Mesoproterozoic

Major events and characteristics

The major events of this era are the breakup of the Columbia supercontinent, the formation of the Rodinia supercontinent, and the evolution of sexual reproduction.

This era is marked by the further development of continental plates and plate tectonics. The supercontinent of Columbia broke up between 1500 and 1350 million years ago, and the fragments reassembled into the supercontinent of Rodinia around 1100 to 900 million years ago, on the time boundary between the Mesoproterozoic and the subsequent Neoproterozoic. These tectonic events were accompanied by numerous orogenies (episodes of mountain building) that included the Kibaran orogeny in Africa; the Late Ruker orogeny in Antarctica; the Gothian and Sveconorwegian orogenies in Europe; and the Picuris and Grenville orogenies in North America.

The era saw the development of sexual reproduction, which greatly increased the complexity of life to come and signified the start of development of true multicellular organisms. Though the biota of the era was once thought to be exclusively microbial, recent finds have shown multicellular life did exist during the Mesoproterozoic. This era was also the high point of the stromatolites before they declined in the Neoproterozoic.