The Paleontology of North America

Precambrian Rocks in North America Today

Explore: the Precambrian in go
or world paleogeography of the go
Most of what we know as present-day North America was underwater during the Precambrian. Later, limestones, sandstones, and shales were deposited on top of the Precambrian deposits, as North America was periodically covered by shallow seas or received sediments from higher ground. Several continental collisions pushed Precambrian basement rocks up, exposing them in mountainous regions like the Rockies and the Appalachians, as well as in the Canadian Shield (throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, and East Central Canada). However, Precambrian rocks underlie the majority of North America today.

View modern exposures of rock from
each time period in North America:

Quaternary
Tertiary
Cretaceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Carboniferous
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Precambrian

Precambrian Fossils
Fossil photos from Precambrian

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