Life in the PaleozoicLife in the Paleozoic

Ocean Planet &

The Great Migration

Ocean Planet &

The Great Migration

Paleozoic

Era Age (Myrs) Epoch

0.01Holocene

1.8Pleistocene

5.3Pliocene

23.8Miocene

33.6Oligocene

54.8Eocene

65Paleocene

144

206

248

290

323

354

417

443

490

543

2500

3800

Precambrian

Phanerozoic

Eon

Proterozoic

Archean

Hadean

Period

Quaternary

Tertiary

Neogene

Paleocene

Mississippian

Cenozoic

Mesozoic

Paleozoic

Cretaceous

Jurassic

Age of the Earth 4600 Myrs (4.6 Byrs)Source: Geological Society of America (1999)

Geologic Time Scale

Devonian

Silurian

Ordivician

Cambrian

Triassic

Permian

Pennsylvanian

543-248 Myr

Early

Middle

Late

Skeletons and ShellsSmall Shelly Fossils

(SSF’s)

(Very) LateProterozoic

Shells & Skeletons:Advantages of Hard Parts

1. Protection from UV - survive in shallow water2. Prevents drying out - intertidal zone3. Predator protection4. Provides support - inc. size5. Potential to build reefs

Advantage to us - make better fossils!

Planet Ocean

Early Paleozoic

Ray Troll

Major Animal PhylumAll originate in the Early Paleozoic

Marine Lifestyles

Pelagic (“Open Water Dwellers”)Deep or Shallow

Benthic (“Bottom Dwellers”)

Pelagic Lifestyles

Plankton (“Drifters”)

Nekton (“Swimmers”)

Benthic LifestylesEpifaunal (“Above Ground”)

Infauna (“Below Ground”)

Cambrian Fossils

Burgess Shale

Ray Troll

“Jump” in Diversity

Cambrian Explosion

Wiwaxia

Hallucigenia

© 2003 by Karen Carr

Opabinia

Anomalocaris

Pikaia(early Chordate)

Trilobites(Arthropods)

Trilobite Eye

Other Arthropods

(Chengjiang, China)

Porifera (Sponges)

Porifera(Sponges)

Animation

SpongeSpicules

FossilPaleozoicSponge

A Semi-Colonial Ancestor to all

Animals?

Cnideria (Corals & Jellyfish)

Types

Corals

Order Tabulata (Extinct)

Order Rugosa (Horn Corals)

(Extinct)

Order Scleratina (Hexacorals)

Bryozoans (Moss Animals)

Lacy Bryozoans

Freshwater Bryozoan

Bryozoan Colony

First Fossils: Ordovician

Fossil Bryozoan

Graptolites

Dendroid

Graptoloid

Mollusks

Ordovician Cephalopods

Ordovician Gastropods

Brachiopods (Lamp Shells)

Annelids (Segmented Worms)

Cambrian(China)

Echinoderms

What Led to the Cambrian Explosion?

Hard Parts?

Predators?