Geological time

Question 1

list the periods from oldest to youngest

Answer 1

Cambrian
* Ordovician
* Silurian
* Devonian
* Carboniferous
* Permian
* Triassic
* Jurassic
* Cretaceous
* Tertiary
* Quaternary

Question 2

What happens in the Ordovician period

Answer 2

First vertebrates, fish appear
* Evidence of glaciation, sea
level lower
* Mass extinction at the end of
Ordovician

Question 3

What happens in the Silurian period

Answer 3

Age of corals… and reefs.
* Sharks, toothed fish
* First primitive land plants and insects

Question 4

What happens in the Devonian period

Answer 4

Amphibians crawled out of the sea and breathed with lungs!
* ‘Potash’ evaporite sedimentary deposits,
deposited in shallow saline seas.
* Land plants (e.g., trees) and insects thrive
* Evidence of glaciation

Question 5

What happens in the Carboniferous period

Answer 5

First reptiles
* Huge swamps and the first global coal
forming period.
* Coal forming in area that would
become Estevan, SK
* Appalachian Mountains beginning to
form
Pangea starts to form

Question 6

What happens in the Permian Period

Answer 6

Formation of Pangaea – a super
continent.
* Glaciation in the Southern Hemisphere
Extinction! Some 70-95% of land and
ocean species disappeared, end of the
Permian!
* 300 mile crater found in Antarctica (2006)
* Volcanic activity in Siberia, dust >CO
2
atmosphere, warming.
* End of the Paleozoic

Question 7

What happens in the Triassic period

Answer 7

Pangeastarts to breakup. Mid-Atlantic ridge forms,
* Deserts. Warm climate.
* First small dinosaurs & first primitive mammals.

Question 8

What happens in the Jurassic period

Answer 8

Dinosaurs rule! Large & diverse dinosaurs and
marine vertebrates.
* First birds. Eosinopteryx in Chinese forests
150 Ma

Question 9

What happens in the cretaceous period

Answer 9

Global climate MUCH warmer
* First flowering plants
* Tyrannosaurus rex dominates the plains.
Rocky mountain form
mass extinction
creataceous-tertiary boundary

Question 10

What happens in the tertiary period

Answer 10

Age of mammals
* Giant beavers (60-100 kg), giant bears, mastodons, giant sloths
* Last wooly mammoths, lived on Wrangel Island in Siberia until 4000 years
ago!

Question 11

What happens in the quaternary period

Answer 11

2.6 Ma to the present
* First
hominids
* 20 Ma human-like primates
* Homo2.4 Ma, Homo erectus 1.6 Ma
* Ice Age (again), at least 4 major glacial and
interglacial periods (ice retreat of
continental glaciers)
* Wisconsinan ice age was the last
continental glacier to cover SK and left SK
approx 8000 years b.p.

Question 12

The Anthropocene start date is up for debate. What are the marks that people want to use for the beginning of this epoch?

Answer 12

• 12,000-15,000 years b.p.- agricultural revolution
• About 1750 –industrial revolution began
• Mid-20
  th
  century (1940s-60s) – industrial activity higher, first radioactive
  fallout from nuclear bombs

Question 13

Which periods are contained in the Paleozoic era

Answer 13

• Cambrian
• Ordovician
• Silurian
• Devonian
• Carboniferous
• Permian

Question 14

Which periods are contained in the Mesozoic era

Answer 14

• Triassic
• Jurassic
• Cretaceous

Question 15

What periods are contained in the Cenozoic era

Answer 15

• Tertiary
• Quaternary

Question 16

What are the names of the eons

Answer 16

Precambrian (Hadean, Archaean,
Proterozoic) and Phanerozoic

Question 17

What are the names of the eras

Answer 17

Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic