Phanerozoic Eon

Phanerozoic Eon
Temporal information Time span 541 million years ago-Present Part of Phanerozoic: Paleozoic (Age of Invertebrates, Fish, and Amphibians) Cambrian (Age of Arthropods) Ordovician (Age of Cephalopods) Silurian (Age of Eurypterids) Devonian (Age of Fish) Carboniferous (Age of Insects and Amphibians) Mississippian (Age of Amphibians) Pennsylvanian (Age of Insects) Permian (Age of Proto-Mammals) Mesozoic (Age of Reptiles and Dinosaurs) Triassic (First Age of Reptiles) Jurassic (Golden Age of Dinosaurs) Cretaceous (Newer Age of Dinosaurs) Cenozoic (Age of Mammals and Birds) Paleogene (Age of Birds) Paleocene (Age of Birds) Eocene (Age of Whales) Oligocene (Age of Rhinos) Neogene (Age of Primates) Miocene (Age of Apes) Pliocene (Age of Hominids) Quaternary (Age of Humans) Pleistocene (Age of Mammoths) Holocene (Age of Humans) Chronological information
Previous period Proterozoic	Following period N/A

The Phanerozoic Eon is the current geologic eon in the geologic time scale, and the one during which abundant animal and plant life has existed. It covers 541 million years to the present, and began with the Cambrian Period when diverse hard-shelled animals first appeared. Its name was derived from the Ancient Greek words φανερός and ζωή, meaning visible life, since it was once believed that life began in the Cambrian, the first period of this eon. The term "Phanerozoic" was coined in 1930 by the American geologist George Halcott Chadwick. The time before the Phanerozoic, called the Precambrian, is now divided into the Hadean, Archaean and Proterozoic eons.