How Will You Define the Paleozoic Era? Paleozoic is an era in the history of the Earth known from the study of rocks and of fossil remains found in them (the geological record). Paleozoic means ancient life, and the era begins with the first abundant and well-preserved fossils, about 570 million years ago. It ends about 230 million years ago with the beginning of the great age of reptiles.
There were many developments over this huge era, culminating in the establishment of life on land. The Paleozoic Era began with the breakup of one super-continent and the formation of another. Plants became widespread. And the first vertebrate animals colonized land.
Land plants evolved rapidly into the vacant niches given them on land. By the end of the Devonian, forests of progymnosperms, such as Archaeopteris dominated the landscape. By the end of the Paleozoic, cycads, glossopterids, primitive conifers, and ferns were spreading across the landscape.
The Paleozoic is divided into six periods: the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous (in the U.S., this is divided into the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Periods), and Permian. Most of these names derive from locations where rocks of these ages were first studied.
The Early Paleozoic climate was also strongly zonal so that the “climate”, in an abstract sense became warmer, but the living space of most organisms of the time — the continental shelf marine environment — became steadily colder. … The Middle Paleozoic was a time of much stability.
What organisms defined the Paleozoic Era? Arthropods, mollusks, fish, amphibians, synapsids, and diapsids all evolved during the Paleozoic. Life began in the ocean but eventually transitioned on land, and by the late Paleozoic, it was dominated by various forms of organisms. The middle Paleozoic is known as the Age of Fishes. Two major groups of fishes were present by the middle Paleozoic, the Jaw less Fish, and the Jawed Fish.
Were there dinosaurs in the Paleozoic Era? By the end of the Paleozoic era, evolution had caused complex land and marine animals to exist. Much of the land was dominated by large reptiles, the early ancestors of the dinosaurs.
Why did the Paleozoic era end? The causes of this extinction event remain unclear, but they may be related to the changing climate and exceptionally low sea levels of the time. Although of lesser size, other important Paleozoic mass extinctions occurred at the end of the Ordovician Period and during the late Devonian Period. In conclusion, now we know how to define the Paleozoic era.
Content for this question contributed by Tony Kimmel, resident of Conemaugh, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, USA
