Paleozoic Era
By: Chris Cruz
When did it occur?
The paleozoic Era took place roughly from 554 million years ago to 251 million years ago. In total about 273 million years long!
What was Earth like?
The earth had cooled. Clouds had formed. Rain had fallen. Organisms were already living on earth at the beginning of the Paleozoic Era. During this time, life became more complex. Shallow seas covered most of the continents.
What kind of organisms lived during the time?
During the Paleozoic Era, many of today's wildlife were developed, including arthropods, fish, reptiles, and amphibians.Early in the era, most organisms were invertebrates. Trilobites were plentiful. Soft-bodied animals like sponges also lived at this time.
Trliobite
Long before the fish lived in the seas and the Dinosaurs roamed the land, Trilobites appeared some 600 million years ago during the Cambrian period. They belonged to the phylum Arthropoda (joint-footed)
Lobe-Finned Fish
With their lungs and lobe-shaped fins, Eusthenopteron and its close relatives had evolved many of the biological pre-requisites for moving onto a new environment: land. Fishes like Eusthenopteron (the name means "robust fin" in Greek) are ancestors of amphibians and all other land animals.
Giant Dragonfly
huge dragonflies zipped around with wingspans stretching more than two and a half feet, dwarfing modern relatives. Back then, however, the planet’s atmosphere had roughly 50 percent more oxygen than today.
Life During the Paleozoic Era