Earth Science Reference Tables Pg. 8 & 9

GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE F

H

G

J

I

K

Valcouroceras Tetragraptus Eucalyptocrinus Centroceras Cryptolithus Ctenocrinus Dicellograptus Manticoceras Phacops Elliptocephala Hexameroceras

Era

Period

Epoch

Life on Earth

Millions of years ago

MESOZOIC CRETACEOUS

V

Important Geologic Events in New York

EARLY MISSISSIPPIAN

DEVONIAN

323

LATE EARLY LATE

Oldest microfossils

Earliest reptiles Extensive coal-forming forests

MIDDLE

418 LATE

SILURIAN EARLY

C

F

Earliest insects Earliest land plants and animals Peak development of eurypterids

E

LATE

ORDOVICIAN

Invertebrates dominant – mollusks become abundant Diverse coral and echinoderms

MIDDLE

490

Estimated time of origin of Earth and solar system

LATE

CAMBRIAN

Graptolites abundant Earliest fish Algal reefs Burgess shale fauna Earliest chordates, diverse trilobites Earliest trilobites Earliest marine animals with shells

EARLY

G I

443

Oldest known rocks

Passive Margin Rifting

Appalachian (Alleghanian) Orogeny caused by collision of North America and Africa along transform margin, forming Pangea

B

D

H K

N

M

Q

P

Earth’s first coral reef

X

Z

V Y

U

T

W

J

A

1300

Earth Science Reference Tables — 2001 Edition (Revised November 2006)

Rifting

Passive Margin

Ediacaran fauna

Soft-bodied organisms

59 million years ago

CRETACEOUS

119 million years ago

TRIASSIC

232 million years ago

Catskill Delta forms Erosion of Acadian Mountains

R

544 580

TERTIARY

Earth’s first forest

362

EARLY

Geochemical evidence for oldest biological fixing of carbon

Abundant sharks and amphibians Large and numerous scale trees and seed ferns Earliest amphibians, ammonoids, sharks Extinction of armored fish, other fish abundant

Inferred Position of Earth’s Landmasses

Extensive erosion

Transform Collision

LATE PENNSYLVANIAN

Z

Intrusion of Palisades sill Pangea begins to break up

Continental Collision

290

Y

Initial opening of Atlantic Ocean North America and Africa separate

BRACHIOPODS

EARLY

GASTROPODS

PERMIAN

L

CORALS

Transition to atmosphere containing oxygen

Modern coral groups appear Earliest dinosaurs and mammals with abundant cycads and conifers Extinction of many kinds of marine animals, including trilobites First mammal-like reptiles

X

Development of passive continental margin

VASCULAR PLANTS

PALEOZOIC

LATE MIDDLE EARLY 251 LATE

W

Sands and shales underlying Long Island and Staten Island deposited on margin of Atlantic Ocean

PLACODERM FISH

TRIASSIC

206

MIDDLE

8

U

Advance and retreat of last continental ice Uplift of Adirondack region

Earliest birds Abundant dinosaurs and ammonoids

MIDDLE

EARLY 4600

S

Subduction

E A R L Y

T

142

EURYPTERIDS

M I D D L E

Tectonic Events Affecting Northeast North America

LATE

JURASSIC

E A R L Y

Earliest flowering plants Decline of brachiopods Diverse bony fishes

EARLY

First appearance of sexually reproducing organisms

Beluga Whale

A

O

S

R

Q

Bothriolepis Naples Tree Lichenaria Pleurodictyum Mucrospirifer Platyceras Cooksonia Aneurophyton Condor Eospirifer Maclurites Cystiphyllum

Time Distribution of Fossils Rock Record (Including Important Fossils of New York) in Lettered circles indicate the approximate time of existence of a specific NYS index fossil (e.g. Fossil lived at the end of the Early Cambrian).

CRINOIDS

PROTEROZOIC

PALEOGENE

P

O

Stylonurus Eurypterus Mastodont

GRAPTOLITES

4000

NEOGENE

Coelophysis

HOLOCENE 0 0.01 PLEISTOCENE 1.6 Humans, mastodonts, mammoths PLIOCENE 5.3 Large carnivores Abundant grazing mammals MIOCENE 24 Earliest grasses OLIGOCENE Large running mammals EOCENE 33.7 Many modern groups of mammals 54.8 PALEOCENE 65 Extinction of dinosaurs and ammonoids Earliest placental mammals LATE Climax of dinosaurs and ammonoids

EARLY

L A T E

ARCHEAN

P R E C A M B R I A N

3000

M I D D L E

Oldest multicellular life

TERTIARY

L A T E

1000

2000

QUATERNARY

CENOZOIC

CARBONIFEROUS

500

PHANEROZOIC

Millions of years ago 0

N

M

AMMONOIDS

Eon

L

BIRDS

E

MAMMALS

D

NAUTILOIDS

C

TRILOBITES

B

A

DINOSAURS

(Fossils not drawn to scale)

Acadian Orogeny caused by collision of North America and Avalon and closing of remaining part of Iapetus Ocean

DEVONIAN/MISSISSIPPIAN 362 million

years ago

Salt and gypsum deposited in evaporite basins

Erosion of Taconic Mountains; Queenston Delta forms Taconian Orogeny caused by closing of western part of Iapetus Ocean and collision between North America and volcanic island arc

ORDOVICIAN

458 million years ago

Iapetus passive margin forms Rifting and initial opening of Iapetus Ocean Erosion of Grenville Mountains Grenville Orogeny: Ancestral Adirondack Mtns. and Hudson Highlands formed

Stromatolites 96-001TN (rev) 11/2006

Earth Science Reference Tables — 2001 Edition (Revised November 2006)

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