Hadean

Annotations:

• Hadean time (4.6 to 4 billion years ago)* is not a geological period as such. No rocks on the Earth are this old, except for meteorites. During Hadean time, the Solar System was forming, probably within a large cloud of gas and dust around the sun, called an accretion disc. The relative abundance of heavier elements in the Solar System suggests that this gas and dust was derived from a supernova, or supernovas — the explosion of an old, massive star.

1. Archean

   Annotations:

   • The atmosphere was very different from what we breathe today; at that time, it was likely a reducing atmosphere of methane, ammonia, and other gases which would be toxic to most life on our planet today. Also during this time, the Earth's crust cooled enough that rocks and continental plates began to form. It was early in the Archean that life first appeared on Earth. Our oldest fossils date to roughly 3.5 billion years ago, and consist of bacteria microfossils. In fact, all life during the more than one billion years of the Archean was bacterial. 
   1. Proterozoic

      Annotations:

      • It is subdivided into three eras: the Paleoproterozoic (2.5 to 1.6 billion years ago), Mesoproterozoic (1.6 to 1 billion years ago), and Neoproterozoic (1 billion to 542.0 million years ago).* Many of the most exciting events in the history of the Earth and of life occurred during the Proterozoic — stable continents first appeared and began to accrete, a long process taking about a billion years. Also coming from this time are the first abundant fossils of living organisms, mostly bacteria and archaeans, but by about 1.8 billion years ago eukaryotic cells appear as fossils too. With the beginning of the Mesoproterozoic comes the first evidence of oxygen build-up in the atmosphere. This global catastrophe spelled doom for many bacterial groups, but made possible the explosion of eukaryotic forms. These included multicellular algae, and toward the end of the Proterozoic, the first animals.
      1. Paleozoic

         Annotations:

         • The Paleozoic is bracketed by two of the most important events in the history of animal life. At its beginning, multicelled animals underwent a dramatic "explosion" in diversity, and almost all living animal phyla appeared within a few millions of years. At the other end of the Paleozoic, the largest mass extinction in history wiped out approximately 90% of all marine animal species. The causes of both these events are still not fully understood and the subject of much research and controversy. Roughly halfway in between, animals, fungi, and plants colonized the land, the insects took to the air, and the limestone shown in the photo at right was deposited near Burlington, Missouri.
         1. Mesozoic

            Annotations:

            • Mesozoic means "middle animals," and is the time during which the world fauna changed drastically from that which had been seen in the Paleozoic. 
            1. Cenozoic

               Annotations:

               • The Cenozoic (65.5 million years ago to present) is divided into three periods: the Paleogene (65.5 to 23.03 million years ago), Neogene (23.03 to 2.6 million years ago) and the Quaternary (2.6 million years ago to present). Paleogene and Neogene are relatively new terms that now replace the deprecated term, Tertiary. The Paleogene is subdivided into three epochs: the Paleocene (65.5 to 55.8 million years ago), the Eocene (55.8 to 33.9 million years ago), and the Oligocene (33.9 to 23.03 million years ago). The Neogene is subdivided into two epochs: the Miocene (23.03 to 5.332 million years ago) and Pliocene (5.332 to 2.588 million years ago).*
               1. (65.5 mya to present)
               2. The Age of Mammals, flowering plants, evoution of insects, more fish and the evolution of birds

                  Annotations:

                  • The Cenozoic is sometimes called the Age of Mammals, because the largest land animals have been mammals during that time. This is a misnomer for several reasons. First, the history of mammals began long before the Cenozoic began. Second, the diversity of life during the Cenozoic is far wider than mammals. The Cenozoic could have been called the "Age of Flowering Plants" or the "Age of Insects" or the "Age of Teleost Fish" or the "Age of Birds" just as accurately.
            2. (251.0 to 65.5 mya)
            3. "Middle animals", dinosaurs. A time of great change in the terrestrial vegetation
         2. (542.0 to 251.0 mya)
         3. The "Cambrian fauna" typified the Cambrian oceans, plants, invertebrates and vertebrates
         4. Kingdoms
            1. Plantae
            2. Animalia
      2. (2500 to 542.0 mya)
      3. Eukarya life and perhaps the first animals

         Annotations:

         •  Several types of fossil that appear to represent simple multicellular forms of life are found by the end of the Paleoproterozoic. These fossils, known as carbon films, are just that: small, dark compressions, most resembling circles, ribbons, or leaves; they are most common and widespread in the Neoproterozoic
      4. Kingdom
         1. Fungi
   2. (4000 to 2500 mya)
   3. Just bacterial life and some multicelluar organisms

      Annotations:

      • All life during the more than one billion years of the Archean was bacterial. The Archean coast was home to mounded colonies of photosynthetic bacteria called stromatolites.
      • As the Archean period came to a close, the first multicellular, soft-bodied organisms started to appear. These organisms included jellyfish, sea pens and worms.
   4. Kingdoms
      1. Protists
      2. Monera
   5. Domains
      1. Bacteria
      2. Archaea
      3. Eukarya
2. (4600 to 4000 mya)
3. There was not living things in this era

   Annotations:

   • Meteorits, large cloud of gas and dust around the sun,  "Left-over" material formed asteroids and comets, lunar rocks...