The Paleozoic Era began 543 mya and ended 248 mya. It is nicknamed the “Age of Life” and can also be spelled Palaeozoic. The Paleozoic Era includes the Cambrian (543-490 mya), Ordovician (490-443 mya), Silurian (443-417 mya), Devonian (417-354 mya), Carboniferous (354-290 mya) and Permian (290-248 mya) periods. At the beginning of the Paleozoic Era (during the Cambrian Period) the temperature was moderate, getting warmer throughout the period, but during the Ordovician Period it was COLD, so cold that there was an ice age during the late Ordovician Period. During the Paleozoic Era land covered about ⅓ of the continent Pangea, which Gondwana, Laurussia, and Siberia (plus several other small chunks) formed during Precambrian Time. As moving tectonic plates rub against each other mountain ranges such as the Appalachian Mountains and others in Greenland, Scotland, Ireland, and Norway. Early Cambrian animals evolve hard external skeletons, shells, tubes, and spines, while early fishes and sharks evolve jaws. Vascular land plants release reproductive spores into the air and green algae becomes the first creature (besides bacteria) to successfully adapt to life on land. BIG insects such as dragonflies with a wingspan of 70 cm, 1.8 m long centipedes and scorpions over 50 cm form, and amphibians begin to walk on land. The Permian Extinction ended the Paleozoic Era, it was the most devastating extinction the Earth has ever experienced! It wiped out 90% of all living things, 57% marine animals and 70% land vertebrates went extinct. Scientists hypothesize that it was caused by volcanic activity, glaciation, sea-level changes, ocean chemistry changes, global warming, and meteor impact.
This is an early Cambrian animal that developed a hard shell
This is a globe showing the continents during the Paleozoic Era
This is a graph showing the continents at different times
This shows the continents during the late Cambrian period