Chapter 18 The History of Life on Earth

Vocab
Biota All of the organismsanimals, plants, fungi, and microorganismsfound in a
given area.
Cambrian explosion The rapid diversification of multicellular life that took place during
the Cambrian period.
Evolutionary radiations The proliferation of many species within a single evolutionary
lineage.
Fauna All the animals found in a given area.
Flora All of the plants found in a given area.
Gondwana The large southern landmass that existed from the Cambrian (540 mya) to
the Jurassic (138 mya). Present-day remnants are South America, Africa, India, Australia, and
Antarctica.
Half-life The time required for half of a sample of a radioactive isotope to decay to its
stable, nonradioactive form
Laurasia The northernmost of the two large continents produced by the breakup of
Pangaea.
Mass extinctions A period of evolutionary history during which rates of extinction are
much higher than during intervening times.
Paleomagnetic dating A method for determining the age of rocks based on properties
relating to changes in the patterns of Earth's magnetism over time.
Pangaea The single land mass formed when all the continents came together in the Permian
period.
Plate tectonics The scientific study of the structure and movements of Earth's lithospheric
plates, which are the cause of continental drift.

Practice
1. Only a small amount of organisms become fossilized since most organisms decompose
quickly after they die. Fossils can only form where there is no oxygen, so decomposition
is slow. In addition, the fossil record is incomplete because paleontologists dont know

exactly where to search. Also, geological processes that transform rocks can destroy the
fossil.
2. Scientists use relative dating, comparing the depth of strata layer, to estimate the age of a
fossil.
3. This dating can be unreliable because it does produce dates it just shows the relative date
of fossils compared to other fossils.
4. Radiometric dating can also determine the age of a fossil by looking at the decay of an
isotope and its half-life. Paleomagnetic dating relates the ages of fossils to the patterns of
the Earths magnetic shifts
5. The theory of plate tectonics is important because it show why continental drift and other
geological processes, like mountain making, have cause speciation and mass extinctions.
6. Large volcanic eruptions and meteorites can cause mass extinctions. When a volcano
erupts ash and rocks are thrown into the air and accumulate into clouds that block
sunlight and change weather patterns. Without the sun, plants cannot photosynthesis and
died. Without these primary producers, there is a trophic cascade, and many animals died.
When meteorites struck the earth, they cause enormous tsunamis, flying rocks, and fires
that killed off great amounts of life.
7. The parasol effect is when less sunlight reaches the earths surface because of the ash and
rocks that cloud that block the sunlight in the atmosphere after a volcanic eruption.
8. The greenhouse effect is the increase in the temperature of the Earth, and it occurs when
certain gases absorb infrared heat that would normally be radiated into space.
9. The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere controls what organisms can survive and hoe
large these organisms can grow.
10. I would choose to live now because the oxygen levels are ideal for humans, and they are
not high enough for insects to grow very large.