Devonian Period: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	Age of Fishes

Photos

Devonian paleogeography

A detailed geologic time scale chart displaying Earth's history from the Hadean Eon over 4.5 billion years ago to the present, organized by eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages with color-coded columns and corresponding dates in millions of years.

Early Devonian map

Illustration of a Devonian lungfish (Dipterus) showing a long, slender body with mottled brown and yellow coloring, paired fins, and a rounded tail, with a scale bar below indicating a length of about 30 centimeters or 12 inches.

Old Red Sandstone conglomerates

A chart detailing the Devonian period of the Paleozoic era, showing its division into Lower, Middle, and Upper series with stages such as Lochkovian, Pragian, Emsian, Eifelian, Givetian, Frasnian, and Famennian, alongside corresponding ages in millions of years ago.

A timeline chart shows major events in plant evolution alongside the geologic time scale, with illustrations of algae, mosses, ferns, ginkgoes, conifers, cycads, and flowering plants marking their first appearances from the Ordovician to the Cenozoic era. Key milestones such as the emergence of early vascular plants and seed plants are labeled with approximate millions of years ago.

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Topics

Early Devonian Epoch Late Devonian Epoch Old Red Sandstone Global Stratotype Section and Point Prototaxites Protolepidodendrales Caledonian orogeny Osteostraci Hyeniales heterostracan Silurian Period Cambrian Period Ordovician Period Permian Period Carboniferous Period

Key People

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William Lonsdale

British geologist

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Robert Kidston

British paleobotanist