Geological Time Scale
Eon Era Period Epoch Major Events Phanerozoic Cenozoic Quaternary (0-1.6 million yrs BP) Holocene (Present-10,000 yrs) Modern humans develop. Pleistocene Ice Age Interglacial. Pleistocene (10,000 -1,600,000 yrs) Pleistocene Ice Age. Extinction of many species of large mammals and birds. Tertiary Pliocene (1.6-5.3 million yrs) Development of hominid bipedalism. Cascade Mountains began forming. Climate cooling. Miocene (5.3-24 million yrs) Chimpanzee and hominid lines evolve. Extensive glaciation in Southern Hemisphere. Climate cooling. Oligocene (24-37 million yrs) Browsing mammals and many types of modern plants evolve. Creation of the Alps and Himalaya mountain chains. Volcanoes form in Rocky Mountains. Eocene