Glenn Morton wrote:
>
> The oldest fish is from the Upper Ordovician. The earliest plant occurs
> long afterwards in the Llandovery epoch of the Silurian about 440 million
> years ago see
>
>
I should have been paying more attention myself.
Below is a table from a _very_ old biology textbook.
However, it clearly tabulates these same periods and
shows what was already agreed upon by many authorities
more than 25 years ago. So this is not even an issue
about being current on the information....
period | Myrs plant | Animal
| ago life | life
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Permian | 280 Forests of lycopsids, | Great expansion of
| sphenopsids, seed ferns, | reptiles, decline of
| and conifers. | amphibians, last of
| | the trilobites
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Carbon | 345 Great coal forests, | Age of Amphibians;
iferous | dominated at first by | first reptiles; first
| lycopsids and sphenopsids, | great radiation of
| and later also by ferns and | insects.
| seed ferns; first conifers. |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Devonian | 405 Expansion of primitive | Age of Fishes; first
| tracheophytes; first | amphibians and insects.
| liverworts. |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Silurian | 425 Invasion of land by | Invasion of land by
| primitive tracheophytes. | a few arthropods.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ordivi- | 500 Marine algae abundant | First vertebrates
cian | | (Agnatha)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Cambrian | 600 Primitive marine algae | Marine invertebrates
| (esp. Cyanophyta and | abundant (including
| Chlorophyta). | sentatives of most
| | phyla).
---------------------------------------------------------------------
From:
William Keeton, "Elements of Biological Science" ed 2.
W.W. Norton, New York, 1973!!!!!. p 478.
Indeed, we really need to do much better!
By Grace alone we proceed,
Wayne
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