NJDEP-SEEDS-Geologic History of New Jersey

The Geological History of New Jersey

WARNING: DO NOT PRINT THIS PAGE!!!

Phanerozoic means Evident Life
Proterozoic means Early Life
Archean means Ancient

Cenozoic means Recent Life, the Cenozoic Era is also known as the Age of Mammals
Mesozoic means Middle Life, the Mesozoic Era is also known as the Age of Reptiles
Paleozoic means Ancient Life

MYA = million years ago / BYA = Billion years ago

Numbers like these are impossible to imagine, especially when counted in years.
To help, if instead of years we counted in seconds, 1 million seconds ago would
be 11.5 days ago, while 1 billion seconds ago would be 32 years ago.

The events listed below represent the times that the events or organism first appeared in the fossil record.
Touch the blinking squares for more information.

Today 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 255 260 265 270 275 280 285 290 295 300 310 320 323 330 340 350 354 360 370 380 390 400 410 417 420 430 440 443 450 460 470 480 490 500 510 520 530 540 543 550 560 570 580 590 600 625 650 675 700 725 750 775 800 825 850 875 900 925 950 975 1 BYA 1.1 BYA 1.2 BYA 1.3 BYA 1.4 BYA 1.5 BYA 1.6 BYA 1.7 BYA 1.8 BYA 1.9 BYA 2 BYA 2.1 BYA 2.2 BYA 2.3 BYA 2.4 BYA 2.5 BYA 2.6 BYA 2.7 BYA 2.8 BYA 2.9 BYA 3 BYA 3.1 BYA 3.2 BYA 3.3 BYA 3.4 BYA 3.5 BYA 3.6 BYA 3.7 BYA 3.8 BYA 3.9 BYA 4 BYA 4.1 BYA 4.2 BYA 4.3 BYA 4.4 BYA 4.5 BYA	Present Day Recent Ice Ages Begin Gigantopithecus Homo habilis , Smilodon Australopithecus "Lucy" Earliest Mammoths N. & S. American Land Bridge forms / Mediterranean floods Blue Whale appears Giant Ground Sloth First Hominids appear Megalodon , Parrots and Pigeons Antarctic Ice Cap forms Koalas First Monkeys Alps Rise Glacial Ages in South Mississippi River forms Primates split into 2 groups Antarctica & Australia Separate Himalayan Mts. form First bats & Eohippus Meteor impact creates Chesapeake Bay Rabbits and Hares N. Atlantic Volcanic Activity Rocky Mts. Form K-T Extinction Event Triceratops/T. rex! Dryptosaurus Hadrosaurus! Velociraptor Flowering plants dominate Modern sharks appear First flowering plants appear Archaeopteryx Allosaurus/Apatosaurus Stegosaurus Coniferous forests peak Ginkgos appear Pangaea begins breaking up Atlantic ocean born! Watchung Mountains & Palisades form Eastern N. American volcanic activity ends. Eastern N. American volcanic activity begins. Newark Supergroup forms Primitive crocodiles appear Coelophysis/Dilophosaurus Manicouagan impact site First Conifers First "True" mammals appear First dinosaurs, bees & ferns Continents move together! Mass Extinction! Mammal-like reptiles appear Dimetrodon First beetles appear Alleghenian Orogeny First cycads First egg-laying reptiles and winged insects First sharks First plants w/roots Extensive coal deposits form (PA) Amphibians move onto land Glacial period in Gondwana - (S. Hemisphere) Appalachians form Acadian Orogeny ends Plants surge onto the land Acadian Orogeny begins First jawed fish appear Insects move onto the land Earliest land plants (psilopsids) Waxy coated algae moves onto land First fish appear (jawless) Taconic Orogeny First shellfish Earliest chordates Burgess shale created! Trilobites appear Oxygen reaches present levels Supercontinent forms 400 day year Worldwide glacial period Soft-bodied marine invertebrates Zoophytes appear First multi-celled organisms Protozoans abundant First evidence of cell division Grenville Orogeny Supercontinent NJ Stromatolites First multicellular algae First Eukaryotic cells Last banded iron formations Hudsonian Orogeny Supercontinent End of iron formation Supercontinent Major banded iron formation starts Widespread glaciation Stromatolites reign as most visible life form Oxygen build-ups in atmosphere Kenoran Orogeny Supercontinent Earliest definite evidence of cellular life Tidal & monthly cycles stabilize 500 days per year Laurentian Orogeny Lichen-like slimes! Uivakian Orogeny Microfossil sites found in Australia and Swaziland may be single-celled bacteria Possible evidence of fossil algea Cell-like inclusions found in rocks in Greenland Atmosphere & Hydrosphere begin to form Time of heavy meteoric bombardment comes to an end Theoretical time of the formation of the first cells! Acasta Gniess - Canada Interior layers of the Earth differentiate Jack Hills Zircons - Australia Earth molten at this time. Proto-earth may have formed 100 million years earlier!	PERIODS QUATERNARY ----------------------- TERTIARY TERTIARY ----------------------- CRETACEOUS CRETACEOUS ----------------------- JURASSIC JURASSIC ----------------------- TRIASSIC TRIASSIC ----------------------- PERMIAN PERMIAN ----------------------- CARBONIFEROUS Pennsylvanian Pennsylvanian ----------------------- Mississippian Mississippian CARBONIFEROUS ----------------------- DEVONIAN DEVONIAN ----------------------- SILURIAN SILURIAN ----------------------- ORDOVICIAN ORDOVICIAN ----------------------- CAMBRIAN CAMBRIAN ----------------------- NEOPROTEROZOIC NEOPROTEROZOIC ----------------------- MESOPROTEROZOIC MESOPROTEROZOIC ----------------------- PALEOPROTEROZOIC PALEOPROTEROZOIC ----------------------- PERIODS are not used before this time!	ERAS CENOZOIC ----------------------- MESOZOIC MESOZOIC ----------------------- PALEOZOIC PALEOZOIC ----------------------- PROTEROZOIC PROTEROZOIC ----------------------- ARCHAEAN ARCHAEAN ----------------------- HADEAN HADEAN ----------------------- ERAS are not used before this time!
EONS PHANEROZOIC ----------------------- PRECAMBRIAN PRECAMBRIAN ----------------------- EONS are not used before this time!

The sun formed about 100 million years earlier from material
left over from a star that exploded millions of years before.
Some meteoric materials

date from this time.

The events and times listed on this website are taken from multiple sources, and discrepancies and
errors are due to the difficulties in accurately dating fossils and the source materials often are generalized.
Please accept the data above as it is intended; as an uncondensed representation of the history of the Earth.