The current eon, and the only one with an abundant fossil record: its name means visible life. It holds the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras, the whole span most people mean by geologic time. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Start (Million Years Ago)The current eon, spanning about 11.8 percent of Earth's history per the cited article; it has no end date because it is still running. End (Million Years Ago)The Phanerozoic is the current, ongoing eon; 0 Mya marks the present day, the standard geologic timescale convention for an open upper boundary. Key EventThe Cambrian explosion of complex, shelled, hard-bodied life, and every fossil-visible era since. 1 Connections
Anticipated By
Has Geologic Rank
In Discipline
Source Geologic Time Scale (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Geologic Time Scale (Wikipedia)
2. Wikipedia: Phanerozoic
WikipediaLead sectionQuote, Lead section
The Phanerozoic is the current and the latest of the four geologic eons in the Earth's geologic time scale, covering the time period from 538.8 ± 0.6 million years ago to the present.
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