Radiation of

Multicellular Life
12. 5
 Paleozoic: era which began 542 million years ago.
Cambrian Explosion: The earliest part of the
Paleozoic era
Mesozoic: era began 251 million years ago
and ended 65 million years ago. Called the Age of
Reptiles because the dinosaurs roamed Earth during
Vocabulary this era.
Cenozoic: began 65 million years ago and continues
today. It is divided into two periods, the Tertiary and
the Quaternary
 Multicellular organisms first appeared
The era ended 251 million years ago with a mass
extinction.
More than 90 percent of marine
species and 70 percent of land species of that time
became extinct.

Paleozoic At the start of the Paleozoic era, all life was found in
the ocean
Era The middle of the Paleozoic era was a time of great
diversity as life moved onto land. The number and
variety of plant groups greatly increased.
Marine invertebrates, such as the trilobites, were
especially abundant
The
skeleton
ofEryops,
one of the
earliest
land-
walking
tetrapods