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The ages of more recent layers are calculated primarily by the study of fossils, which are remains of ancient life preserved in the rock. These occur consistently and so a theory is feasible. Most of the boundaries in recent geologic time coincide with extinctions (e.g., the dinosaurs) and with the appearances of new species (e.g., hominids).
The Proterozoic (IPA: / ˌ p r oʊ t ər ə ˈ z oʊ ɪ k, ˌ p r ɒ t-,-ər oʊ-,-t r ə-,-t r oʊ-/ PROH-tər-ə-ZOH-ik, PROT-, -ər-oh-, -trə-, -troh-) [3] [4] [5] is the third of the four geologic eons of Earth's history, spanning the time interval from 2500 to 538.8 Mya, [6] and is the longest eon of Earth's geologic time scale.
At long irregular intervals, Earth's biosphere suffers a catastrophic die-off, a mass extinction, [9] often comprising an accumulation of smaller extinction events over a relatively brief period. [10] The first known mass extinction was the Great Oxidation Event 2.4 billion years ago, which killed most of the planet's obligate anaerobes.
A variation of this analogy instead compresses Earth's 4.6 billion year-old history into a single day: While the Earth still forms at midnight, and the present day is also represented by midnight, the first life on Earth would appear at 4:00 am, dinosaurs would appear at 10:00 pm, the first flowers 10:30 pm, the first primates 11:30 pm, and ...
The Boring Billion, otherwise known as the Mid Proterozoic and Earth's Middle Ages, is an informal geological time period between 1.8 and 0.8 billion years ago during the middle Proterozoic eon spanning from the Statherian to the Tonian periods, characterized by more or less tectonic stability, climatic stasis and slow biological evolution.
The Great Oxidation Event (GOE) or Great Oxygenation Event, also called the Oxygen Catastrophe, Oxygen Revolution, Oxygen Crisis or Oxygen Holocaust, [2] was a time interval during the Earth's Paleoproterozoic era when the Earth's atmosphere and shallow seas first experienced a rise in the concentration of free oxygen. [3]
Time interval, before the present time. a=annus (year) Period Event, invention or historical development 13.8 Ga – 11 Ga: Big Bang occurs when ordinary space and time develop from a primeval state (possibly a false vacuum) described by a quantum theory of gravity or "theory of everything". Infant universe cools as it begins expanding outward.
The geologic time scale is a way of representing deep time based on events that have occurred throughout Earth's history, a time span of about 4.54 ± 0.05 Ga (4.54 billion years). [3] It chronologically organises strata, and subsequently time, by observing fundamental changes in stratigraphy that correspond to major geological or ...