Period

Cambrian Period

Permian Period

Devonian Period

Ordovician Period

Trilobite

Resources

Great Ordovician Biodiverification Event

aka GOBE (485.4 to 443.8 MYA)

Sequel to Cambrian Explosion

  • First true fish appear - Ostracoderms
  • Growth of plant life on land
  • Took so much CO2 out of the air that temperatures plummeted into an ice age
  • This caused oxygen levels to drop and cause the Ordovician-Silurian Extinction Event, whiping out 86% of marine life

Cambrian Explosion

The start of complex life (541 to 485.4 MYA)

Important notes:

  • Phytoplankton using photosynthesis made oxygen levels rise
  • Rise of Corals, Trilobites, and Primitive Fish
  • Ended due to a crash in oxygen levels that caused the Cambrian-Ordovician Extinction Event
  • This event caused a lot of trilobites and mollusk species to die off

Life Continues to Evolve (443.8 to 419.2 MYA)

  • Ostracoderms evolved to have protective "headgear" to avoid being attacked by predators
  • Jawed fish evolved to eat what the jawless fish could not
  • The extinction event saw many bottom dwellers, such as cephalopods, die out

Amniotes' world, until it wasn't (298.9 to 251.9 MYA)

"Everything is huge! Including bugs!" - bill wurtz

Temperature became even more hostile for the animals

  • Amniotes evolved to combat conditions
  • ended in catastrophe known as Permian-Triassic Extinction Event
  • 96% of marine life lost, including all trilobites
  • 70% of terrestrial species lost

Fish take over (419.2 to 358.9 MYA)

Main new fish - Placoderm - an early shark or whale

Animal life on land grows as insects and the first amphibians learned to walk and live on land

  • Late devonian extinctions characterized by drop in oxygen levels
  • Brought an end to the Devonian Period

Animals learn to use an egg on land (358.9 to 298.9 MYA)

Insects grew to be huge due to the dense rainforests in this period

Slowly continents formed Pangea

  • Due to Pangea's massive size, it is hard for ocean water to reach inland
  • Because of this, Carboniferous Rainforests Collapsed and were replaced with a giant desert in the middle of the supercontinent
  • However, amniotes were able to inhabit this area and split into 2 groups the reptiles and the synapsids