Paleozoic

The Paleozoic Era spans from 541 to 252 million years ago, representing a transformative era that witnessed an unprecedented explosion and diversification of life. It began with the Cambrian Explosion, a rapid evolutionary event where nearly all major animal phyla first appeared in the fossil record. Life, which had been strictly marine, evolved dramatically over six geological periods. Arthropods, mollusks, and the earliest vertebrates - fish - dominated the oceans. Eventually, plants and fungi colonized land, followed closely by insects, amphibians, and early synapsid reptiles. Massive, swampy clubmoss forests coated the landmasses, later forming the planet's primary coal deposits. The Paleozoic closed with the assembly of the supercontinent Pangea and the catastrophic Permian mass extinction, the most severe die-off in Earth’s history, which wiped out over 90 percent of all marine species.