Card Format
years agocard number
Event
Units to the next event
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100 meters (10 dekameters) = 1 billion years
10 meters (1 dekameter) = 100 million years
1 meter = 10 million years
0.1 meter(dm) = 1 million years
0.01 meter (cm) = 100,000 years
0.001 meter (mm) = 10,000 years
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4.6 bya#1
Precambrian Timebegins
The estimated time of the formation of the earth, the earth was entirely molten.
200 my2dkm (10 meter lengths)
______
4.4bya#2
Oldest dated mineral grain found.
400 my4dkm (10 meter lengths)
______
4.0 bya#3
Oldest rock, Oldest probable microfossils.
400 mya4 dkm (10 meter lengths)
______
3.6 bya#4
Oldest definitive evidence of life on Earth.Microfossils- Single cells, prokaryotes.
400 my 4dkm (10 meter lengths)
______
3.2 bya#5
First stromatolites- layered hemispheres of algae and sediments, still found today in Australia
1400 my14dkm (10 meter lengths)
______
1.8 bya#6
First more complex forms of life, the eukaryotes.Organized nucleus. Still single cell though.
600 my6 dkm (10 meter lengths)
______
1.2 bya#7
Oldest dated rock in South Carolina. It was found in Pickens County.
565 my5.65dkm (10 meter lengths)
______
635mya#8
The first good fossils of metazoans- multi-cellular life evidence of jellyfish, soft corals, worms, arthropods. Found as fossils in Australia. Fossils are RARE. All soft-bodied.
94 my9.4 meters
8a End of Precambrian Time, Cambrian Explosion
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541mya#9
Cambrian Period. Beginning of Paleozoic Era
“Ancient Life”. All before was the PreCambrian (86% of all time).
First hard parts, more abundant fossils.Trilobites and brachiopods. Evidence from stromatolites suggests435 days/yr.
56 my5.6 m
______
485mya#10
Ordovician Period
First land plants,First jawed fish. Appalachians begin to form.
42 my4.2 m.
______
443mya#11
Silurian Period
Corals and other invertebrates are abundant.First boney fish.Piedmont collides with North America.
24 my2.4 m
______
419mya#12
Devonian Period
Fish become abundant.First insects.First amphibians.
First trees.
60 my6 m
______
359mya#13
Mississippian Period
large coal swamps, sharks, crinoids; First land vertebrates
Glaciation in polar areas.
36 my3.6 m.
______
323mya#14
Pennsylvanian Period
more coal, first reptiles
24 my2.4 m.
______
299mya#15
Permian Period
First archeosaurs.Glaciation in the southern hemisphere.Conifers develop.
Pangaea forms, Appalachian mountains form
41 my4.1 m.
15a End of the Paleozoic Era
Climate change and lowering of sea level causes a large mass extinction. Other possible causes were volcanic activity and meteor impact.
______
252mya#16
Triassic Period.Mesozoic Era “Middle Life” begins.
First dinosaurs, first mammals, North America and Africa begin rifting apart at the end of the period.
51 my5.1 m.
______
201mya#17
Jurassic Period
Dinosaurs! and first birds. Mountain building in western North America.
56 my5.6 m.
______
145mya#18
Cretaceous Period
Angiosperms (flowering plants) appear.Many large dinosaurs.
79 my7.9 m.
______
18aEnd of the Mesozoic Era
Probable large asteroid or comet impact at the Yucatan in Mexico caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and many other forms of life.
______
66 mya#19
Cenozoic Era “Modern Life” begins.
Paleogene Period.
Mammals dominate.Mountain building- Alps in Europe, Himalaya- Asia, Andes- S. America
43 my 4.3 m.
______
23 mya #20
Neogene Period.
Grasses are abundant, First apes.
20.4 my2.04 m
______
2.6 mya#21
Quaternary Period
Widespread glaciation.Advances and retreats of ice sheets up to about 15,000 years ago. We are still in the Quaternary Period. Rise of human ancestors, humans from 200,000 ya
All of civilization has occurred in the last 6,000 years.
Less than 1 mm on our scale of 1 meter for 10 million years.
0.26 meters to the present
______
100 meters = 1 billion years
10 meters = 100 million years
1 meter = 10 million years
0.1 meter(dm) = 1 million years
1 centimeter = 100 thousand years
1 millimeter = 10 thousand years
0.1 mm = 1 thousand years
(put your thumb and index finger together, then move apart to just see light, thickness of a sheet of paper)