(541 - 485 million years ago) -- Mascot: Anomalocaris -- During the Cambrian, animal life diversified rapidly. The oldest ancestors of boney animals appeared. With a name meaning "abnormal shrimp," the sea creature Anomalocaris most likely captured prey with its long arms and bit them with its ringed mouth, which it could not fully close. [...]

(485 - 444 million years ago) -- Mascot: Trilobite -- The Ordovician might as well be called, "The Golden Age of Trilobites." This creature's name in Greek means ""three lobes," due to the distinctive three parts of its segmented exoskeleton. Trilobites are one of the most diverse groups in the fossil record, with over 17,000 [...]

(444 - 419 million years ago) -- Mascot: Eurypterid -- During the Silurian, many groups of boney fishes appeared, swimming alongside some truly fantastical marine life. Eurypterid's name comes from "eury" or "wide" and "pteron" or "wing," because of its broad swimming paddles. The biggest species of Eurypterid were over eight feet (1.5 m) long. [...]

(419 - 359 million years ago) -- Mascot: Tiktaalik -- Life during the Devonian bifurcated into land and ocean. The first vertebrate animals capable of venturing out of the water appear. Tiktaalik is a primitive lobe finned fish named for the Inuit word for a species of modern day cod. But the Devonian is also [...]

(359 - 299 million years ago) -- Mascot: Meganeura -- The Carboniferous is also known as "The Coal Age." Land life proliferates and primitive reptiles appear. Giant scale "trees" dominate the lush landscape, and insect life balloons to truly gigantic proportions. Its name meaning "large-nerved" in Greek, due to the system of veins running throughout [...]

(299 - 252 million years ago) -- Mascot: Diplocaulus -- The Permian witnessed the fusing together of all the major tectonic plates, forming the Earth's second supercontinent, Pangea. The interior of Pangea dried out significantly from the Carboniferous. Giant finned reptiles appeared. For obvious reasons, the boomerang-domed Diplocaulus derives its name from the Greek for [...]

(252 - 201 million years ago) -- Mascot: Plateosaurus -- While dinosaurs make their debut at the end of the Triassic, this period was mostly dominated by advanced crocodillians. Plateosaurus were some of the first large dinosaurs. They most likely ate plants, although some paleontologists think their sharp teeth indicate they were meat eaters. While [...]

(201 - 145 million years ago) -- Mascot: Stegosaurus -- During the Late Jurassic, dinosaur life grows gigantic, and birds appear. Originally scientists thought that a Stegosaurus' back plates lay flat along its spine, like shingles on a roof. Thus its name, "roof reptile." Stegosaurus armatus is the largest known of this genus, and was [...]

(145 - 66 million years ago) -- Mascot: Parasaurolophus -- Flowering plants evolved, and dinosaurs grew bigger and bigger through the middle of the Cretaceous. The end of this period witnessed the extinction of all dinosaurs except birds. With a name meaning, "near crested lizard," Parasaurolophus was a social dinosaur using the resonating chamber in [...]

(66 - 23 million years ago) -- Mascot: Uintatherium -- The Paleogene was hot, wet and swampy. Uintatherium was first discovered in Utah during the 1870s, and this herbivore's name means "Beast of the Uinta Mountains." Uintatherium were six horned and sabre toothed, and amongst the first big mammals to appear. They have no living [...]