Geologic Time Scale
Explore the Geologic Time Scale dedicated to the key figures of the Fossili Regionali initiative. The colours are based on the International Chronostratigraphic Chart, which is periodically updated by the International Commission on Stratigraphy.
“Scroll through time from top to bottom"to discover when the protagonists of the initiative Fossili Regionali initiative.
The numbers in millions of years (Ma), placed above the “golden spikes,” mark the official stratigraphic boundaries. The grey numbers represent boundaries for which the reference locality has not yet been formally defined.
The Time Scale (here focused on the Phanerozoic) is divided into geochronological units, each corresponding to a different interval of time:
- Era (e.g., Mesozoic, Cenozoic): from hundreds to tens of millions of years.
- Period (e.g., Jurassic, Paleogene): from tens to millions of years.
- Epoch (e.g., Early Cretaceous, Pleistocene): from tens to millions of years.
Each page dedicated to a Regional Fossil shows the time intervals during which that organism lived.
Note: the length of the bars representing the geochronological units in which the winning fossils were found is proportional to their actual duration, with the exception of the Quaternary. Its representation has been intentionally expanded to accommodate the very closely spaced timelines of the various featured fossils.