This table gives details of the Geologic Column, such as the types of animals with their supposed ages in millions of years ago. I would like to draw your attention to the origin of the period names. They are typically from places, not height above sea level, not types rocks, nor objective physical attributes. This suggests that the Column is subjective, and considering that evolutionary theory pre-dated the Column, the theory of eveolution could have acted as conceptual template for its construction.
Period names from: USGS: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/geo_time_scale.html