Paleontology

Question 1

Hadean Eon

Answer 1

4.6 - 4 billion years ago
Begins with the formation of Earth
Volcanic activities, cosmic impacts, storms, extremely hot
No fossils found, but small amounts of organic compounds (maybe first forms of life, biogenic carbon; same ratio of carbon 12 to carbon 13)
Ends with cooling of the Earth

Question 2

Archean Eon

Answer 2

4-2.5 Billion years ago
First time that life flourished (mats of microbes in the primordial seas; stromatolites)
Formation of continents
Atmosphere primarily carbon dioxide

Question 3

Proterozoic Eon

Answer 3

2.5 billion - 541 million years
Photosynthetic bacteria released oxygen into the atmosphere
Anaerobic life decimated; eukaryotes arose
Eukaryotes developed into large, diverse forms of life

Question 4

Phanerozoic Eon

Answer 4

541 million years to current

“visible life”– life as we know it

Question 5

Palaeozoic Era

Answer 5

within Phanerozoic Eon
541 million years - 252 million years ago
Starts  with the Cambrian explosion
Fossil records show complex animals with mineralized remains 
Index fossils were the trilobites
Large fish and sharks 
Land ecosystems developed
Life emerged from water
pangea developed
Ended with a cataclysm "the great dying"

Question 6

Mesozoic Era

Answer 6

252 million years ago - 66 million years ago
Age of reptiles- Age of dinosaurs
mammals
frog
bees
angiosperms
Cretaceous - paleogene extinction event (evidenced by layer of iridium)

Question 7

Cenozoic Era

Answer 7

66 million years ago - present 
Climate warmed- jungles stretched across the planet
Rise of the mammals 
Climate cooled - grassland occured
Ice age
Climate warmed again

Question 8

index fossils

Answer 8

Abundant, distinctive, widespread, organisms, comon during a relatively demarcated time used to identify that time in the geologic record

Question 9

Principle of Uniformitarianism

Answer 9

Natural geologic processes are uniform in frequency and magnitude throughout time

Question 10

Conodonts

Answer 10

jawless fish - palaeozoic eraLooked like cone-shaped teeth, made from hydroxylapetite- same as bones and teeth in vertebrates.
Change color when heated up
wipe-out in the Triassic - jurassic extinction