Name: Date:
Grade and Section:
Activity in Earth Science | 2nd Quarter
CHART ANALYSIS: GOING BACK IN TIME
Directions: The chart shows a history of the development of life on Earth. Use the geologic
time table to answer the questions below.
End
Date
(Million
Eon Era Period Epoch Notes
s of
years
ago)
Holocene Humans are the dominant forms of life;
civilization begins and spread.
Quaternary Pleistocene 0.01 “The Ice Age”; modern humans present;
mammoths and other animals became
extinct.
Pliocene 2.5 Fossils of ancient humans near end of
epoch; many birds, mammals and sea life
similar to modern types; climate cools.
Cenozoic
Miocene 5 Many grazing animals; flowering planst and
trees resemble modern types.
Oligocene 25 Fossils of primitiveapes; elephants, camels,
and horses develop; climate generally mild.
Tertiary
Eocene 38 Fossils of “dawn horse”; grasslands and
forest present; many small mammals; larger
mammals such as whales, rhinoceros, and
monkeys begin to develop.
Paleocene 55 Beginning of “Age of Mammals”; flowering
plants and small mammals abundant; many
different climates exist.
Phanerozoic
Cretaceous 65 First flowering plants; placebtal mammals
develop; dinosaurs die out, as do many
marine animals at the end of the period.
Jurassic 135 The rocky mountains rise; first birds; palms
Mesozoic
and cone bearing trees dominant; large
dinosaurs thrive; primitive mammals
develop.
Triassic 195 “Age of Reptiles” begins; first dinosaurs; first
mammals; corals, insects, and fishes
resemble modern types.
Permian 245 First cone-bearing plants; ferns, fishes,
amphibians, and reptiles flourish; many
marine invertebrates including trilobites die
out.
Carboniferous 285 Ice covers large areas of the Earth; swamps
Paleozoic
cover lowlands; first mosses; great-coal
forming forests form; seed ferns grow; first
reptiles and winged insects appear.
Devonian 345 First forests grow in swampy areas; fishes
flourish; first amphibians, sharks, and insects
develop.
Silurian 400 “Age of Fishes” begins; coral reefs form;
jawed fished develop; first land plants
appear; first air- breathing animals, including
land anthropods.
Ordovician 430 First fishes (jawless) appear; invertebrates
flourish in the sea.
Cambrian 500 “Age of Invertebrates” begins; trilobites,
brachiopods, sponges, and other marine
invertebrates are present.
Precamb
Earth’s history begins; first life forms in the
rian
580 sea; first prokaryotes (bacteria) appear; as
time passes, first eukaryotes appear.
Guide Questions:
1. How is the geologic time scale divided?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
2. In the geologic time table, which is the:
a. largest division of time?
____________________________________________________________________________
b. shortest division of time?
____________________________________________________________________________
3. What kind of organisms lived during the Precambrian era?
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_______________________________________________________________________________
4. In what era did the human beings first appear?
_______________________________________________________________________________
5. Give the periods of the first appearance of the following organisms:
a. bird _______________
b. amphibian _______________
c. mammals _______________
d. mosses _______________
e. air- breathing animals _______________
f. dinosaurs _______________
g. reptiles _______________
h. flowering plants _______________
i. fish _______________
j. land plants _______________
Signature:
Name: Date:
Grade and Section:
Activity in Earth Science | 2nd Quarter
ERA IDENTIFICATION
Directions: Given the following pictures, identify to which era they belong.
1. 6.
Trilobites Seedfern
_______________ _______________
2. 7.
Chlorella Australopithecus
_______________ _______________
3. 8.
Diplodocus Gingko Grove
_______________ _______________
4. 9.
Eryops Meganaura
_______________ _______________
5. 10.
Spinosaurus Sperodactyl
_______________ _______________
Signature:
