Name ________________________________ Date __________ Period ___________
Geologic Time Scale-Part 1
Purpose: To create a geologic time scale in order to see how the Earth and the life on Earth has changed over time.
Learning Target:
I can use a fossil rock record as evidence to determine relative ages of specific fossils.
Procedures:
Day 1 and Day 2
1. “Choose” your teammates…2-3 students per time period
2. Go to the computer lab for research and to print information and pictures
3. Organize your “Rock Layer” according to assigned time period.
4. Each Rock Layer must contain the following details. Each person is responsible for their own portion of the rock
layer.
Person 1
Person 2
Person 3
Name of the Period--place
on left hand side of layer
Dates of the period --place
on left hand side of layer
Climate of the period -all
over the world and
especially in North America
Pictures of living things
during that time period:
plants and animals—find as
many as you can
Important events occurring
during that period--new
life, extinction events,
mountains formed, ice age,
land masses separate, etc.
What the Earth looked like
during that period -land
masses and seas
***I will want to know which details each person was responsible for in the rock layer****
Day 3
Use the student created geologic time scales to identify relative dates of specific animal and plant fossils, and then to
place those fossils in the correct order.
Name _________________________________ Date _____________ Period _________________
Geologic Time Scale Lab - Part 2
Purpose: To create a geologic time scale in order to see how the Earth and the life on Earth has changed over time.
Learning Target:
I can use a fossil rock record as evidence to determine relative ages of specific fossils.
Procedures:
1. Part A: Use the colored rock layers to identify the correct Period of as many fossils as you can in the five minute time frame
that is allotted. (Chart A) You must find evidence of the fossils in at least three time periods to be considered valid.
Fossil
1
Tyrannosurus Rex
2
Conifers
3
Modern Humans
4
Cyads
5
Elephants
6
Arachnids (spiders)
7
Bony fish
8
Red/green Algae
9
Dimetrodon
10
Wooly Mammoth
11
Crinoids
12
Apatosaurus
13
Jawed Fishes
First Flowering
Plants
14
15
Dragonfly
16
Coelophysis
17
Grass
18
Trilobites
19
Diplodocus
20
Sharks
21
Archaeopteryx
22
Primitive Horses
23
Mollusks
24
Stegosaurus
25
Brachipods
Yellow
Orange
White
Brown
Purple
Part 2: Chart B
Mesozoic
Cenozoic
Put the 25 fossils in their correct locations of the geologic time frame. Remember…you must have found it in at least
three rock sections in order for it to be valid.
Quarternary
Tertiary
Cretceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Paleozoic
Carboniferous
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Precambrian
Formation of the atmosphere, the oceans, and the continents
Part C: Identify which Era the following events occurred.
C= Cenozoic
M= Mesozoic
P=Paleozoic
_____1. Reptiles become the dominant life form
_____2. First vertebrates appear
_____3. Whales and dolphins appear
_____4. First appearance of grass eating mammals
_____5. Animals and plants begin to live on land
_____6. First mammals appear on Earth
_____7. Giant Forests develop
_____8. Continental glaciers melt
_____9. Sea level rises
_____10. Reptiles appear
Part D: Match the correct time period with the event
_____ 20,000 years ago
A. Continental glaciers retreat
_____ 3.5 million years ago
B. First Fish appear
_____ 6.5 million years ago
C. Oldest fossils form
_____ 260 million years ago
D. Human ancestors appear
_____ 400 million years ago
E. Explosion of invertebrates occur
_____ 544 million years ago
F. Dinosaur become extinct
_____ 3.5 billion years ago
G. Pangaea forms
Conclusion Questions
1. Which organisms or parts of organisms typically become fossils?
2. How do you know which fossils in a rock cycle are the oldest or the youngest?
3. Suppose you found a fossil of a clamshell. What can you conclude about the organism that once lived?
4. A wooly mammoth is a relative of the elephant. Why do you think that
the wooly mammoth had all the long hair, while elephants today have
barely any hair on them?
5. How are the fossils at the top of the rock record different from the fossils found at the bottom?
6. How does the fossil record provide evidence for evolution?