Earth History

Earth’s age is between

4.53 and 4.56 billion years
old. A difficult to fathom
length of time.

To put this in perspective:

Yard is the distance

from King’s nose to his
index finger. If all of
earth’s history is on that
yard stick, then if the
King files his fingernail
once, he just removed all
of human history.
 Geologic Time Scale

Geologists and Paleontologists divide relative time into

“zones” that reflect differing earth characteristics.

Eon: Largest interval of geologic time.

Four
Hadean – 4.5 to 4.0 billion years ago
Archean – 4.0 to 2.5 billion years ago
Proterozoic – 2.5 to 0.542 billion years ago
Phanerozoic – 0.542 billion to present
 Geologic Time Scale - Eras

The Phanerozoic Eon is divided into three Eras based on

the major life types.

Paleozoic Era – Ancient Life: “Age of

Invertebrates”
Mesozoic Era – Middle Life: “Age of Reptiles and
Dinosaurs”
Cenozoic Era – Recent Life: “Age of Mammals”

Eras are further divided into Periods based

on additional distinctions of life.
Geologic Time Scale - GSA
 Geologic Time Scale – Encyclopedia of Life

Let’s divide earth history into a nine volume

encyclopaedia.

Each volume would comprise 500 million years.

Let’s make each volume have 500 pages. Each
page would then represent 1 million years. A very
long time, but very short compared to the age of
earth.
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 1

Volume 1 - 4.5 billion to 4.0 billion

No rocks of these ages present on Earth.

500 million years of intense meteorite

bombardment.

Plate tectonics.

Erosion of old rocks

Oldest evidence that there were rocks is
4.42 billion years before present. Zircon.
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 1

Evidence of meteorite bombardment.

Age of Earth
determined
from lunar
rocks and
meteorite
radiometric
ages.
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 2

Volume 2 - 4.0 billion to 3.5 billion

No oxygen in atmosphere.
Considerable evidence.
Sedimentary minerals
Volcanic gases
H2O, CO2, SO2, CH4, NH3
Hotter earth because of higher CO2
Sun produces less heat

3.8 billion – earliest evidence of life

Carbon isotope evidence – life is lazy?

Requires self replication – DNA from RNA?
 Geologic Time – Tube Worms

Thermophile
bacteria at the
bottom of the
food chain.
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 3

Volume 3 – 3.5 billion to 3.0 billion

Nothing new.
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 4

Volume 4 – 3.0 billion to 2.5 billion

Stromatolite
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 4

Stromatolite
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 4

At 2.5 billion years before present something

really great is about to occur!
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 5

Volume 5 – 2.5 billion to 2.0 billion

Banded Iron Formations are found all over Earth.

First oxygen producing photosynthesis

More efficient!
Oxygen is a deadly poison!
Botulism
Gangrene
How to safely get rid of deadly O2?
Combine it with ferrous iron (Fe2+)
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 5 continued

Volume 5 – 2.5 billion to 2.0 billion

Major advance in evolution at about 2.2 billion

years ago.

Prokaryote bacteria – reproduces by fission

(asexual reproduction)

Eukaryote bacteria – reproduces by mixing DNA

from two individuals (sexual reproduction).
Advantage: genetic diversity!
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 6

Volume 6 – 2.0 billion to 1.5 billion

Nothing new.
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 7

Volume 7 – 1.5 billion to 1.0 billion

Nothing new.
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 8

Volume 8 – 1.0 billion to 0.54 billion

A great disaster?

Or the best thing to have ever happened?

Photosynthesis is using up CO2 and creating O2 in earth’s

atmosphere.

Temperatures drop.

Snowball Earth 716 million years before present.

Drop Stone
Snowball Earth
 Snowball Earth

Earth is frozen over to the very low latitudes.

What color is earth?

What is earth’s reflectivity?

0.1 albedo vs. 0.8 albedo for oceans

Will earth ever de-ice? Unlikely.

Except earth is currently not frozen.

What could have happened?

 Snowball Earth Environmental Stress

First multi-cellular life evolves.

Burrowing organisms.

Change from fissile shales to siltstones that have

no layering.
 Snowball Earth Environmental Stress

First multi-cellular life evolves.

Burrowing organisms.

Change from fissile shales to siltstones that have

no layering.
 Geologic Time Scale – Volume 9

Volume 9 – 0.54 billion (542 million) to present

Phanerozoic Eon

The “good stuff”

Only 1/9 of earth history (11%)

Abundant life seen as fossils

 Geologic Time Scale – Phanerozoic

Volume 9 – 0.54 billion (542 million) to present

Phanerozoic Eon

The “good stuff”

Only 1/9 of earth history (11%)

Abundant life seen as fossils

Divided into three Eras

 Geologic Time Scale – Paleozoic

Paleozoic Era

Cambrian Period – first abundant life as seen in

the fossil record.

Hard parts.
Trilobite Brachiopod
 Geologic Time Scale – Paleozoic

Ordovician Period – waterworld. Jawless fish.

 Geologic Time Scale – Paleozoic

Silurian Period – Jawed fish.

 Geologic Time Scale – Paleozoic

Silurian Period – First land plants.

Falling sealevel

Major development.
Surrounded by nutrients vs.

Separate systems above and

below earth.
 Geologic Time Scale – Paleozoic

Devonian Period – Age of Fishes. First tetrapods

(amphibians) from lobe-finned lungfish. First seed plants
(conifers). Insects migrate onto land.

Mississippian – sea-level rises. Amphibians everywhere.

Pennsylvanian – sea-level drops. Amphibians in trouble.

Reptiles evolve amnoionic (hard-shelled) egg. Yippee!

Permian – First mammal-like reptiles.

Greatest extinction of life ever.

80-95% of all species become extinct.
 Geologic Time Scale – Mesozoic

Following the extinction of most species of

invertebrates, reptiles become the advanced organisms.

Three periods of the Mesozoic.

Triassic – Pangaea begins to break apart. Species

are isolated and development of new
species occurs.

Reptiles dominate early Triassic. Dinosaurs

evolve towards end of Triassic and dominate
land. Reptiles still dominate the world’s
oceans.
 Dinosaur vs. Reptile

Dinosaur Reptile
 Jurassic

During the Jurassic dinosaurs dominate land.

Jurassic Park dinosaurs are not Jurassic in age. They

are Cretaceous! Why?

Birds evolve from the dinosaurs.

Atlantic Ocean begins to fully form.

First Feathers
 Cretaceous

First flowering plants.

Bird and bees proliferate. Why?
One of the strangest means of symbiotic
reproduction.
 Cretaceous

Cretaceous mammals are small burrowing organisms.

 Cretaceous Mammals

.
 Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction

At the end of the Cretaceous, beginning of the Tertiary

the dinosaurs and many other organisms become extinct.

1. Climate warming and

drying

2. Deccan Traps volcanic

eruption. Adds CO2.
Shiva?
 Cenozoic

There are now new environmental niches for the

mammals to evolve and come to dominate Earth.

The “Age of Mammals”.

Mammals dramatically increase in size since they don’t

have to live in burrows any more.

Some large mammals move back into the oceans.

Whales.
 Whales

How do we know they were originally land mammals and

not fish?

Vestigial legs and pelvis.

 Linked Horse and Grass Evolution

At the beginning of the Cenozoic horses evolved first in

mid-North America which was heavily forested.
 Horse Food

What did early horses eat? We can tell from teeth.

Browsers versus grazers.

Is it easier to eat
grass or leaves?
 Horse Food

What did early horses eat? We can tell from teeth.

Browsers versus grazers.

Is it easier to eat
grass or leaves?

You’re right!

It’s easier to eat and

digest leaves than
grass.
 Forests Replaced by Grasslands

Over millions of years there are fewer trees and more

grass covered meadows.

Harder for horses to hide from predators. How to

escape?

Run faster? How to accomplish this?

Fewer leaves to eat? Eat grass! How?

 Pleistocene Extinction

What happened to these organisms a scant 12,000

years ago?

Humans migrated to North America over the

Bearing Strait. Ate them.

Climate was warming and drying from 21,000 to

18,000 years ago with rapid warming at 12,000
to 11,000 years ago. Environmental stress.

Comet impact? See your handout: “It Came Like

Yesterday”
 Extinction

Paleotologists have observed that generally organisms

become larger through time. Why?

Paleotologists have observed that during great

extinctions, it is usually the large organisms that
become extinct. Why?
 Humans

Modern humans, as we think of them, have been on

earth for about 5000 years.

What percentage of earth history have humans been

here?

5000 1
____________ = __________
4 500 000 000 900 000
 Early Humans

Neanderthal Child Red Hair

Very large brains