History of Life

on Earth
 Geologic time Scale
• The Geologic time scale is a record of the life
forms and geologic events in Earth’s history
• Scientist developed the time scale by studying
rock layers and fossils world wide
• Radioactive dating helped determine the absolute
divisions in the time scale
• Earth is over 4 billion years old
• microbial life was the only life present
• microbial processes still dominate many
ecosystems today.
• A key development in Earth’s history that
made larger, more complex, multicellular life
possible was increase in oceanic and
atmospheric oxygen.
 Two main types of evidence
• geological evidence
- Fossils provide detailed glimpses of ancient
life, for larger, more recent organisms.
- soft-bodied microscopic organisms fossilize
under rare circumstances; the process of
plate tectonics has destroyed and buried
most fossils.
 Two main types of evidence
• genetic evidence
- these include molecular traces like
cholesterol and other chemical signatures,
isotope ratios resulting from living processes
- analysis of the genomes of animals, plants,
and microbes living today
 Geologic time Scale

The geologic time scale ranges from the time when

the Earth was formed until the present. It is divided
into:
Eon – which spans to hundreds to thousands of
millions years
Era - divided into periods, epochs, and ages
•The Archean (“ancient”) and Hadean (“unseen”) Eons
reach back to the formation of the Earth.

•The Proterozoic (“before complex life”) Eon precedes

the Phanerozoic, extending back 2.5 billion years.

•The Phanerozoic (“visible life”) Eon spans the most

recent 544 million years and includes three Eras well
known for their chronicle of life: the oldest Paleozoic,
middle Mesozoic, and current Cenozoic.
Early Hadean landscape of the earth
• Formation of the earth’s crust and the oceans
The Super eon : The Precambrian
Early Life on Earth

• The Precambrian
• 4.6 billion years ago (bya) to 541
million years ago (mya)
• 88% of Earth’s geologic time
• Lower levels of oxygen in the
oceans and atmosphere
• Life was exclusively unicellular
• Photosynthetic bacteria created the
oxygen-rich atmosphere
The Archaean dates the origin of life on Earth
The stromatolites as the oldest fossil; ever recorded
Consequences of
Continental Drift
•The break-up of Pangaea lead to allopatric
speciation.
•The current distribution of fossils reflects the
movement of continental drift
•The fossil record shows that most species that
have ever lived are now extinct.
•At times, the rate of extinction has increased
dramatically and caused a mass extinction.
• In each of the five mass extinction events, more
than 50% of Earth’s species became extinct.
• The Permian extinction defines the
boundary between the Paleozoic
and Mesozoic eras.
• The Cretaceous mass extinction 65.5
million years ago separates the
Mesozoic from the Cenozoic.