Animalscaretips
It was during the Paleozoic Era that plants (first known from microfossils called cryptospores that appear in the mid-Ordovician, about 470 million years ago; Wellman and Gray 2000) and animals (known from Silurian fossils, at least 423 million years ago; Wilson and Anderson 2004) began to colonize the land.
- When did animals start going on land?
- When did animals move from water to land?
- When did land mammals first appear?
When did animals start going on land?
The earliest fossil evidence of terrestrial animal activity is from the Ordovician, ~450 million years ago (Ma).
When did animals move from water to land?
Between 390 and 360 million years ago, the descendents of these organisms began to live in shallower waters, and eventually moved to land. As they did, they experienced natural selection that shaped many adaptations for a terrestrial way of life.
When did land mammals first appear?
Mammals first appeared at least 178 million years ago, and scampered amid the dinosaurs until the majority of those beasts, with the exception of the birds, were wiped out 66 million years ago.
