Era
Period
Cenozoic
Quaternary
Epoch
Plant and Animal
Development
Holocene (.01)
Humans develop
Pleistocene (1.8)
Pliocene (5.3)
Miocene (23.8)
Tertiary
"Age of mammals"
Oligocene (33.7)
Eocene (54.8)
Paleocene (65)
Extinction of dinosaurs and
many other species.
Mesozoic
Cretaceous (144)
First flowering plants
Jurassic (206)
"Age of Reptiles"
Triassic (248)
Dinosaurs dominant.
Permian (290)
Extinction of trilobites and many other
marine animals
Carboniferous:
Pennyslvanian (323)
Record of First Fossil of Fern
"Age of Amphibians"
Paleozoic
First birds
Carboniferous:
Mississippian (354)
First reptiles
Large coal swamps
Large Amphibians abundant.
Devonian (417)
First insect fossils
"Age of Fishes"
Silurian (443)
Fishes dominant
First land plants
Ordovician (490)
First fishes
"Age of Invertebrates"
Cambrian (540)
Trilobites dominant
First organisms with shells
First multicellular organisms
Precambrian - comprises about 88% of geologic time (4500)
First one-celled organisms
Origin of Earth
What are trilobites?
Trilobites are an extinct group of arthropods (jointed-legged animals) known from more than 10,000 fossil species.
The group Trilobita existed from early in the Cambrian Period (520 million years ago) until the end of the Permian
Period (250 million years ago). The name Trilobita is derived from the three (tri-) lobed structure of the exoskeleton,
which has a raised central lobe (or axis) and a pair of side lobes, called Pleurae.
Ferns first appear in the fossil record in the early-Carboniferous period.
By the Triassic, the first evidence of ferns related to several modern families appeared.
Year 10 Evolution
Name: _________________________________
Answer the questions based on the Geological Time Scale
1. What does the geologic time scale represent?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Scientists have devised the Geologic Time Chart so that Time can be understood from the
largest and most general intervals, or units, to the smallest, most specific intervals.
Arrange these geological time intervals from largest to smallest:
periods
eons epochs eras
3. How old is our Earth?
____________________________________
4. What is the difference between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells? Give examples.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Fill in the table with information about Era’s (using the information below)
1. Precambrian Era (earliest forms of life, such as bacteria and blue-green algae; later in
the period, invertebrates such as jellyfish).
2. Paleozoic Era (Pangaea; invertebrate life, such as trilobites, later in the era, followed by
development of vertebrates, including fish; development of vertebrates, amphibians, and
the beginnings of reptiles; development of simple plants, such as mosses and ferns)
3. Mesozoic Era (Pangaea separates into continents; "Age of Reptiles"; dinosaurs,
flowering plants, small mammals and birds)
4. Cenozoic (Present Era) Ice Age; mammoths; gradual development of mammals, birds
and other animals recognizable today; humans; flowering plants, forests, grasslands.)
More: http://naturesblog.blogspot.com.au/2007/04/four-geologic-eras.html
http://evolution.about.com/od/LifeOrigins/tp/The-Geologic-Time-Scale.htm
Era
Meaning
Duration
Examples of life
6. Which periods did Dinosaurs live on Earth?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
7. Arrange the animals in terms of evolution from the oldest to the youngest.
reptiles, invertebrates, bacteria, fish, mammals, amphibians, birds
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
8. Give 2 differences between amphibians and reptiles in terms of their evolution and living
habitats.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
9. Which type of plant was the first land plant? Conifers, Angiosperms, Mosses and Ferns
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
10. Arrange these 4 types of plants in order of primitive to most recently evolved.
Conifers, Angiosperms, Mosses and Ferns
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
11. How could plants like Conifers, Ferns and Conifers grow bigger in size compared to
mosses?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
12. Explain why insects have evolved most successfully to colonise the Earth?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://intl-icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/5/590.full
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_insects/InsectSuccess.htm
13. In Ordovician Period, trilobites became
dominant. What type of animal did trilobites
belong to? How long did they live on Earth?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
14. When did first human evolve on Earth?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://www.livescience.com/4406-humans-time-origin-pinned.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com.au/news/2009/10/091001-oldest-human-skeletonardi-missing-link-chimps-ardipithecus-ramidus.html
15. When did mammal start to evolve?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://www.earthlife.net/mammals/evolution.html