Week 6

Activity: Geologic Time Scale

Time span of Earth’s past is so great that geologists use the geologic time scale to show Earth’s
history. The geologic time scale is a record of the geologic events and the evolution of life
forms.

1. Fill in the data table to show the number of millions of years each Era

Lasted:

**Note: percents are rounded to the nearest .5%.

66 my

185 my
291 my
4,058 my

2. Create a pie chart to show the percentage of time each Era of geologic time represents in the Geologic
Time Scale:
 4.0%
6.5%

1.5%

88.0%
100%

Activity : Identifying index fossil

Directions: Since we only have one outcrop, we do not need to worry about the criteria of being
widespread. We do need to look at the criteria of being short lived which means the index fossil will be
found in one layer(s).
1. Layers 2 and 3
2. Layer 5
3. Layers 3,4,5, and 6
4. Layers 1 and 2
5. Layers 6,7 and 8
6. Layers 8 and 10
7. Fossil B
8. Fossil C
9. F,E, D, C, B, A

10.