1. One cause of mass extinctions is meteorite or comet impacts.

What
might be some additional causes of mass extinctions?

Other possible causes of mass extinction are volcanic eruptions, changes

in climatic conditions and changes in sea level.

2. Why did early geologic time scales not include the number of years ago
that events happened?
It is because the early geologic time scale only showed the order of
events, and it did not show the actual years that events happen. Geologic time
are not divided into equal numbers of years. Instead, they are divided into blocks
of time when the fossil record shows that there were similar organisms on Earth.