http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife

This page is all about prehistoric life, listing many species of extinct creatures, from plants to non-human hominins. Of course dinosaurs receive more details than the other groups, but it would be a really, really incomplete list without non-dinosaurs.

Important: This page is only about non-stock animals: that is, creatures that may appear in popular-science works but have never been portrayed in film, comics, or novels, or at least, have been portrayed only occasionally. The vast majority of dinosaurs are in this category, yet they are just as cool as their more famous relatives. If you want to read about the most popular extinct animals, dinosaurs and otherwise, there is already good information here and here.

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Time Scale

The geologic and biological history of the Earth is divided into four eons: the Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic, and Phanerozoic. Each eon is divided into eras, which are themselves subdivided into periods, which are in turn infradivided into epochs. Since we know a heck of a lot more about the recent past than we do about the very very ancient past,note only the most recent eon contains macroscopic life of any kind, hence the name Phanerozoic meaning visible life the first three eons are sometimes grouped together into a single “supereon” known simply as the Precambrian. PRECAMBRIAN: Earth before 542 million years ago. Hadean eon: Starting from the formation of the Earth 4.6 billion years ago, and lasting until the Earth cooled, solidified, and generally calmed down enough that fossilized bacteria could form. The Hadean eon as it was first conceived began with Earth congealing from space dust and ended with the first rocks that survived to the present formed; before that, Earth’s crust was thought too unstable to leave geological evidence. However, some miraculously surviving rock samples from the Hadean were found in Greenland, necessitating the change in definition. Previously it was thought that Earth was super-volcanic during this eon; the current scientific consensus states that no, neither volcanism nor tectonics nor the planetary dynamo had begun for most of the Hadean era. The total meltdown of Earth that caused the formation of core, mantle and crust and the start of volcanism and plate tectonics marked the transition from the Hadean to the Archean. Archean eon note formerly called the Archaeozoic : Starting 3.8 billion years ago, and lasting until oxygen started to build up in the Earth’s atmosphere 2.5 billion years ago. This atmospheric oxygen was created by cyanobacteria, and spelled instant death for any life that couldn’t evolve aerotolerance. It was the worst case of air pollution in the Earth’s history. Proterozoic eon: Starting 2.5 billion years ago, and ending a scant 542 million years ago with the Cambrian Explosion. This eon saw the emergence of the first eukaryotic life forms (cells with a nucleus) 1.6-2.1 billion years ago, the first sexually reproducing organisms 1-1.2 billion years ago, and the first multicellular organisms. The final era of this eon was: Neoproterozoic era : Starting 1 billion years ago. At the onset of this era, a supercontinent named Rodinia straddled the Earth’s equator. Ice ages came and went which were so severe that the ice sheets reached all the way to the equator, resulting in a “Snowball Earth”. Rodinia eventually broke up, only to reform as a different supercontinent named Pannotia. The final period of this era was: Ediacaran period note formerly Vendian : Starting 635 million years ago, and marked the “Dawn of Animal Life”. Or so we think. In any case, multicellular life that probably (but not certainly) belongs to the kingdom Animalia first appeared around 580 million years ago; possible fossils are found even earlier, near the beginning of the period, but nothing conclusive. Many possible ancestors of known invertebrate groups show up in the record, including comb-jellies, sponges, corals, anemones, and molluscs, and one fossil might even be a chordate (vertebrate ancestor). Fungi also emerge during this period.

: Starting 1 billion years ago. At the onset of this era, a supercontinent named Rodinia straddled the Earth’s equator. Ice ages came and went which were so severe that the ice sheets reached all the way to the equator, resulting in a “Snowball Earth”. Rodinia eventually broke up, only to reform as a different supercontinent named Pannotia. The final period of this era was: PALEOZOIC ERA: Earth from 542 million years ago to 251 million years ago. Cambrian period: The “Explosion of Life”. Most of the main invertebrate groups appeared, as well as the first certain vertebrate ancestors. Life was still water-exclusive. (Probably.) Graptolites, cephalopods, and chitons emerge during this period. The first predators appear and cause evolution to speed up drastically, resulting in the Cambrian Explosion. Ordovician period: First true fish appeared. Arthropods ventured onto land. Ended with a mass extinction. Silurian period: First jawed fish and later ray-finned fish appeared. Plants and scorpions started to colonize dry land. Devonian period: The Golden Age of Fishes. The first four-limbed vertebrates appeared. Insects, crabs, ferns, and sharks evolved. Ended with a mass extinction. Carboniferous period: Forests spread around the world. The Golden Age of Insects and Amphibians. Sharks reached large sizes, and ratfish, amniotes, synapsids, diapsids, and hagfish evolved.

In the United States, rocks from the Carboniferous Period are so plentiful that scientific community has allowed geologists there to divide it into two: Mississippian period: This period, which is called the Lower Carboniferous elsewhere in the world, saw a major rebound in diversity from the mass extinction that ended the Devonian. This paved the way for the life-forms of the next period: Pennsylvanian period: This period, which is called the Upper Carboniferous elsewhere in the world, contains the massive coal deposits (actually the remains of vast swampy forests) that give the Carboniferous its name. note The name “Carboniferous” essentially means “is rich in carbon,” and carbon is the main ingredient of coal. Permian period: The supercontinent of Pangaea formed, and Earth became more arid. The Golden Age of Mammal-like Reptiles. Beetles and therapsids evolved. Temnospondyls and pelycosaurs diversified. Ended with the worst mass extinction ever. MESOZOIC ERA: Earth from 251 million years ago to 66 million years ago. Triassic period: Seed plants diversified. True reptiles replaced mammal-ancestors. Most of the main groups of land vertebrates still alive today appeared, dinosaurs and mammals are among them. Many groups that did not leave modern descendants, such as pterosaurs and many marine reptile groups, evolved as well. Ended with a mass extinction. Jurassic period: Dinosaurs became the largest and most diverse land vertebrates, and some became fliers (including possible proto-birds). New types of pterosaurs and marine reptiles evolved. The three still-living mammalian groups (monotremes, marsupials, and eutherians/placentals) appeared. Cretaceous period: Dinosaurs further diversified, and the first dinosaurs that are universally recognized as birds appeared. Flowering plants and several groups of insects coevolved, creating the most common terrestrial ecosystem around today. Modern groups of fish evolved. Despite the movie’s name, most of the dinosaurs shown in Jurassic Park flourished in the Cretaceous period, not the Jurassic period note Namely, only two dinosaurs were Jurassic: Brachiosaurus and Dilophosaurus. The remaining five (Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Parasaurolophus, Velociraptor, and Gallimimus) were Cretaceous. . Ended with the last mass extinction up to the present, known as the K-Pg Extinction Event. note K is short for Cretaceous, since the letter C was already in use for the Carboniferous period, and the Germans already spelled Cretaceous with a K anyway. Pg is short for the following period, the Paleogene. Older sources called this the “K-T” event, as T is short for “Tertiary”, the old name for the span of time that comprises both the Paleogene and the following Neogene period. CENOZOIC ERA: Earth from 66 million years ago to the present day. Paleogene period: consisted of the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene epochs. Mammals underwent an explosive evolution, and most still-living lineages appeared, primates included. Birds, crocodilians, turtles, squamates and lissamphibians were the other terrestrial vertebrates to survive the mass extinction. At the end of this period, the Earth started to become colder, and polar ice caps started to form. Neogene period: consisted of the Miocene and Pliocene epochs. Continents acquired their modern placement, and new mountain ranges appeared. Grasslands became a widespread environment, partially replacing forests. New kinds of mammals appeared, among them the first hominids. Quaternary period: consists of the Pleistocene and the current Holocene epoch. Started 2.59 million years ago. Several Ice Ages alternated with interglacial periods. All modern species of plants and animals were already present, as well as many now-extinct species, most of which were killed off by humans. Truly modern humans evolved late in the Pleistocene, and all modern behaviors were fully developed before the onset of the Holocene, which includes all of human history from the earliest proto-civilizations to the present. note To be precise, the Holocene is deemed to have begun 11,700 years before A.D. 2000. The only surviving human species, Homo sapiens sapiens, has become a major influence on the environment worldwide. The first written records began to appear some 5000 years ago, which marked the beginning of recorded history. Anything more recent than that ain’t prehistoric.

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