Warm-up: Which type of plate boundary is along the western African coast at the end of the animation? Along the eastern African coast at the same time?

Geologic Time Scale What is the Geologic Time Scale? How are biological and geological events used to establish the Geologic Time Scale?

Vocabulary Geologic Time scale: the standard method used to divide the Earth’s long natural history into manageable parts. Divisions based on evidence from the fossil record. Time measured from the present (ie. Millions of years ago – mya)

Era: a unit of geologic time that includes two or more periods The Era you must know….. Cenozoic Era: era that began about 66 million years ago, known as the “Age of Mammals”. It is the current era. Mesozoic era: era that began 245 million years ago, known as the age of the dinosaurs and lasted for almost 180 million years. Paleozoic era: era that began about 544 million years ago and lasted for almost 300 million years

Period: a subdivision of the eras in geologic time (divides the Eras – based on geologic or biological events in the fossil record) Epoch: a subdivision of a geologic period (divides the periods – based on geologic or biological events in the fossil record)

Extinction Rate: the rate at which species die off Mass extinction: occurs when a large proportion of the earth’s species go extinct in a relatively short period of time.

Biological and Geological Events Mapping Look at the event template – we want to end-up recording these in order, oldest events at the bottom of each column, youngest at the top (just like with Superposition) All these items need to be included on your charts. You should already be able to place some of the events because I have mentioned them Use the information in Ch 8, Section 5 and 6 to find where the rest of the information belongs.

Cenozoic 66 mya to present Major Biological and Geological Events Organizer Precambrian 4.6 bya to 544 mya Paleozoic 544 to 245 mya Mesozoic 245 to 66 mya Cenozoic 66 mya to present Geological Earth began Oceans form and cover the Earth Shallow seas cover much of the land Coral reefs develop Seas rise and fall over North America Appalachian mountains form Pangaea forms Hot, dry conditions dominate Pangaea Pangaea splits Widespread volcanic activity Rocky Mountains and Himalayas form Continental glaciers cover Antarctica Ice age ends

Cenozoic 66 mya to present Major Biological and Geological Events Organizer Precambrian 4.6 bya to 544 mya Paleozoic 544 to 245 mya Mesozoic 245 to 66 mya Cenozoic 66 mya to present Biological Bacteria appear Soft-bodied multi-cellular organisms appear Great explosion of invertebrates in the sea Trilobites appear Land plants appear Insects and spiders appear Age of fish begins First reptiles appear Trilobites become extinct Dinosaurs appear Largest dinosaurs thrive Dinosaurs become extinct First grasses appear Humans appear Mammals, flowering plants, and insects dominate the land