Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

How Rocks and Fossils Tell a Story

• Sedimentary rock forms in layers. Many
sedimentary rocks contain fossils.

• The oldest rock layers are at the bottom, and the

youngest rock layers are at the top.

• The relative age of a layer of rock is the age of

that layer when compared to other layers.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

How Rocks and Fossils Tell a Story

• Fossils form when sediment buries dead
organisms.

• The fossil record is made up of all the fossils in

Earth’s rock layers.

• The fossil record contains information about

Earth’s history and the history of life on Earth.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

How Rocks and Fossils Tell a Story

• Over time, the movement of Earth’s crust can
cause layers of rock to become tilted. It can also
lift rocks formed in the ocean to above sea level.

• The rock layers of the Grand Canyon were tilted

and lifted millions of years ago.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

Divisions in Time
• Scientists developed the geologic time scale to
divide Earth’s history into manageable units. The
fossils each unit contains define it.

• Flowering plants, such as grasses, and saber-

toothed cats existed during the Ice Age.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

Divisions in Time
• Trees that produce seeds in cones appeared at the
beginning of the Mesozoic Era.

• The middle and end of this era is known as the

Age of Dinosaurs. Large animals, such as
Stegosaurus, lived during this time.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

Divisions in Time
• Large tree ferns were common during the late
Paleozoic Era.

• The large coal deposits in the eastern United

States formed from plants like these.

• Trilobites were so common that the earliest part of

the Paleozoic Era is called the Age of Trilobites.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

Divisions in Time
• Index fossils help identify a very short period of
Earth’s history and must meet four requirements.

• The organisms from which they formed lived during

a short period of Earth’s history.

• The organisms must have had large populations so

that many fossils formed.

• Finally, the fossils must be widespread and must be

easily recognized.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

Big Changes on Earth

• Fossils tell how life on Earth has changed over time.

• Fossils also tell how Earth’s continents and

landforms have changed.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

Big Changes on Earth

• Scientists have found fossils of a Mesosaurus—a
small, lizard-like reptile that lived in fresh water—
on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

Big Changes on Earth

• Mesosaurus was too small to have been able to swim
across the Atlantic.

• At the end of the Paleozoic Era, all of Earth’s masses

were joined. These masses began to break apart
during the Mesozoic Era.

• The single landmass explains how Mesosaurus could

move across land.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

Big Changes on Earth

• The landmasses breaking apart supports the idea of
continental drift, and helps scientists understand the
movement of Earth’s plates.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

Changing Environments
• Fossils provide clues about changing environments.

• Finding a fossil sea snail at the top of a mountain

would lead to the conclusion that the environment
has changed.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

Changing Environments
• Fossils of plants and animals at La Brea Tar Pits, in
Los Angeles, California, show that the climate has
not changed much in the last 40,000 years.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

Changing Environments
• Falls of the Ohio is a state park in Indiana where
summers are hot and winters are cold and snowy.

• Fossils of coral, clams, and other organisms that

lived in shallow, warm, tropical seas show how the
climate has changed in the last 380 million years.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

The Great Die Offs

• Several times in history, many species became
extinct at once. These large events, caused by
climate change, are called mass extinctions.

• Worldwide volcanic eruptions blow large amounts of

ash and dust into the air, blocking sunlight so
plants can’t grow.

• Other plants die as ash settles on them and

smothers them.

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Unit 10 Lesson 2 What Was Ancient Earth Like?

The Great Die Offs

• At the end of the Mesozoic Era, an asteroid sent
huge amounts of dust into the air, blocking sunlight
and changing the climate.

• These changes may have led to the extinction of

many organisms, including dinosaurs.

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