LESSON 1

THE GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
At the end of the lesson you are expected
to:

Describe general features of the history of life on Earth, including generally

accepted dates and sequence of the geologic time scale and characteristics
of major groups of organisms present during these time periods
(STEM_BIO11/12-IIIc-g-8)
 e-VoTerms:

Fossil - A remnant or trace of an organism of a past geologic

age, such as a skeleton or leaf imprint, embedded and
preserved in the earth's crust.

Fauna -Is all of the animal life of any particular region or time.

Faunal Succession -The principle that all samples of any given fossil
species were deposited on Earth, regardless of
location, at more or less the same time. This makes it
possible to correlate widely separated strata.

Flora -Is the plant life occurring in any particular region or

time.

Geologic Cross Section -the sequence of rock strata or lithologic units in a

locality : the local geologic column

Geology -Is the science comprising the study of solid Earth,

the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes
by which it evolves.

Geologic Time Scale - is a system of chronological measurement that

relates stratigraphy to time, and is used by
geologists, paleontologists, and other earth
scientists to describe the timing and relationships
between events that have occurred throughout Earth's
history.
e-Volution
LESSON 2 THE GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE

http://64.19.142.10/www.cotf.edu/ete/images/modules/msese/earthsysflr/EFGeologicP1.jpg

There's good old Mother Earth.

Say, did you ever wonder about all of the things that have ever happened on Earth and
how old it really is? As it turns out, Mother Earth was a bit reluctant to let out her true age.
It took us a long time to figure it out, but as accurate as we can tell, Mother Earth is four
thousand, six hundred million years old (4,600 million = 4.6 billion), give or take a few
hundred million years.

How old is that, really? It's older than your parents, or your grandparents, or even you
great grandparents! It is older than anything you can see around you, like trees, buildings,
or roads. It is even older than the hills, valleys, and rivers around where you live. It is so
old that the world's mountains have been built up and worn down many times, the
continents have wandered across the face of Earth like tumbleweeds, and plants and
animals have changed many times, from amoebas to dinosaurs to people. The age of
Earth is so long compared to all periods of time that we humans are familiar with, it has
been given a special name: Geologic time.

The geologic history of the Earth is broken up into hierarchical chunks of time. From
largest to smallest, this hierarchy includes eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages.

Era-major divisions of time( Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic)

Periods- divisions of the era
Epoch- is a subdivision of geologic period (i.e. Holocene epoch of Quaternary
period)

The eras of the geologic time scale are the Cenozoic, Mesozoic, and Paleozoic. The "-
zoic" suffix comes from the root "zoo," which means animal. This is the same root as in
the words zoology and zoological park (or zoo). "Cen-" means recent, "Meso-" means
middle, and "Paleo-" means ancient. These divisions reflect major changes in the
composition of ancient faunas, each era being recognized by existence and domination
of particular group of animals. The Cenozoic has sometimes been called the "Age of
Mammals," the Mesozoic the "Age of Dinosaurs," and the Paleozoic the "Age of Fishes."
Nevertheless this is an overly simplified view, which has some value for the newcomer
but can be a bit misleading. For instance, other groups of animals lived during the
Mesozoic similarly to the dinosaurs, animals such as mammals, turtles, crocodiles, frogs,
and countless varieties of insects also lived on land. Additionally, numerous kinds of
plants that lived in the past no longer exist today. Ancient floras went through great
changes too, and incomparably different at times than the animal groups.

Figure 3
The Geologic Time Scale
http://www.earth-time.org/StrataColumnRayTroll.jpg
 Visit the following sites for you to explore the geologic time
scale!

Deep Time Web Activity

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/index.
html

Once youve reached the page, click Skip Intro.

Geologic Time Machine

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.php

Study Guide 1:

Use the links above to answer the questions.

1. In which era and period did the first vascular land plants appear? How many
million years ago was this?
________________________________________________________
2. During what period comes the diversification of fishes? Which characteristics
are common to both fishes and humans?
________________________________________________________
3. How will you describe the life forms in the Precambrian Eon? What conditions
in the environment favored the appearance of these organisms?
4. Study a particular era/period in the Geologic time scale. Describe the
characteristics of the organisms present during the era/period.
5. How do you know that the angiosperms are the most prominent plants
today?___________________________________________________
 e-VoTrivia
e-VoTrivia
Did you know that?

http://whyevolutionistrue.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/images.jpg?w=259&h=194

The body hair of all mammals automatically stands up when cold, creating
a fluffy layer of warmth. When were cold, the muscles around the hair
follicles contract a reflex left over from when our ancestors had long body
hair. But since we dont have much body hair, all we see are the goose
bumps on our skin. http://humanorigins.si.edu/education/fun-facts/why-
do-we-get-goose-bumps
 e-VoActive

Want to have some fun?!. Do this activity! Enjoy!!

Activity 1 Evolution and Time

You will create a journal entry of a specific geologic time period for planet Earth. Although
you cannot really go back in time, you can study fossil and rock records to arrive at an
understanding of these ancient environments. In this activity, you will learn more about
ancient environment through your Web search.

Procedures

Part A: Geologic Time Journal

In this activity, you will take on the role of a paleontologist who is investigating a particular
period of time in Earth's history.

Your resources for this exploration are the Deep Time Web activity and the Web
Geological Time Machine

1. Use these Web resources to explore the Earth's history. You can find out about
the geology - stratigraphy (rock layers) and tectonics (plate movement),
transformations and extinctions - ancient life (fossils), and localities (fossil sites).
The strata can give us information about geologic events, the age of the fossils
found, the topography of the area, and the ancient climate.

View Deep Time Web Activity.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/index.html
Click on the timeline bar to view details.

Click the Instructions on the lower left side of the page.

Study the interactive. Note the different milestones on the transition of the different
periods such as the geology of the time period, the life forms and the extinction of
some organisms.
 Visit Geologic Time Machine and click on the underlined Eras and Periods of the
Timeline. (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.php)

2. Visit your chosen time period, and make a detailed journal entry of what you "see."
First, write the time period and the description of that period.

3. If you have time, you may illustrate your journal entry with sketches or pictures from a
magazine or Web site. Write your journal entry on your Journal Notebook.
 Rubric for Activity: Evolution and Time

Excellent Very Satisfactory Satisfactory Needs

Improvement
96-100 points 90-95 points 86-90 points
80-85 points

Learners create a very Students create a Students create a journal Students spend little
detailed journal entry. detailed journal entry entry but have difficulty time in exploring
They demonstrate an and include few relating the geologic geologic time chart.
understanding of how observations on the formations and the fossils The journal entry
scientists can describe ecology of a certain found in the ecology of lacks detail.
the ecology of a certain time period. the time period.
time period by studying
geologic formations and
the fossil record.