Timeline of Geologic History

("mya" is Million Years Ago; "bya" is Billion Years Ago)

Eon	Era	Period		Epoch	Events / Appearance of Plants and Animals
Phanerozoic Eon (Visible Life) 540 mya - now	Cenozoic Era (Recent Life) 65 - now mya Age of Mammals	Quaternary 2.6 mya - now Age of Man		Holocene 11,000 years ago to today	Human Activity
		Quaternary 2.6 mya - now Age of Man		Pleistocene 1.8 mya to 11,000 years ago	The last Ice Age
		Tertiary 65 to 1.8 mya - 1.8 mya	Neogene 23-2.6 mya	Pliocene 5-2.6 mya	Australopithecines
			Neogene 23-2.6 mya	Miocene 23-5 mya	Horses, dogs, modern birds
			Paleogene 66 - 23 mya	Oligocene 34-23 mya	Pigs, deer, cats
				Eocene 58-34 mya	More mammals, first rodents
				Paleocene 66-58 mya	Big mammals
	Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. An astroid wipes out 75% or more of all species, including all non-avian dinosaurs.
	Mesozoic Era (Middle Life) 248-65 mya Age of Reptiles	Cretaceous 146-65 mya		Late 98-66 mya	Primitive marsupials, ends with huge K-T extinction of dinosaurs
		Cretaceous 146-65 mya		Early 145-98 mya	Snakes, ants, bees. Dinosaurs are ruling the earth.
		Jurassic 201-145 mya			Giant plant eating Sauropods. Flowering plants bloom. Pangaea starts to break up about 180 mya, creating the Atlantic ocean.
		Triassic 252-201 mya			The rise of the dinosaurs, first mammals, many turtle-like reptiles. Ends with extinction of 35% of all animals families including most marine reptiles.
	Permian-Triassic extinction event, "the Great Dying". 81% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species vanish.
	Paleozoic Era (Ancient Life) 540-248 mya	Permian 299-252 mya Age of Amphibians			One supercontinent is formed named Pangaea. Phytoplankton and plants pollute the air with oxygen. Ends with mass extinction - 50% of animal families, 95% of marine species.
		Carboniferous 359-299 mya coal swamps, corals, Amphibians more numerous		Pennsylvanian 323-299 mya	First reptiles.
				Mississippian 359-323 mya	First winged insects.
		Devonian 419-359 mya Age of Fishes			First amphibians, sharks, bony fish, grasshoppers, cockroaches, mantids.
		Silurian 444-419 mya			First jawed fish. First vascular plants.
		Ordovician 485-444 mya			First primitive land plants, corals, primitive fish, fungi, kelp, seaweed.
		Cambrian 541-485 mya Age of Trilobites			Cambrian explosion of life. First vertebrates, Trilobites, starfish, urchins, marine animals with mineralized shells. Supercontinent of Rodinia starts to break apart. Mass extinction of 50% of animal families around 488 mya.
Proterozoic Eon (Earlier Life) 2.5 bya - 541 mya		Vendian/Ediacaran 600-640 mya			First multi-celled animals. Continents merge into first supercontinent, Rodinia. Mass extinction.
Archeozoic Eon (Beginning Life) 3.9-2.5 bya					First single celled life, blue-green algae and bacteria live in the sea.
Hadean Eon (Hellish) 4.6 - 3.9 bya					Earth is forming, very hot, no life.

Extinctions Intensities. The vertical axis is the percentage of species lost to extinctions, the horizontal axis is time. Notice time periods often start after massive extinctions.

For more detail see Stratigraphy.org/timescale.