Paleozoic Era

The Palaeozoic Era (541 – 251 million years ago) follows the Neoprotozoic, is followed by the Mesozoic and includes within it six geologic periods: The Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian. Deriving from Greek, Palaeozoic means “ancient life”, as the Palaeozoic Era is the period of the dramatic evolution of complex life such as arthropods, molluscs, fish, amphibians and reptiles. The Palaeozoic era sees the transition of life from the seas onto land which also occurred with early plant life leading eventually to climaxed conifer forests. The Palaeozoic era ends with the largest extinction event of Earths history that took about 30 million years to recover in diversity.