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Evolving Planet Geological Time Scale
Tour Through Time
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Exhibition Highlights
All About Evolution
Tour Through Time
Precambrian
Cambrian and Ordovician
Silurian and Devonian
Carboniferous
Permian
Mesozoic Era
Tertiary
Hominids
Quaternary
Interactives
Educational Resources
Planning Your Visit
Events and Programs
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Life landed ashore during the Silurian & Devonian periods. Plants colonized the continents, creating habitats for the ancestors of today’s animals.

In the seas, massive reefs—larger than at any other time in history—covered the ocean floor, and fishes diversified in the deep. Eventually, one line of fishes gave rise to forms with limbs and digits—the tetrapods.

Explore this increasingly familiar world for yourself by selecting from the following:

Basic Overview
Trace the complete progression of life on land as pioneering plants and animals populated the planet. You’ll learn more about all the action unfolding underwater during this time and the mass extinction that later devastated aquatic life.

Image Gallery
Take a look at incredible fossils of plants, fishes, and creatures that once dwelled in Chicago’s ancient marine reefs.

Evolutionary Essentials
Investigate three of the major evolutionary events that occurred during this time. The development of vascular plants, fishes with jaws, and tetrapods affected the future of all life in the coming eras.


Continue to Basic Overview. >>











Exhibition Highlights | All About Evolution | Tour Through Time | Interactives| Educational Resouces | Planning Your Visit | Events and Programs


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