The correct answer is periodic large-scale mass extinctions.
If eras are signified by the prime modifications in life forms, then periodic large-scale mass extinctions separates one period from the next.
The geological time scale refers to the history of the planet counteracted into the spans of the time signified by various events. There are alternative markers, just like the species form, and the manner in which they have developed, which distinguish just one occasion from another on the geological time scale.