GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE WORKSHEET

Answer the following:

1. What is the name given to the largest divisions of geological time? ________Eons_________
2. Approximately how long are these divisions? ____4.5B years ago-present_______________
3. Name the three of these divisions which extend throughout Earth history.

______Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic______________________________________________________________

4. During which of these divisions has almost all the noticeable evolution of life occurred?
______Cenozoic________________
5. Name the smaller divisions into which this eon has been divided.
_____________Hadean____________________________________

6. . What events mark the end of one era and the beginning of the next?

___One big asteroid hit the Earth_________________________________________________________

7. Describe two changes the make the Cambrian period especially significant in the
evolution of life.

a. __Because of Cambrian explosion, life exploded with almost all the major groups
evolving in a relatively short time (about 40 million years).____________________________

b. __ The rise of animals with hard shells meant they had a much better chance of
becoming fossilized.___________________________________________________________________________

8. In the table below, write the names of the eras of Earth history, the meanings of those
names and describe the events that mark the divisions between the eras.

ERA TRANSITION EVENTS MA ( Million

Years Ago)
Means “ancient life” (dinosaurs 570-245
Paleozoic begin to arive) million years
ago
Means “middle life” (dinosaurs 245-66 million
Mesozoic arive) years ago

Means “recent life” (mammals Last 66 million

Cenozoic begin to arive) years ago
9. Use geological time-scale when answering the following questions:

a. Name the longest eon in the history of Earth? __Proterozoic _______________

b. Which is the shortest eon? ________Hadean__________________________

c. Why do you think the longest eon is the oldest, and the shortest eon is the most recent?

No, because Hadean is older than Proterozoic, but the shortest is Hadean than
Proterozoic

d. An event which occurred at 250 Ma happened during the__Permian__ period of the

__Paleozoic__________era.

e. The “Age of Dinosaurs” encompasses the period of the era. _______Jurassic______

f. Why do you think that only the periods of the Cainozoic era have been divided into

epochs? __Because Cenozoic is the longest period, so they divide it into 4, to organize
and to shorter the time of Cenozoic_________

h. In which eon, era, period and epoch do we live? _Holocene epoch______________________