Geologic Time Scale
This timeline shows the entire history of life on Earth, from the first cells to the biodiversity we have today.
What is the Geologic Time Scale?
What is absolute dating?
This is the name for a fossil that includes part of the actual organism that was preserved.
What is a body fossil?
This is a scientific idea that has been well-tested.
What is a scientific theory?
This is when an entire species dies off.
What is extinction?
This scientific law describes the fact that older rock strata are always found underneath younger rock strata.
What is the law of superposition?
This is the name for a fossil that includes footprints, bite marks, or a mold of an ancient organism.
What is a trace fossil?
It is believed that life started here.
What are deep sea hydrothermal vents?
This is when a lot of new species evolve at the same time. One example is the Cambrian Explosion.
What is adaptive radiation?
This is the type of fossil dating that compares the locations of fossils in rock strata.
What is relative dating?
This consists of every known fossil and its information. It helped create the geologic time scale, which is a model that includes all the information found in this.
What is the fossil record?
This is a poor type of scientific evidence. (provide an example)
Answer may include:
What is "I saw a video on tiktok?"
What is "My cousin's neighbor did an experiment?"
What is "That's just what I think?"
This is when many species go extinct at once. One example is the asteroid impact that killed many species of dinosaurs.
What is a mass extinction?
This is the age of a fossil that contains 100% Uranium.
Uranium's half-life: 700 million years.
What is 0 years old?
This is what happens to bones when a fossil is formed.
What is being turned to rock by pressure and minerals?
This is great type of scientific evidence. (Please provide an example)
Answers may include:
What is "I checked a reputable textbook?"
What is "I read multiple scientific studies?"
What is "My lab group repeated an experiment multiple times and found the same result each time?"
Use your geologic time scale to find the era and period when the first birds evolved.
What is the Jurassic Period in the Mesozoic Era.
This is the age of a fossil that contains 25% Uranium.
Uranium's half-life: 700 million years.
What is 2100 million years old?
This is the oldest known fossil, which was found to be over 3.7 billion years old.
What are stromatolites or bacterial fossils?
These are the names of at least two ancient organisms that no longer exist.
Answers may include:
What are stromatolite, archaeopteryx, trilobite, T-rex, pterodactyl, nautilus, mammoth, lepidodendron, diatrima, smilodon, and more?