显生宙 (Phanerozoic Eon)距今有5亿4000万－5亿4200万年，开始于古生代 (Paleozoic Era) 的寒武纪时期 (Cambrian period)。对于显生宙的定义，其特点为多细胞动物和植物的衍生（即使多细胞生物在元古宙 (Proterozoic Eon)晚期已确定存在）。实际上“ phanerozoic”这字有“显露出生命”或“可看见生命”的含意（希腊语 phanero-, phaner-, -phane, -phanic, -phanous, and -phany，都包含有显现、可看见、表露或打开的意思）。显生宙的命名来自这一地质时期开始有生命的迹象，但据最新的研究显示，地球上的生物在显生宙开始前的三十亿年（至少有单细胞生物）就已经出现了。前寒武纪 (Precambrian) 是指出现在显生宙之前，由数个宙（冥古宙、太古宙和元古宙）所合并的地质年代的总称。 多细胞生物的形成引发人类对显生宙的兴趣并大大提高对其他星球是否也有类似显生宙时期的现象产生极浓厚的关注。
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相关连结
1. An introduction to the periods of the Phanerozoic provided by Chris at his enjoyable peripatus site.
2. This page at the University of California at Berkeley explains how we invented the geologic time scale
3. Frederick M. Soster's very fine introduction to geologic time.
4. Don McBride offers a historical timeline covering the geological history of the planet. Interestingly, Don started the site using Hypercard, a program the authors of the historylines.net website also used in the 1980s and early 1990s before html came along.
5. As usual, the Paleos page about the Phanerozoic Eon is quite enjoyable.
