History of Life on Earth

History of
life on
earth
An Introduction to Geologic Time Scale
Activity 2
In a long bond paper, make your own timeline (Geological Time
Scale) on the history of life on Earth which includes the 4
divisions; Eons, Era, Periods, Epoch.
Include the significant events that happened in the specific

periods and the different life forms existed during those times.
-Individual work
Deadline: February 19, 2024
Lesson Objectives
At the end of the lesson, you should be able 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
Discussion
01 03
Introduction Eras
An introduction to the concept of Geologic A discussion of the eras under the
Time Scale, including its definition and Phanerozoic Eon, namely the Paleozoic,
significance in earth history Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras
02 04
Eons Periods
A discussion of the important eons in the A discussion of the numerous periods of the
time scale: Precambrian (Hadean, Archean, three major geological eras
and Proterozoic) and Phanerozoic
Introduction
What is Geologic Time Scale?
The geologic time scale distinguishes Earth's

history based on life-forms that existed at certain
times since the planet's formation.
The majority of these life forms are discovered as

fossils, which are the remains or evidence of an
organism from the geologic past that have been
preserved in silt or rock.
Without fossils, geologists might not have

established that the world has a past that predates
humanity.
• While studying the physical geology and history of the planet earth, it is
necessary to know about the Geological Time Scale, in detail.
• The study of the geological time scale is necessary to every student of
earth, atmospheric and all life sciences.
• The origin and evolution of the Earth took place over a period of
billions of years.
• The evolution of life on earth is also a part of that prolonged Earth's
history. It is a fact that the planet earth has evolved as one of the
planets from the common nebulae.
• Due to this reason, the age of the earth is also related to the age of the
Solar System. From the Big-Bang theory, till today, the time span or time-
frame of the Earth's evolution is very extensive.
• The periods of remarkable development in the evolution of life, the stages in
the evolution of continents, the stages in the evolution of ocean basins, the
origin and evolution of life on earth, and their proliferations or mass-
extinctions, are represented in the form of geological records on the
surface rocks and sediments all, over the world.
• They clearly show the fossilized evidences of the past life and environment.
Geologic Time Scale
Era Period
Next to longest subdivision; Based on types of life
marked by major changes existing at the time
in the fossil record
Eon Epoch
Longest subdivision; based Shortest subdivision; marked
on the abundance of by differences in life forms
certain fossils and can vary from continent
to continent.
How GTS was constructed
•The Geological Time Scale
was constructed using the
evidences collected from
various sources, like
• Field observations
• Fossil records
• Stratigraphic correlations
•Radioactive dating
•Paleomagnetic orientations
•Orbital revolution pattern
of the Earth and
•The duration of the daily
rotation of the earth around
its axis.
Paleomagnetic sampling in Norway. Credit: Daniel Pastor-Galán
Some of the major events like
• mass extinctions,
• appearance of new species or genera of life,
• mountain-building movements
• drifting of continents
• spreading of ocean floors
• widespread glaciations
• dominance of certain species
• massive migration of life between land and water are all
considered while accounting the geologic time scale.
History of earth
• The changes that occurred throughout the history of the earth
stand well in the form of distinct and contrasted features.
• They all have shown orderly and uniform operation of natural
systems, in the past.
• The early history of the earth differs in character from late
history.
• Due to this reason, there was a need to divide the units of time
in terms of billions of years or millions of years.
History of earth
• The early history of the planet is described in billion-year units
of time.
• The late history of the earth is described in million-year units
of time. And finally, the recent time is described in 1000's of
year units.
• Several experts attempted to reconstruct the schedule of
events of profound changes that happened at various stages
by considering the aspects of the earth's physical systems.
• The geological time scale was formulated with care for
universal application.
What is the origin of the geologic
time scale?
• The first people who needed to understand the

geological relationships of different rock units were
miners.
• Mining had been of commercial interest since at least

the days of the Romans, but it wasn't until the 1500s
and 1600s that these efforts produced an interest in
local rock relationships.
time scale?
• Nicholas Steno, a Danish physician

(1638-1687), described how the position
of a rock layer could be used to show
the relative age of the layer.
• He devised the three main principles

that underlie the interpretation of
geologic time:
What is the origin of the geologic time scale?
• The principle of superposition: The layer on the bottom was deposited

first and so is the oldest
• The principle of horizontality: All rock layers were originally deposited
horizontally.
• The principle of original lateral continuity: Originally deposited layers
of rock extend laterally in all directions until either thinning out or
being cut off by a different rock layer.
• These important principles have formed the framework for the
geologic area of stratigraphy, which is the study of layered rock
(strata).
What is the origin of the geologic time scale?
time scale?
• James Hutton, a Scottish physician and
geologist (1726-1797), thought the surface of
the earth was an ever-changing environment
explained by what can be seen to be
• This theory was called

which was later catch-phrased as
time scale?
• William Smith - a surveyor, canal builder, and amateur
geologist from England.
• In 1815 Smith produced a geologic map of England in which he
successfully demonstrated the validity of the principle of
faunal succession.
• This principle simply stated that fossils are found in rocks in a
very definite order.
• This principle led others that followed to use fossils to define increments
within a relative time scale.
time scale?
• The principle of biologic
succession: Each age in the
history is unique such
that fossil remains will be
unique. This permits vertical
and horizontal correlation of
the rock layers based on fossil
species
SEATWORK
Answer the following questions:
1. How old is the Earth?

2. What is the biggest time frame in the GTS?
3. What is the smallest time frame in the GTS?
4. What are mass extinctions? How many mass
extinctions events happened in the GTS?
Precambrian Eon
More than 85% of earth's history falls under this supereon, from 4.6 billionyears ago to 540
million years ago.
Hadean Eon (4.6 Billion Years ago)

The solidification of the earth's continental and oceanic crust
Archean Eon (4 Billion Years ago)

The evolution of earth's first life forms
Proterozoic Eon (2.5 Billion Years ago)

The appearance of multi-celled animals and the gathering of land
masses to form continents
Precambrian Eon
Hadean Eon (4.6 Billion Years ago to 4 billion years ago)
The solidification of the earth's continental and oceanic crust
• During Hadean time, the solar

system was forming within a
cloud of dust and gas known as
the solar nebula, which
eventually spawned asteroids,
comets, moons and planets
• It was characterized by Earth's
formation and it's hellish
environment
Photo by: Cesar Alcaraz
Precambrian Eon
Archean Eon (4 Billion Years to 2.5 billion years ago)
The evolution of earth's first life forms
• Approximately 70 percent of continental landmass was formed during this time.
•
• Earth had acquired enough mass to hold a reducing atmosphere composed of
methane, ammonia and other gases.
• Water from comets and hydrated minerals condensed in the atmosphere and fell
as torrential rain, cooling the planet and filling the first oceans with liquid water.
• It is probable that these microscopic prokaryotes began as chemoautotrophs,
anaerobic bacteria able to obtain carbon from carbon dioxide (CO2).
• By the end of the Archean, the ocean floor was covered in a living mat of bacterial
life.
Precambrian Eon
The appearance of multi-celled animals and the gathering of land masses to form continents
• About 2.5 billion years ago, enough shield rock

had formed to start recognizable geologic
processes such as plate tectonics.
• About 1.2 billion years ago, plate tectonics forced

the available shield rock to collide, forming
Rodinia
.
• coastal waters were filled with rounded
colonies of photosynthetic algae known as
stromatolites
Precambrian Eon
• The Ediacaran Period , the last of the Proterozoic Era, saw the first multicellular
organisms.
• Autotrophs and soft-bodied heterotrophs filled the continental shelf regions around
Rodinia
• The cnidarians, which included sea anemones, corals, and jellyfish, had sac-like bodies
and a simple digestive system with a mouth but no anus. They caught food using
tentacles armed with microscopic stinging cells.
• Sponges lacking organs or a nervous system, they lived by drawing water through their
bodies and filtering out food particles
• Annelids or segmented flatworms, had fluid-filled body cavities and breathed through
their skins.
• Sea anemone • Sponges
Precambrian Eon
Phanerozoic Eon
Cenozoic Era (65 Million Years ago - Now
This is the most recent among the eras of the Phanerozoic Era; this
era marks the age of mammals and the first human evolution.
Mesozoic Era (245 Million Years Ago)

This era marks the beginning of dinosaurs, mammals, birds, and
plants due to mass extinction.
Paleozoic Era (544 Million Years Ago)

The explosion of diverse marine life and the largest mass extinction
of marine organisms
The explosion of diverse marine life and the largest mass extinction of marine organisms
•
life, called the Cambrian Explosion.
• Marine trilobites were common.
• The first invertebrates and fish are found,
later the first amphibians and insects.
• Diverse land plants develop and coal swamps
form in certain areas.
• The first reptiles form.
• This era ended with the massive Permian
Extinction, wiping out many successful
species
Permian Period (298.9 MYA)
Pennsylvanian Period (323.2 MYA)
Mississippian Period (358.9 MYA)
Devonian Period (419.2 MYA)

Silurian Period (443.8 MYA)
Ordovician Period (485.4 MYA)
Cambrian Period (541.0 MYA)

LIFE IN Paleozoic Era (544 Million Years Ago)
• The Paleozoic began with the

Cambrian Period, 53 million years
best known for ushering in an
explosion of life on Earth.
• This "Cambrian explosion" included

the evolution of arthropods
(ancestors of today's insects and
crustaceans) and chordates (animals
with rudimentary spinal cords).
• In the Paleozoic Era, life flourished in

the seas.
• After the Cambrian Period came the 45-
million-year Ordovician Period, which is
marked in the fossil record by an
abundance of marine invertebrates.
• Perhaps the most famous of these
invertebrates was the trilobite, an
armored arthropod that scuttled
around the seafloor for about 270
million years before going extinct.
• After the Ordovician Period came the

Silurian Period (443.8 million to 419.2
million years ago), which saw the
spread of jawless fish throughout the
seas.
• Mollusks and corals also thrived in the

oceans, but the big news was what
was happening on land: the first Ostracoderm: Ostracoderms were some of the earliest
jawless fishes and were covered in bony armor.
undisputed evidence of terrestrial life. Present-day jawless fishes lack bone in their scales.
Hagfishes: Pacific hagfish are scavengers that live on
the ocean floor. These agnathans are classified as
Myxini and do not have a vertebral column.
• This was the time when plants evolved, though they most likely did not
yet have leaves or the vascular tissue that allows modern plants to
siphon up water and nutrients.
• Those developments would appear in the Devonian Period, the next

geological period of the Paleozoic.
• Ferns appeared, as did the first trees. At the same time, the first
vertebrates were colonizing the land. These vertebrates were called
tetrapods, and they were widely diverse:
• The Carboniferous Period, which lasted from about 359 million years ago
to 299 million years ago, answered the question, "Which came first the
chicken or the egg?" definitively.
• Long before birds evolved, tetrapods began laying eggs on land for the
first time during this period, allowing them to break away from an
amphibious lifestyle.
• Trilobites were fading as fish became more diverse.
• The ancestors of conifers appeared, and dragonflies ruled the skies..
• Tetrapods were becoming more specialized, and two new groups of

animals evolved.
• The first were marine reptiles, including lizards and snakes.
• The second were the archosaurs, which would give rise to crocodiles,
dinosaurs and birds.
• Most creepily, this era is sometimes referred to as the "Age of the

Cockroaches," because roaches' ancient ancestor (Archimylacris
eggintoni) was found all across the globe during the Carboniferous.
This map is called a cladogram, and this particular cladogram shows the relationships among
the archosaurs.
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/archosy.html
Broadly speaking there two
types of archosaur:
1. Those more closely

related to birds (bird-line)
called the ornithodirans,
which includes dinosaurs
and pterosaurs.
2. And those more closely

related to
crocodiles (crocodile-
line) called
the pseudosuchians, which
are less popularly known.
Photo source: https://dawndinos.com/overview/

• The last period of the Paleozoic was the Permian Period, which began
298.9 million years ago and wrapped up 251.9 million years ago. This
period would end with the largest mass extinction ever: the Permian
extinction.
• Before the Permian mass extinction, though, the warm seas teemed
with life.
• Coral reefs flourished, providing shelter for fish and shelled creatures,
such as nautiloids and ammonoids.
• Modern conifers and ginkgo trees evolved on land.
• Terrestrial vertebrates evolved to become herbivores, taking
advantage of the new plant life that had colonized the land.
UCMP Berkeley
• The Permian extinction was characterized by the elimination of about 90

percent of the species on Earth, which included more than 95 percent of the
marine species and 70 percent of the terrestrial species.
• In addition, more than half of all taxonomic families present at the time
disappeared. This event ranks first in severity of the five major extinction
episodes that span geologic time.
• The Permian extinction was not restricted to marine invertebrates.
• Several groups of aquatic vertebrates, such as the acanthodians,

thought to be the earliest jawed fishes, and the placoderms, a group
of jawed fishes with significant armour, were also eliminated.
• Notable terrestrial groups, such as the pelycosaurs (fin-backed
reptiles), Moschops (a massive mammal-like reptile), and numerous
families of insects also met their demise.
• In addition, a number of groups (such as sharks, bony fishes,
brachiopods, bryozoans, ammonoids, therapsids, reptiles, and
amphibians) experienced significant declines by the end of the
Permian Period.
Causes of Permian extinction
1. Temperature crises
2. Alteration of the carbon cycle
3. Population explosion of methane-producing microbes
Other possible causes

• assembly of Pangea, a vast north-south supercontinent
Paleozoic geology and climate
• All this evolution took place against the backdrop of shifting continents
and a changing climate.
• During the Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic, the continents underwent a

change.
• They had been joined as one supercontinent, Rodinia, but during the
Cambrian Period, Rodinia fragmented into Gondwana (consisting of what
would eventually become the modern continents of the Southern
Hemisphere) and smaller continents made up of bits and pieces of the
land that would eventually make up today's northern continents.
• The Cambrian was warm worldwide, but would be followed by an ice age
in the Ordovician, which caused glaciers to form, sending sea levels
downward.
• Gondwana moved further south during the Ordovician, while the smaller
continents started to move closer together.
• In the Silurian Period, the land masses that would become North America,
central and northern Europe, and western Europe moved even closer
together. Sea levels rose again, creating shallow inland seas.
• In the Devonian, the northern land masses continued merging, and they
finally joined together into the supercontinent Euramerica.
• Gondwana still existed, but the rest of the planet was ocean. By the last
period of the Paleozoic, the Permian, Euramerica and Gondwana became
one, forming perhaps the most famous supercontinent of them all:
Pangaea.
• The giant ocean surrounding Pangaea was called Panthalassa.

Pangaea's interior was likely very dry, because its massive size prevented
water-bearing rain clouds from penetrating far beyond the coasts.
Cretaceous Period (145.0 MYA)
Jurassic Period (201.3 MYA)
Triassic Period (251.9 MYA)

This era marks the beginning of dinosaurs, mammals, birds, and plants due to mass
extinction.
• The Mesozoic era saw the

rise of some of the most
iconic animals, from
Tyrannosaurus rex to birds
and mammals.
extinction.
• During the Mesozoic, or "Middle Life" era, life diversified

rapidly and giant reptiles, dinosaurs and other monstrous
beasts roamed the Earth.
• The period, which spans from about 252 million years ago to
about 66 million years ago, was also known as the age of
reptiles or the age of dinosaurs.
extinction.
LIFE AND CLIMATE
• Life slowly rebounded, eventually giving way to a flourishing diversity of

animals, from massive lizards to monstrous dinosaurs.
• The Triassic period, from 252 million to 200 million years ago, saw the rise of
reptiles and the first dinosaurs.
• The Jurassic period, from about 200 million to 145 million years ago, ushered
in birds and mammals
extinction.
extinction.
• Scientists have unveiled stunning fossils of an ancient seaborne "dragon"

discovered in China.
• The 240 million-year-old animal nicknamed the "Chinese dragon"

belongs to the species Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, a reptile that used its
remarkably long neck to ambush unsuspecting prey in shallow waters
during the Triassic period (252 million to 201 million years ago).
• The species was first found in limestone deposits in southern China in

2003, but scientists have now pieced together remains to reconstruct the
full 16.8-foot (5 meters) span of the spectacular ancient carnivore for the
first time.
extinction.
• And the Cretaceous period, from 145 million to 66 million years ago is known
for its iconic dinosaurs, such as Triceratops, and pterosaurs such as
Pteranodon.
• Coniferous plants, or those that have cone-bearing seeds, already existed

at the beginning of the era, but they became much more abundant during
the Mesozoic.
• Flowering plants emerged during the late Cretaceous period. The lush plant
life during the Mesozoic era provided plenty of food, allowing the biggest of
the dinosaurs, such as the Argentinosaurus, to grow up to 80 tons
extinction.
Extinctions
• At the end of the Triassic period, roughly 201 million years ago, most
amphibious creatures and crocodile-like creatures that lived in the tropics
were wiped out.
• Because the fossil record is incomplete, it's difficult to say exactly what
caused the extinctions, or even how rapidly they occurred.
• After all, certain species or traces of catastrophic events could be missing in

the fossil record simply because the sediments may have disappeared over
tens of millions of years.
extinction.
However, there are a few prime suspects in each of the extinctions.
• At the end of the Permian, the Siberian Traps underwent massive volcanic
eruptions, which most geologists believe caused the world's biggest
extinction. Exactly how, however, is up for debate.
• Most scientists agree that an asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs at the
end of the Cretaceous period. The impact would have kicked up so much
dust that it blocked the sun, halted photosynthesis, and led to such a huge
disruption in the food chain that everything that wasn't a scavenger or very
small died.
extinction.
• But the Deccan Traps, in what is now India, were spewing massive amounts
of lava both before and after the asteroid impact, and a few scientists
believe these flows either directly caused or accelerated the dinosaurs'
demise.
Holocene Period (0.01 MYA)
Cenozoic Era (65 Million Years ago

Pleistocene Period (2.6 MYA)
Pliocene Period (5.3 MYA)
Miocene Period (23.0 MYA)
Oligocene Period (33.9 MYA)
Eocene Period (56.0 MYA)
Paleocene Period (66.0 MYA)

Many different forms of mammals and birds develop, the earth cools down after widespread
heating, modern animals develop, hominids develop
• Paleogene period (65-23 million years ago), which consists of the

Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene epochs);
• Neogene period (23-2.6 million years ago), which includes the
Miocene and Pliocene epochs);
• Quaternary period (2.6 million years ago to the present), consisting
of the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs). While it is widely
accepted that we are still in the Holocene epoch, some scientists
argue that we have entered the Anthropocene epoch.
• The Cenozoic era began about 65 million years ago and continues into
the present.
• The Cenozoic era, which began about 65 million years ago and continues
into the present, is the third documented era in the history of Earth. The
current locations of the continents and their modern-day inhabitants,
including humans, can be traced to this period.
• The era began on a big down note, catching the tail end of the
Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event at the close of the Cretaceous
period that wiped out the remaining non-avian dinosaurs.
• The term Cenozoic, first spelled "Kainozoic," was originally used in an

1840 entry in the Penny Cyclopedia encyclopedia in an article written by
British geologist John Phillips. The name is derived from the Greek phrase
meaning life.
• The beginning of the Paleogene period was a time for the mammals that
survived from the Cretaceous period. Later in this period, rodents and
small horses, such as Hyracotherium, are common and rhinoceroses and
elephants appear. As the period ends, dogs, cats and pigs become
commonplace. Other than a few birds that were classified as dinosaurs,
most notable the Titanis, the dinosaurs were gone. Large flightless birds,
such as the Diatryma, thrived.
Climate and geography
• The global climate of the early portion of the Cenozoic period was much warmer
than it is today, and the overall climate of the Earth was much more consistent
regardless of proximity to the equator.
• The most significant period of global warming, known as the Paleocene Eocene
Thermal Maximum, took place of 55.8 million years ago. It was followed by a long
cool, dry period. The current global warming event has been set off primarily by
human activity.
• Each segment of the Cenozoic experienced different climates. During the

Paleogene period, most of the climate was tropical. The Neogene period
saw a drastic cooling, which continued into the Pleistocene epoch of the
Quaternary period.
• As for the changing landscape, the continents drifted apart during the
Paleogene period, creating vast stretches of oceans. This had a significant
impact on the climate and marine life surrounding each continent.
• During the Pleistocene epoch, glaciers covered central North America,

extending as far east as New York, south to Kansas and Nebraska and west
to the northern West Coast. The Great Lakes were formed as the glaciers
receded.
• Several of the foremost mountain ranges, including the Alps,

Himalayas and the Rocky Mountains, were formed during the Cenozoic era.
Life during the Cenozoic Era
• The Cenozoic era is also known as the Age of Mammals because the
extinction of many groups of giant mammals, allowing smaller species to
thrive and diversify because their predators no longer existed.
• Due to the large span of time covered by the period, it is beneficial to

discuss the animal population by the milestone of the era rather than in
generalities.
• The beginning of the Paleogene period was a time for the mammals that
survived from the Cretaceous period. Later in this period, rodents and small
horses, such as Hyracotherium, are common and rhinoceroses and
elephants appear.
• As the period ends, dogs, cats and pigs become commonplace.
• Other than a few birds that were classified as dinosaurs, most notable the
Titanis, the dinosaurs were gone.
• Large flightless birds, such as the Diatryma, thrived.

• The Neogene period gives rise to early primates, including early humans.
• Bovids, including cattle, sheep, goats, antelope and gazelle, flourish during
this period.
• Cave lions, sabre-toothed cats, cave bears, giant deer, woolly rhinoceroses,
and woolly mammoths were prevailing species of the Quaternary period.
• Without the dinosaurs, plant life had an opportunity to flourish during the
Cenozoic era. Nearly every plant living today had its roots in the Cenozoic
era. During the early part of the era, forests overran most of North America.
However, as the climate cooled forests died off, creating open land.
• Due to the widening of the oceans, sharks, whales and other marine life
proliferated. The Great Lakes that formed in the western United States
during the Eocene epoch were the perfect home for bass, trout and other
fresh-water species.
• As the forests thinned, grasses began to spread out over the plains of North
America and savannas covered the land in the middle of the continent.
Among the common plant life were pines, mosses, oaks and grasses.
• Flowering plants and edible crops dominate the landscape in the later part
of this era as humans cultivate the land.
Pleistocene epoch: The last ice age
• The Pleistocene featured ice age giants and the arrival of modern humans.
• The Pleistocene epoch is a geological time period that includes the last ice
age, when glaciers covered huge parts of the globe. Also called the
Pleistocene era, or simply the Pleistocene, this epoch began about 2.6
million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago
• Modern humans, or Homo sapiens, evolved during the Pleistocene and

spread across most of Earth before the period ended
• The epoch also featured ice age giants, such as woolly mammoths
(Mammuthus primigenius) and saber-toothed cats, many of which
disappeared at the end of the Pleistocene in a major extinction event.
Holocene Epoch: The Age of Man
• The Holocene Epoch is the current period of geologic time.
• The Holocene Epoch began 12,000 to 11,500 years ago at the close of the
Paleolithic Ice Age and continues through today.
• As Earth entered a warming trend, the glaciers of the late Paleolithic

retreated. Tundra gave way to forest. As the climate changed, the very
large mammals that had adapted to extreme cold, like mammoth and wooly
rhinoceros, became extinct.
• Humans, once dependent on these for much of their food,
switched to smaller game and increased their gathering of plant materials
to supplement their diet.
• Evidence indicates that about 10,800 years ago, the climate underwent a
sharp cold turn lasting for several years. The glaciers did not return, but
game and plant materials would have been scarce. As temperatures began
to rebound, human population began to increase and we began inventing
the processes that would change the planet forever.
• Agriculture is one of the primary ways in which human activity has impacted
the planet. By 8000 B.C., the cultivation of wheat, barley and other plants
had spread from its origins in the Fertile Crescent through much of the
Indo/European world.
• Domestication of sheep, goats and cattle began at about the same time.
• Until the advent of agriculture and urbanization, the human population was
largely limited by the same factors that limit other living organisms.
• Limiting factors in the environment, such as availability of food, water and

shelter, evolutionary relationships like predator/prey ratios or presence of
pathogens provide natural balances to populations.
• Beginning about the first century A.D., humans began to sidestep these
restraints. Agriculture had increased the number of people that could be
supported by the environment; we were the first animals to increase the
carrying capacity of our existing habitat. Population slowly began to rise.
There were approximately 170 million people on Earth at the end of the first
century; by 1800, the population was over 1 billion.
• The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century allowed human populations to

grow exponentially.
• Industrialization, improved sanitation and medical care caused death rates

to decline, while birth rates continued to climb in most parts of the world.
• Science has continued to help us increase the carrying capacity of the

planet, but not the size of the planet.
There have been five mass extinctions in
• There have been five big mass extinctions in history these are
called the . Understanding the reasons and timelines of these
events is important to understand the speed and scale of species
extinctions today.
• When and why did these mass extinction events happen?

Mass
extinction
• Evolution occurs through the balance of extinction the end of species

and speciation the creation of new ones.
• Mass extinctions are periods with much higher extinction rates than normal.
They are defined by both magnitude and rate. Magnitude is the percentage
of species that are lost. Rate is how quickly this happens. These metrics are
inevitably linked, but we need both to qualify as a mass extinction.
• In a mass extinction, at least 75% of species go extinct within a relatively (by

geological standard) short period of time.3 Typically less than two million
years.
• We see the spikes in extinction rates marked as the five events:
• End Ordovician (444 million years ago; mya)

• Late Devonian (360 mya)
• End Permian (250 mya)
• End Triassic (200 mya) many people mistake this as the event that killed
off the dinosaurs. But in fact, they were killed off at the end of the
Cretaceous period the fifth of the .
• End Cretaceous (65 mya) the event that killed off the dinosaurs.
What caused the five mass extinctions?
• All of the were caused by some combination of rapid and

dramatic changes in climate, combined with significant changes in the
composition of environments on land or the ocean (such as ocean
acidification or acid rain from intense volcanic activity).
Thank You
For
Listening
Resources Page
Ritchie, H. 2022. There have been five mass extinctions in Earth’s history. Retrieved from:
https://ourworldindata.org/mass-extinctions
Bagley, M. 2016. Precambrian: Facts About the Beginning of Time. Retrieved from:
https://www.livescience.com/43354-precambrian-time.html
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibit/histgeoscale.html
https://www.livescience.com/43354-precambrian-time.html
https://www.jobilize.com/course/section/the-three-eras-of-the-geological-time-scale-by-
openstax
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/precambrian-time

History of Life on Earth

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History of Life on Earth

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History of

Include the significant events that happened in the specific

• Describe general features of the history of life on Earth,

The geologic time scale distinguishes Earth's

The majority of these life forms are discovered as

Without fossils, geologists might not have

• The first people who needed to understand the

• Mining had been of commercial interest since at least

• Nicholas Steno, a Danish physician

• He devised the three main principles

• The principle of superposition: The layer on the bottom was deposited

explained by what can be seen to be

• This theory was called

1. How old is the Earth?

Hadean Eon (4.6 Billion Years ago)

Archean Eon (4 Billion Years ago)

Proterozoic Eon (2.5 Billion Years ago)

• During Hadean time, the solar

• About 2.5 billion years ago, enough shield rock

• About 1.2 billion years ago, plate tectonics forced

Mesozoic Era (245 Million Years Ago)

Paleozoic Era (544 Million Years Ago)

Pennsylvanian Period (323.2 MYA)

Mississippian Period (358.9 MYA)

Devonian Period (419.2 MYA)

Ordovician Period (485.4 MYA)

Cambrian Period (541.0 MYA)

• The Paleozoic began with the

• This "Cambrian explosion" included

• In the Paleozoic Era, life flourished in

• After the Ordovician Period came the

• Mollusks and corals also thrived in the

• Those developments would appear in the Devonian Period, the next

• Tetrapods were becoming more specialized, and two new groups of

• Most creepily, this era is sometimes referred to as the "Age of the

1. Those more closely

2. And those more closely

Photo source: https://dawndinos.com/overview/

• The Permian extinction was characterized by the elimination of about 90

• The Permian extinction was not restricted to marine invertebrates.

• Several groups of aquatic vertebrates, such as the acanthodians,

Causes of Permian extinction

Other possible causes

• During the Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic, the continents underwent a

• The giant ocean surrounding Pangaea was called Panthalassa.

Jurassic Period (201.3 MYA)

Triassic Period (251.9 MYA)

• The Mesozoic era saw the

• During the Mesozoic, or "Middle Life" era, life diversified

LIFE AND CLIMATE

• Life slowly rebounded, eventually giving way to a flourishing diversity of

• Scientists have unveiled stunning fossils of an ancient seaborne "dragon"

• The 240 million-year-old animal nicknamed the "Chinese dragon"

• The species was first found in limestone deposits in southern China in

• Coniferous plants, or those that have cone-bearing seeds, already existed

• After all, certain species or traces of catastrophic events could be missing in

However, there are a few prime suspects in each of the extinctions.

Cenozoic Era (65 Million Years ago

Pliocene Period (5.3 MYA)

Miocene Period (23.0 MYA)

Oligocene Period (33.9 MYA)

Eocene Period (56.0 MYA)

Paleocene Period (66.0 MYA)

• Paleogene period (65-23 million years ago), which consists of the