Question 1

How do you say Paleozoic?

Accepted Answer

Paleozoic is pronounced PAY-lee-oh-ZOH-ik. Break it into four parts: PAY, then lee, then OH, then ik, and put the biggest stress on the ZOH in the middle. Say it slowly a few times and it starts to feel natural pretty quickly. Most people trip up by putting the stress in the wrong place, so remembering that ZOH is the loudest part is the key.

Question 2

What does Paleozoic mean?

Accepted Answer

Paleozoic comes from two ancient Greek words. Palaios means ancient or old, and zoion means animal or living being. So Paleozoic literally means ancient life or old animals. It was named this because it is the first era in Earth history where complex animal life really exploded across the planet, leaving behind clear fossils in the rock record.

Question 3

When did the Paleozoic Era start and end?

Accepted Answer

The Paleozoic Era began approximately 538.8 million years ago and ended around 251.9 million years ago. That means it lasted for about 287 million years in total. It started with the Cambrian Explosion, one of the most dramatic bursts of animal diversity in Earth history, and it ended with the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, the deadliest extinction event the planet has ever experienced.

Question 4

What periods are in the Paleozoic Era?

Accepted Answer

The Paleozoic Era is divided into six geologic periods in order from oldest to youngest: the Cambrian, the Ordovician, the Silurian, the Devonian, the Carboniferous, and the Permian. Geologists sometimes group the first three into the Early Paleozoic and the last three into the Late Paleozoic. Each period had its own distinct climate, sea levels, and dominant creatures.

Question 5

Did dinosaurs live in the Paleozoic Era?

Accepted Answer

No, dinosaurs did not live during the Paleozoic Era. Dinosaurs first appeared in the Triassic period, which is part of the Mesozoic Era that came after the Paleozoic. The Paleozoic was ruled by very different creatures including trilobites, giant sea scorpions, armored fish, early amphibians, and toward the end, the mammal-like reptiles called synapsids. The survivors of the Paleozoic's ending extinction eventually evolved into the world that dinosaurs inherited.

Question 6

What animals lived in the Paleozoic Era?

Accepted Answer

The Paleozoic was packed with creatures that seem almost alien compared to modern animals. Early in the era, trilobites and bizarre filter-feeders like Anomalocaris dominated the seas. Later came giant armored fish like Dunkleosteus, enormous sea scorpions called eurypterids, the first land plants and forests, giant insects like Meganeura with wingspans up to 28 inches, and the first four-limbed vertebrates crawling onto land. By the final Permian period, mammal-like reptiles called synapsids had become the top land predators and herbivores.

Question 7

How did the Paleozoic Era end?

Accepted Answer

The Paleozoic Era ended with the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, nicknamed the Great Dying, around 251.9 million years ago. Massive volcanic eruptions in what is now Siberia released enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases, triggering runaway global warming, ocean acidification, and oxygen depletion in the deep seas. Scientists estimate that up to 96 percent of all marine species and about 70 percent of land vertebrate species went extinct. It is the closest life on Earth has ever come to being completely wiped out.

Question 8

Who named the Paleozoic Era?

Accepted Answer

The Paleozoic Era was named by British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838. Sedgwick was one of the most important figures in early geology, and he built the name from the Greek words palaios, meaning ancient, and zoion, meaning animal. He and his colleagues were mapping and categorizing rock layers across Britain and Europe during a golden age of geological discovery, and the names they created, including Paleozoic, are still used by scientists around the world today.

Question 9

Was the Paleozoic Era before or after dinosaurs?

Accepted Answer

The Paleozoic Era came before the age of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs ruled the Mesozoic Era, which began right after the Paleozoic ended around 251.9 million years ago. Think of it this way: the Paleozoic set up the world, the catastrophic Permian extinction cleared the stage, and then dinosaurs rose to dominance in the Mesozoic Era that followed. So the Paleozoic was millions of years earlier than even the earliest dinosaur fossils we have found.

Question 10

Why is the Paleozoic Era important?

Accepted Answer

The Paleozoic Era is enormously important because it is when complex animal life first took off on Earth. Nearly every major body plan in the animal kingdom appeared during the Cambrian Explosion at the start of the Paleozoic. This era also saw the first fish, the first land plants, the first forests, the first four-legged vertebrates, and the first reptiles. The coal that powered the Industrial Revolution came from Paleozoic forests. Even the ancestors of mammals evolved during this era, meaning the Paleozoic is directly connected to the existence of humans today.

Question 11

How long did the Paleozoic Era last?

Accepted Answer

The Paleozoic Era lasted approximately 287 million years, from about 538.8 million years ago to 251.9 million years ago. To put that in perspective, that is longer than the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras added together. The entire time dinosaurs existed on Earth spans roughly 165 million years, which means the Paleozoic was nearly twice as long as the entire age of dinosaurs.

Question 12

What came before the Paleozoic Era?

Accepted Answer

Before the Paleozoic Era came the Neoproterozoic Era, which is the last part of the Proterozoic Eon. During this time, life on Earth was mostly microscopic, including bacteria, algae, and some soft-bodied multicellular organisms. Near the end of the Neoproterozoic, a global glaciation event called Snowball Earth may have covered almost the entire planet in ice. The rapid warming that followed this glaciation is thought by many scientists to have helped trigger the Cambrian Explosion that kicked off the Paleozoic.

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