The Paleozoic ends
287 million years of life close with the seas emptied and the survivors inheriting a ruined world.
- When
- Known to
- ± 500 thousand years
- Era
- Triassic, Mesozoic
The era that opened with the Cambrian explosion ends at 251.9 million years ago. The Paleozoic evolutionary fauna — brachiopods, crinoids, bryozoans and corals that had dominated the seafloor for a quarter of a billion years — never regains its former standing, replaced by molluscs, fish and arthropods. On land the therapsids are decimated, and the reptile lineage that survives will produce the dinosaurs.