FOSSILS ANO PALEONTOLOGY

rocks found in contact with them. The final result is that the
dates often cited for a particular geologic period or for a cer- TIME UNITS OF THE GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE
tain event are not abstract dates but correspond to a rather (Numbers are absolute dates in millions of years before the present)
precise reality.
As has been seen, the strata are the praduct of the enviran- Eon Era Period Epoch
ment that existed during the time and in the place of their
formation. Environmental changes, which change the kind of Recent or
sediment, its grain size and its quantity, ha ve led to differing Holocene
Quaternary
rack formations in differing locales. Pleistocene
In reality, nowhere in the world is there a series of strata 2
that represents in continuity all the periods of the earth's his-
u
Neogene
Pliocene I
tory. To obtain this ideal series and thus to understand all the '0 5
biological events that have taken place during the geological
N
o
c: >,
Miocene I
24
eras, it is necessary to make correlations among the different <li
U '"'
strata or, even better, among different areas where they existo '.0'"
'"'
<li
¡.....
Oligocene I
37
Such correlations seek to resolve two great geological ques-
Paleogene
tions: the reconstruction of a continuous chronological succes- Eocene
I
58
sion, despite any gaps in a particular strata; and the identifi-
cation of racks of the same age deposited in different places ~ Paleocene
and enviranmental conditions. 11 66
s::
The work required to reconstruct a continuous chranological Q
u
Cretaceous
Q

succession is not easy. Erosion, active in almost all the earth' s .S:! N '0 144
o ., N
N ~ o Jurassic
environments, has often carried away sediments, and tectonic o ~ <Jl
<li
'"' <lic:
<li ¿ 208
phenomena, such as the movement of the earth's crust, have
folded, fractured and often moved entire strata in such a way
.-
c:-a
'" >
..c:
o..?
Triassic
245
that one can no longer say with certainty if they are today 11 Permian
located in the exact spot where they were originally deposited. '"
Q
'- <Jl
286
Among the various gaps in the rack record that paleontolo- '"s:: ;::l
o Pennsylvanian
gists must face, one of the most frequent is that called an un- '"
-t::
~'"'
conforrnity. During the process of sedimentation, for example
~ 'co 320
in a marine environment, undersea currents may remove lay- ...
.!:l
Mississippian
u
ers of sediment where fossils ha ve been deposited. The fossils '0 '"
U
N 360-
in these layers may be destrayed or, in other cases, may be o
<li Devonian
redeposited with sediments of a different age. The difficulties íO
e, 408-
encountered by the presence of such gaps-which can also be Silurian
difficult to identify-are understandable. The paleontologist
438-
must always be alert to avoid identifying as coeval (of the same
Ordovician
age) fossils that, due to one or another geological process, just
happen to be found together while in fact they lived in differ- 505-
ent times. Such interruptions in the strata are very common. Cambrian
Even where interruptions do not exist and one finds instead 570-
layers of strata deposited continuously, without any distur- I
bance, there is still the possibility that fossils of different ages Cryptozoic
were joined through a mechanism called non-deposition, an- Comprises
other cause of difficulty for the paleontologist. The process of About
Proterozoic
sedimentation, as is known, is very variable in intensity, and 87%
in certain moments can in fact be entirely absent. During such '"'o ofthe
e Geologic
a stasis in sedimentary activity no new material will be depos- ,
'" u
°C 0 ° Time Scale
ited, but during the same period there will be no similar dis- .!:l N
2500-
E o
ruption or organic activity. That means that the organisms that
lived during a period characterized by the absence of sedimen-
'" ~c..
u
<li>,
'"' U
o.. ... Archean 1
Origin of
tation will all be deposited together and become mixed with
Earth
the remains of the organisms that lived before them, thus gen- 3800-
About
erating a heap of fossils of different ages very difficult to dis- 4.6 Billion
entangle. Years Ago
Azoic
Other sedimentary phenomenon have contributed to com-
plications in the analysis of rack strata. The partial immersion

22