Lecture 6 Flashcards
how many ice ages have there been in the last 3 Ga
5-6
ice age
relatively long period of time where the earths surface temperature and atmospheric temperature are reduces that allow for continental, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers to grow. within one ice age there are several glacial and interglacial periods
most recent ice age
late cenezoic ice age, 34 Ma - present
glacial periods
major ice sheets on the continents, lowered sea levels, there was one 20,000 to 25,000 years ago that was the last glacial maximum
interglacial periods
restricted ice volumes, raised sea levels, like the present time one that started
how much of the world is covered in ice right now
less than 10 %
how much of the world was covered in ice at the last glacial maximm
30%
oldest canadian animals
ediacaran biota, from the ediacaran period (635 to 539Ma). they are seen in mistaken point, newfoundland, and all the life forms are from 575 to 541 Ma
examples of some ediacaran biota
osmotrophs and matground grazers
examples of cambrian fauna
trilobite, hyolithis, lingulid brachiopod, eocrinoid
cambrian period
541 to 485.4 Ma
walcott Quarry, Burgess shale
collapse of the reef top deposited shallow water fauna that were previously higher in muds at the base of the escarpment. the conditions allowed preservation of soft parts (lagerstatte). shale is 508 Ma, well into the cambrian period
cambrain explosion of life
started 538.8 Ma. possible causes were increse in oxygen, or increase in carbonate concentration, allowing skeletons to form. all principal animal groups developed between 530 and 520 Ma. shelled forms developed and trace fossils showed complex behaviour.
panarthropods
the lobopods and radiodonts (spoke teeth) are now thought to be the stem-ancestors of the arthropods. modern genomics as well as the burgess and similar fossils help understand how tardigrades, onychophorans and arthropods are related
tectonics in cambrain north america
a period of tectonic stability with no divergent or convergent boundaries only transform from 538.8 to 485 Ma. divergent margins along the east and west coast. Carbonates, sands deposited in shallow inland seas are found in the ottawa area now
what did the taconic mountains do
supplied a lot of sediment inland to the appalachian foreland basin which created the NE
mid-ordovician in north america
most of the continent is covered by shallow inland seas - carbonate deposition. erosion of mountains provided source of clastic sediments
epeiric
shallow inland seas
queenston clastic wedge
thick acumulation of sediment or sedimentary rocks in a lens shape. thin near the mountain fron, thickens landwards, then becomes thinner further inland
niagaran paleozoic stratigraphy
queenston clastic wedge is in the NE as queenston shale, whirlpool sandstone, grimsby shale, thorold sandstone.
middle silurian rocks record some mud deposition (shales) and reef formations (limestones and dolomites)
middle silurian in NA
input of clastic sediments reduced. depostion of limestones (clear water) and some shales
largest salt mine in the world
goderic ontario. in a really ideal spot to reach rocks from the silurian period which are mainly halites and evaporites
paleozoic sedimentary basins
paleozoic rocks 800 m thick below hamilton. it thickens westward to michigan basin and eastward to the appalachian basin
structure of paleozoic layer
strata gently dips to the SW(less than 1 deg.) because it is a basin. there is a strike NE-SW, younging to the SW. resistant silurian limestones and dolostones form the NE
examples of life in the paleozoic seas.
all marine, no life had left it yet. brachiopods, corals, eurypterids, trilobites, cephalopods. these are preserved as fossils not
crinoids (sea lilies)
animals attached to the sea floor. arms gather food particles from the water and the stem consists of plates that wall apart when the animal dies. the class crinoidea currently has 700 living species but they were more diverse in the ordovician
cephalopods
squid like animal with coiled or straight shell that has an internal chamber. they were carniveroud pelagic organisms. they were like 6ft long
pelagic organims
live and swim in water columns, meaning they went from the ocean floor to surface
tabulate corals
extinct but related to modern corals. there were 300 species identified. capture small animals with tenticles, and were important reef builders in their time. they were not big, and only a couple cm in diameter.
parts of tabulate corals
caralite was the honey comb looking section and tabulae are sheet like structures running lengthwise
eurypterids (sea scorpions)
aquatic invertibrates (brackish estuaries). they had nasty pincers that indicate penetration, were up to 3m long, and ordovician (permian)
brachiopods
outnumbered trilobites by teh ordovician. bivalve mollusc with asymetrical shells, sesssile bottom dwellers and filter feeders. they were very comon in the Silurian (5,000 genera), are rare in present day (100 genera)
what was rodinia
an ancient super continent
phanerozoic sequences
rodinia started to break up around 570 Ma, proto-atlantic ocean opens up (laperus ocean) this diversified life
what are mass extinctions
episodes of globally significant extinctions where more than 20% of marine life genera goes extinct, and 75% of all species goes extinct.
how many mass extinction events have their been
5, all in the phanerozoic
what were the mass extinction names
Late ordovician, late devonian, late permian, late triassic, late cretaceous
what needs to be known to figure out mass extinctions
when the event occurred, how quickly it occurred, and what other global changes were taking place
late ordovician extinction
- ordovician-Silurian Extinction
445-440 Ma. 57% of marine genera disappeared (21 families of trilobites; brachipods, bivalves, corals) and 85% of marine species. probably occured over several million years in two phaes. suspectes cause is glaciation in the sahara that was by the south pole: ice sheets impacted photosynthetic organisms, lower sea levels diminished habitats, and there was a decrease in temp
what period did life move to land
in the middle to upper paleozoic (415 to 250 Ma). this began plants and animal life on land
when did life move to land
440 - 355 Ma. in the mid paleozoic. This was the mid paleozoic marine revolution.
what happened in the mid-paleozoic marine revolution
appearance of new predators - jawed fishes, devonian period (age of the fishes) - placoderms, sharks, rays, lungfish, and coelaccanths, and evolution of amphibians. it was an evolutionary step that lead to 99% of all vertibrates
why were jawed fishes important
the nevolution of them brought up a lot of predation, which awarded most vertebrates to thrive