Tabular View of Geological Periods and of Life-Epochs.

Geological Periods.Animal Life.Vegetable
Life.
Cainozoic
or
Neozoic		Post-Tertiary
or
Tertiary		┌Modern
└Post-Glacial		Age of Man
and modern
Mammals.		Age of
Angiosperms
and Palms.
Tertiary┌Pleistocene or
│Glacial.
│Pliocene.
│Miocene.
└Eocene.
Age of Extinct
Mammals.
(Earliest
Placental
Mammals.)
MesozoicCretaceous┌Upper,
│Lower, or
└Neocomian		Age of Reptiles
and Birds		(Earliest
Modern Trees)
Age of
Cycads and
Pines.
Jurassic┌Oolite
└Lias
Triassic┌Upper,
│Middle or
│Muschelkalk.
└Lower.		Age of Reptiles
and Birds
(Earliest
Marsupial
Mammals.)
PalÆozoic.Permian┌Upper,
│Upper,
│Middle, or
│Magnesian Limestone,
└Lower.		(Earliest true
Reptiles)		Age of Acrogens and Gymnodperms. (Earliest Land Plants.) Age of Algæ.
Carboniferous┌Upper Coal-Formation.
│Coal-Formation.
│Carboniferous Limestome.
└Lower Coal-Formation.
Devonian┌Upper.
│Middle.
└Lower.		Age of
Amphibians
and fishes.
Silurian┌Upper.
└Lower.		Age of
Mollusks
Corals and
Crusyaceans.
Siluro
Cambrian
or
Ordovician.		┌Upper.
└Lower.
Cambrian.┌Upper.
│Middle.
└Lower.
Eozoic.Huronian┌Upper,
│Upper,
└Lower.		Age of
Protozoa. (First animal
remains)		Indications of
Plants not
determinable
aurentian.┌Upper.
│Middle,
│Lower. or
└Bojian.

THE CHAIN OF LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

preliminary considerations as to the extent and sources of our knowledge.