Changing Earth
Precambrian Era
The Palacozoic Era
Mesozoic & Cenozoic
100
Give an example of how the Earth is changing all the time
- Climate change
- Eustatic change
- Biodiversity Change
- Changes in Plate movements
100
Were organisms in this time period unicellular or multicellular?
Unicellular
100
What is Pangea?
A supercontinent where all of Earth's land mass was joined together.
100
What is a gymnosperm?
A plant with exposed seeds
200
What is catastrophism?
A proposal by George Cuvier that sudden catastrophes like the meteors changed Earth in a short time.
200
What are prokaryotes?
They are single cell organisms that lack a membrane-bound nucleus
200
When did the Palaeozoic Era begin?
It began with the rupture of Pannotia and ended with Pangea.
200
What caused the second extinction of the Mesozoic era?
A giant meteriorite in the Gulf of Mexico
300
What are the two forms of dating (for time) and describe them:
Absolute dating (radiometric method using fossils to decide time) and relative dating (geological principles to put events in timeline without specific dates)
300
What is the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells
Eukaryotic cells have a membrane-bound nucleus and organelles, while prokaryotic cells do not.
300
Which period marked the greatest extinctions of life forms?
The Permian period
300
What was the dominant group at this time and why?
Reptiles because they could colonize the air, water, and land
400
Describe two ways to reconstruct geological history in order:
Put the strata in order
Identify geological structures
Put the events in chronological order
Reconstruct geographic history
400
How did the amounts of water vapour, carbon dioxide and oxygen evolve?
The emergence of photosynthesis by organisms like cyanobacteria dramatically changed the atmosphere by consuming carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, which slowly built up over billions of years.
400
Name the order of life forms that colonized dry land:
Plants, arthropods, amphibians, and reptiles
400
What were the two extinction events in the Mesozoic Era called?
The Permian-Triassic extinction and the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions
500
E, C, B -> D ->A
500
What is the Great Oxidation event?
It began approximately 2.4 to 2.1 billion years ago when free oxygen first began to accumulate significantly in Earth's atmosphere and oceans. This was caused by the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis in cyanobacteria, which produced oxygen as a byproduct. The event drastically changed Earth's geochemistry and paved the way for the evolution of aerobic respiration and more complex life.
500
Give specific examples of the different life forms on land in the Palaeozoic Era
Trilobite marine anthropods, Cruzians
Graptolites (microscopic plankton)
Giant ferms (carboniferous forests)
Armored fish
500
Describe which types of life forms became or stayed dominant after the K-T extinction:
Mammals and flowering plants replaced reptile and gymnosperms. Only birds (descended from dinosaurs) maintained their air dominance.