A3 The Geologic Time Scale 317
A3 The Geologic Time Scale
0.01
1.7
5
23
37
53
Epoch
Holocene (= Recent)
Pleistocene
Pilocene
Miocene
Oligocene
Eocene
Paleocene
135
205
290
360
410
438
510
Period
Quaternary
(Age of Man)
Tertiary
(Age of Mammals)
Cretaceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
CarboPennsylvanian
niferous
Mississippian
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Precambrian
1
3800
(Oldest rocks)
Birth of Earth
Era
Cenozoic
65
Mesozoic
250
Paleozoic
570
4600
Numbers indicate boundary ages in millions of years. Note that the age of fossils, the Phanerozoic
is only one eights of Earth's history. All other time belongs to the Precambrian. The deep-sea record
begins in the Jurassic (see Chap. 9). The Holocene is the youngest and the shortest epoch, it begins
with the disappearance of the large ice caps from Canada and Scandinavia, 10 000 years ago.
Sources for A3, Episodes, 1989, 12,2. International Union of Geological Sciences.