BIOLOGY II

HISTORY OF LIFE
ON EARTH
OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the lesson, the learners will be able to;

1. identify the dates and sequence of the

periods in the geologic time scale; and

2. describe the characteristic feature of

major groups of organisms in each time

period.
GEOLOGIC
• Geological time scale is a record of the
TIME
life forms and geological events in
SCALE Earth’s history.
 • EON- largest division of the geologic
time scale; spans hundreds to thousands
of million of years ago (mya)
• ERA- division in an Era that span time
periods of tens to hundreds of millions
UNLOCKING of years
TERMS: • PERIOD- a division of geologic history
that spans no more than one hundred
million years
• EPOCH- the smallest division of the
geologic time scale characterized by
distinctive organisms
HOW OLD IS THE
EARTH?
What is the age of the
Earth ?
Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years
old, plus or minus about 50 million years.

Scientists have scoured the Earth

searching for the oldest rocks to
radiometrically date.
• The oldest rocks found so far on
Earth (based on zircon grains from
Australia) have been dated at 4.1-
4.2 billion years.
• Meteorites have also been dated at 4.6
billion years. Meteorites are
considered to be remnants of a plant or
asteroid that originally formed at the
same time as the Earth, so that the
Earth’s age is currently estimated to be
4.6 billion years.
• The oldest fossils are
preserved remains of
stromatolites, which are
layers of lithified blue-
green algae, dating to
approximately 3.5 billion
years before present.
WHAT
WAS THE
EARTH
LIKE
BILLION
YEARS
AGO?

When Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago from a

hot mix of gases and solids, it had almost no
atmosphere.
WHAT WAS THE EARTH
LIKE MILLION YEARS
AGO?

•https://
www.youtube.com/watch?
v=C5LivXlaAMc
 Modern humans originated
WHEN in Africa within the past
DID MAN 200,000 years and evolved
FIRST from their most likely recent
APPEAR
common ancestor, Homo
ON
EARTH? erectus, which means
'upright man' in Latin. Homo
erectus is an extinct species
of human that lived between
1.9 million and 135,000
years ago
GEOLOGICAL
TIME SCALE
 WHAT DOES THE TIME SCALE REPRESENT?

• The geologic time scale divides up the history

of the earth based on life-forms that have
existed during specific times since the creation
of the planet. These divisions are called
geochronologic units (geo: rock, chronology:
time).
• Most of these life-forms are
found as fossils, which are
the remains or traces of an
organism from the geologic
past that has been preserved
in sediment or rock.
Without fossils, scientists
may not have concluded
that the earth has a history
that long precedes mankind.
 • The largest unit of time is an eon. An
eon is an extremely long, indefinite
period of time.
THE
GEOLOGIC • Earth’s 4.6-billion-year history is divided
TIME SCALE into Precambrian time and three eras:
IS DIVIDED
BY THE Paleozoic, Mesozoic, & Cenozoic.
FOLLOWING • Each era is subdivided into a number of
DIVISIONS:
periods. For example, the Paleozoic Era
is divided into six periods. The
Cambrian Period is important because
it is the first period after Precambrian
Time.
• The periods of the Cenozoic, the most
recent era, are further divided into
epochs.
• Eons: Longest subdivision; based
on the abundance of certain fossils
• Eras: Next to longest subdivision;
marked by major changes in the
fossil record
• Periods: Based on types of life
existing at the time
• Epochs: Shortest subdivision;
marked by differences in life forms
and can vary from continent to
continent.
• The earliest time of the Earth is
called the Hadean and refers to a
period of time for which we have
no rock record, and the Archean
followed, which corresponds to the
ages of the oldest known rocks on
earth. These, with the Proterozoic
Eon are called the Precambrian
Eon. The remainder of geologic
time, including present day,
belongs to the Phanerozoic Eon.
 Nicholas Steno, a Danish physician (1638-1687), described how
the position of a rock layer could be used to show the relative
age of the layer. He devised the three main principles that
underlie the interpretation of geologic time:

The principle of superposition: The layer on the bottom was

PRINCIPLES deposited first and so is the oldest

BEHIND
GEOLOGIC
TIME
The principle of horizontality: All rock layers were originally
deposited horizontally.

The principle of original lateral continuity: Originally deposited

layers of rock extend laterally in all directions until either
thinning out or being cut off by a different rock layer.
 The principle of cross-cutting relationships: A rock feature
that cuts across another feature must be younger than the rock
that it cuts.

 Inclusion principle: Small fragments of one type of rock but

embedded in a second type of rock must have formed first ,

and were included when the second rock was forming.
 RELATIVE AGE DATING WITH INDEX
FOSSILS

• Biostratigraphy is the correlation of stratigraphic units based on fossil

content. Biostratigraphically useful species are known as index fossils
(or guide fossils) because they can be used as guides for recognition of
chronostratigraphic units.
 Index fossils are widespread, have short temporal durations resulting
from rapid life spans, are abundant throughout their geographic and
geologic ranges, and are easily recognized (unique).
 ABSOLUTE AGE DATING

• Absolute ages, or geochronometric ages, of rock can be

assigned to the geologic time scale on the basis of
properties of atoms that make up the minerals of a rock.

• Some isotopes are unstable and break down into other

isotopes through a process called radioactive decay.
 WHAT IS A HALF-LIFE?

• Each radioactive parent isotope decays to its

daughter product at a specific and measurable rate.
• This measurement is reported in half-lives. The
half-life of an isotope is the time it takes for ½ of
the parent atoms in the isotope to decay.
 RADIOCARBON DATING

• Radiocarbon dating is a common method used to date

anything that was once alive (including plants) and up to
70,000 years old.
• Carbon dating can be used on wood, plants, humans, and even old
paper made out of papyrus.
• The half-life of C-14 is 5,730 years. Because of this, it should not
be used with material older than ~70,000 years or 12 half-lives.
 WE LIVE IN ?

• Present day Earth is in the Cenozoic era

and the Quaternary period in the
Holocene epoch.
• Geologic time has NOT ended!!!!!
 POWER OF 2!!
ACTIVIT • Create your own
Y
mnemonics!

10 MINS
 CAMBRIAN
EXPLOSION!

• CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION is the belief

that there was a sudden, apparent
explosion of diversity in life forms about
545 million years ago.
• The explosion created the complexity of
multi-celled organisms in a relatively
short time frame of 5 to 10 million years.
This explosion also created most of the
major extant animal groups today.
 CAMBRIAN
EXPLOSION!
• The start of the Cambrian was
characterized by the breaking up of m
supercontinent Gondwana into smaller
land masses opening up new
environmental niches where organisms
can colonize and specialize
 • Does the Cambrian
CAMBRIAN Explosion Pose a Challenge
EXPLOSION! to Evolution?
 READ & REFLECT:
• https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-proje
ct/acceleration/the-anthropocene/a/the-anthropocene

Challenge yourself and try to answer the

Quiz :https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-
project/acceleration/the-anthropocene/e/quiz--the-Anthropocene
 EVALUATION

1. Geologically speaking with reference to the

entire history of the earth, the dinosaurs went
extinct…
A. Shortly after the formation of Earth
B. In the first billion years of Earth’s history
C. In the most recent 2% of the history of Earth
D. Before the first fish formed
 EVALUATION

2. Relative to the percent of time dominating the surface

of Earth which organisms have the longest reign?
A. Dinosaurs
B. Plants
C. Prokaryotes
D. Eukaryotes
E. Humans
 EVALUATION
3. The Earth is ________ years old.
A. 6,000
B. 46,000,000
C. 4,600,000,000
D. There is no way to know
 EVALUATION
4. 100,000 years in the geologic history of Earth would be
considered ____________.
A. Immensely long
B. A drop in the bucket
C. Half of Earth's history
D. An extremely significant amount of time
GUIDE QUESTIONS:

1. Why is it hard to create a timeline of events chronicling Earth’s history?

2. What are the divisions of the geologic time scale?

 EVALUATION
5. Understanding geologic time is significant because it helps us
________.
A. Understand humans’ impact on our environment
B. Understand the evolution of organisms over time
C. Understand the possibility for life on other planets
D. Understand the process of evolution
E. All of the above
 EVALUATION
6. Which organism first dominated Earth?
A. Dinosaurs
B. Insects
C. Plants
D. Fish
E. Bacteria
3. Calculate how many generations of humans it would take
for us to exist now (assume an average life span of 80
years) (What must we humans do to ensure we are able
to exist this long for many generations?

4. Form a dyad and discuss your answers.

EVALUATION: MY LIFE STORY

Create a timeline of events that happened to you since

you were born up to the present time. Choose events that
you think are the most important. Be ready to present your
timeline next meeting.
ENRICHMENT: ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
IN YOUR JOURNAL
1. The Earth has an incredibly long history. How does understanding of
geologic time and the significant geologic events of the past impact your
understanding of humans’ unique responsibility and place on earth?

2. How does understanding the past help us understand the present?

ASSIGNMENT:

• 1. Make a table in your notebook of the geologic time scale

(GTS) and include the following details;
a. Major divisions of the GTS
b. Major events and characteristic organisms