Time scale

Era	Period	Epoch	Mio. of years ago
Cenozoic (65)	Quarternary (1.8 - recent time)	Holocene (Little Ice Age ~1,200 - 1,700 AD)	the last 10,000 years (Age of Man)
	Quarternary (1.8 - recent time)	Pleistocene	1.8 Mio - 10,000 (incl. the Ice age)
	Tertiary (65-1.8)	Pliocene	5.3 - 1.8
		Miocene	23.8 - 5.3
		Oligocene	33.7 - 23.8
		Eocene	55.8 - 33.7
		Paleocene	65
Mesozoic (245-65)	Cretaceous (146-65)		136
	Jurassic (208-146)		190
	Triassic (245-208)		225
Paleozoic (540-245)	Permian (280-245)		280
	Carboniferous (360-280 )		345
	Devonian (408-360)		395
	Silurian (438-408)		440
	Ordovician		500
	Cambrian (540-500)*		510
Precambrian (4600-500)	Precambrian		4600
Proterozoic (2500-540)	Vendian (600-540)	Ediacarium
Archeozoic (3900-2500)
Hadean (4600-3900)

*) Cambria is the old name for Wales (UK) where the first skeletalized animal fossils were found; the first period in the Paleozoic era marked by the occurrence of many forms of invertebrate life; the sudden appearance of the major animal phyla in the fossil record during the Cambrian period is called Cambrian explosion