Earth Geological History

Question 1

Cambrian Period
* 541 – 490 MYA
* Cambrian explosion
* Appearance of modern ____________ phyla
* Life on land still ____________

Answer 1

1. animal
2. pretty barren

Question 2

Ordovician Period
* 488 – 444 MYA
* First ______________ vertebrates appear
* Major radiations of marine _________________
* First terrestrial plants and fungi

Answer 2

1. jawless
2. invertebrates

Question 3

Ordovician Period
Ordovician ends with
____________________!
* Super continent
Gondwana drifts south
* Temperatures ________
* _______________ cause
major extinctions

Answer 3

1. Massice extinction
2. drop
3. glaciat

Question 4

Silurian Period
* 444 – 416 MYA
* First _____________
* First ____________
move onto land
(terrestrial
arthropods)
* First vascular
______________

Answer 4

1. jawed fishes
   2.animals
   3.plants

Question 5

Devonian Period
* 416 – 359 MYA
* Lots of fishes
* Fungi, invertebrates,
tetrapod vertebrates
_____________ land
(first _______________
appear)

Answer 5

1. 1st colonize
2. amphibians

Question 6

Carboniferous Period
359 – 299 MYA
* Large swamp
forests
* First flying insects
* First primitive
_____________
* This is when our
modern ________
deposits were
founded

Answer 6

1.reptiles
2.coal

Question 7

Permian Period
* 299 – 251 MYA
* Continents come
together to form
Pangaea
* Amniotic ________
evolve in _____________
* Fishes colonize
_________________

Answer 7

1.egg
2.reptiles
3.freshwater

Question 8

Permian Period
* Glaciation and ______________ in sea level
* Huge _______________________ cause mass extinction
* Permian-Triassic extinction (eliminate ____% of species)
* Most _________ extinction event known in Earth’s history

Answer 8

1.declines
2.volcano erupts
3.86%
4.severe

Question 9

Triassic Period
* 250 – 201 MYA
* Predatory __________________
dominate oceans
* Diversification of reptiles
* Pangaea begins to break up

Answer 9

1. fishes and reptiles

Question 10

Jurassic Period
* 201 – 145 MYA
* ______________ ruled
* Frogs, salamanders,
lizards, birds, mammals
first appeared

Answer 10

1.dinosaurs

Question 11

Cretaceous Period
* 145 – 65 MYA
* First _____________
plants (angiosperms)
* ________________ at
end of period
* Brought on by an
asteroid impact near
the Yucatan Peninsula

Answer 11

1.flowering
2.mass extinction

Question 12

Paleogene Period
* 65 – 23 MYA
* Origin of apes, rise of ___________________
* Modern birds, snakes, pollinating insects diversify
* Grasslands and deciduous forests spread

Answer 12

mammals

Question 13

Neogene Period
* 23 – 2.6 MYA
* Connection of South & North America at Isthmus of
____________________
* India collide with Asia to form Himalayas
* Global climates ____________ considerably
* Mammals and birds evolve into modern forms
Cenozoic

Answer 13

1.panama
2. cool

Question 14

Quaternary Period
* 2.6 MYA – Present
* The Pleistocene (Ice
Age) composes all
but the last
_____________ years
* We are now in the
Holocene
* Humans evolve from
_____________ about
__________ years ago

Answer 14

1. 10,000
2. primates
3. 200,000

Question 15

Hominin
* Hominins part of larger group of primates Hominids
* Hominids include orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees,
and _______________________

Answer 15

human beings

Question 16

Hominin
* Hominins share characteristics such as: bipedalism,
_____________ canine size, and increasing ________________
* Humans, Homo sapiens, are the only hominins alive today
* It seems we bred H. neanderthalensis out of existence

Answer 16

1.reduced
2.brainsize