Paleozoic - Wikipedia
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 …
Paleozoic Era | Description, Climate, & Facts | Britannica
Paleozoic Era, major interval of geologic time that began 538.8 million years ago with the Cambrian explosion, an extraordinary diversification of marine animals, and ended about 252 million years ago …
The Paleozoic Era - University of California Museum of Paleontology
The Paleozoic is bracketed by two of the most important events in the history of animal life. At its beginning, multicelled animals underwent a dramatic in diversity, and almost all living animal phyla …
Paleozoic | U.S. Geological Survey - USGS.gov
Paleozoic (541-252 million years ago) means ‘ancient life.’ The oldest animals on Earth appeared just before the start of this era in the Ediacaran Period, but scientists had not yet discovered them when …
Paleozoic Era - U.S. National Park Service
Jul 5, 2023 · Common Paleozoic fossils include trilobites and cephalopods, as well as insects and ferns. The greatest mass extinction in Earth's history ended this era. The Paleozoic Era is further divided in …
PALEOZOIC Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
Eras are huge stretches of time; geologists break eras down into smaller "periods" and "epochs." Thus, the Paleozoic ends with the Permian period, the Mesozoic ends with the Upper Cretaceous epoch, …
Paleozoic - New World Encyclopedia
The Paleozoic era comprises from oldest to youngest the following six geologic periods: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian. During the nearly 300 million years of …
Paleozoic Era | Research Starters - EBSCO
The Paleozoic Era, spanning from approximately 544 to 251 million years ago, is the oldest era of the Phanerozoic eon and marks a significant period in Earth's history characterized by diverse and …
Prehistoric Periods: What Was the Paleozoic Era?
May 29, 2025 · What were the Paleozoic Periods? Like the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras after it, the Paleozoic Era is divided into several periods, each defined by significant developments in flora, …
The Paleozoic Era – Introduction to Historical Geology
Marine organisms dominated life in the early Paleozoic Era, but plants and animals evolved to live and reproduce on land by the middle of the era. Fish evolved jaws, and fins evolved into jointed limbs.