Earth's History

Fossil tracks of Arthropleura, a giant millipede-like organism (see #13, below) from the Joggins Formation of the Late Carboniferous (323.2 - 298.9 Ma). The floodplain mudstone, minor sandstone, coal, lacustrine limestone and shale, 0-1450 m (Westphalian A-B spores and bivalves) tell us that this part of Nova Scotia was tropical and swampy when the rocks were formed. Photo taken at Joggins, Nova Scotia, Aug 2015.

Earth's landmasses were not always what they are today. Continents formed as Earth's crustal plates shifted and collided over long periods of time. This video shows how today's continents are thought to have evolved over the last 600 million years, and where they'll end up in the next 100 million years.

Here is an Excellent Place to Begin: The 25 Biggest Turning Points in Earth's History (BBC)

Smithsonian Paleobiology Collections

http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/geotime.html

The major divisions of geologic time, with brief explanations of each, are shown in the following scale of relative geologic time, which is arranged in chronological order with the oldest division at the bottom, the youngest at the top.

http://www.palaeos.com/Timescale/timescale.html

website that contains numerous links about geologic time

geologic time portal

Tree of Plant Life showing relationships of the orders of plants: Figure 9, p. 11 from: Plants of the world: an illustrated encyclopedia of vascular plants/Maarten J.M., Michael F. Fay, and Mark W. Chase. The University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Plant Fossils Here

Fossil Display Plant Reconstruction at Smith College

60 Feet-Mural Panels Here

http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm

Climate History

The History of Ice on Earth

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/Geologictime.html

Precambrian Time

The Hadean and the Archean

University of California Museum of Paleontology

The Hadean Time Article describes the time when the solar system was forming, 4.5 to 3.8 billion years ago, before the beginning of Earth's rock record

BBC Video of first place PreCambrian rocks were described

www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/precambrian/hadean.html

The Archean Eon

BBC Video shows stromatolites releasing a new gas, oxygen, that almost killed the predecessors of all life on Earth.

Life on Earth Began on Land, Not in Sea? First cells likely arose in steamy mud pots, study suggests. (NG)

The Proterozoic Eon

Cryogenian Period

Ediacaran Period

650 Million Year Old Earth map

How old is the Lava Extrusion that may be under your house???

600 mya labeled globe Late Precambrian

600 million year old Globe

Proterozoic Globes

(Zen et al., 1983) The 1:250,000 scale Bedrock Geologic Map of Massachusetts, published by the USGS in 1983, shows the distribution of the different rock units, faults, and other features that make up the bedrock of Massachusetts. It was compiled from published 1:24,000-scale maps., unpublished data, and field reconnaissance by the authors.

Find the age of the bedrock under your house

or How old is the Westwood Granite under your house???

Cutting the rocks to build a road in Saint John, New Brunswick, exposed where 545 million year old dark volcanic rock from the Caledonian Terrane (Avalonia) of the Precambrian meets lighter-colored Cambrian rock that is only 544 million years old, from the Brookville Terrane (part of Ganderia).

Early Paleozoic Era

CLIMATE HISTORY

Cambrian

Scientists find 'oldest human ancestor'

BBC Cambrian

Three-Foot //Anomalocaris// Had More Than 30,000 Lenses Per Eye? Fossil predator's eyesight rivaled or exceeded that of modern bugs, study says. (NG)

Early Cambrian Globes

Late Cambrian Globes

Early Paleozoic-Cambrian Explosion, Ordovician, Silurian

Ordovician

Living Fossil Video-A Free-swimming Crinoid called a Feather Star Shows You What Marine Life was like 400 million years ago

Left, a black-and-white closeup of a European cuttlefish’s papillae. Right, a cuttlefish using color, pattern and texture to resemble better the rocks and algae around it.CreditLeft: Paloma T. Gonzalez-Bellido; Right: Roger Hanlon

The Cuttlefish, a Master of Camouflage, Reveals a New Trick

BBC Ordovician

Ordovician Ice Age -BBC video

Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction-BBC Nature

Middle Ordovician Globes

Late Ordovician Globes

Middle Paleozoic Era

CLIMATE HISTORY

Silurian

BBC Silurian

Early Silurian Globes

Creeping Crinoid!

Devonian

Moving downward from the shoulder, the arms of Neil Shubin, fish paleontologist, are built like this: one bone, two bones, lots of bones, digits. The same is true for a bird's wing, a leopard's forward leg and the front fins of Tiktaalik, the ancient fish Shubin discovered in arctic Canada that was one of the first to walk on land.

BBC Devonian

Early Devonian Globes

Middle Devonian Globes

Devonian Map

Late Devonian mass extinction-BBC Nature

Devonian extinction.

Giant Salamander of Japan

World's Oldest Shark Fossil Found

Late Paleozoic Era

CLIMATE HISTORY

The Siberian Traps and the end-Permian Extinction Lindy Elkins.docx

Details Download4 MB

3.End-Permian Mass Extinctions Erwin et al 2002.pdf

Details Download235 KB

Giant Dragonfly Fossil at Harvard University

Early Permian Globes

Late Permian Globes

MESOZOIC sites

CLIMATE HISTORY

Triassic

Contender for world’s oldest dinosaur identified

Triassic Photo Gallery-National Geographic

Triassic Extinctions

Early Triassic Map

Middle Triassic Globes

Late Triassic Globes

Jurassic

Dinosaur Footprints Reservation, Holyoke, Massachusetts

More than 130 tracks revealed in slabs of sandstone. Researchers believe these prints were left by small groups of two-legged, carnivorous dinosaurs, up to 15’ tall.

The first dinosaur prints to be scientifically described are still here to be seen, preserved in sandstone since this valley was a sub-tropical mix of wetlands and shallow lakes, 190 million years ago. The larger Eubrontes prints were likely made by ancestors of the great Tyrannosaurus rex, standing up to 15’ tall and 20’ long. You can see hundreds of fossils not only from the four distinct two-legged dinosaurs, but also stromatolites, fish, plants and other ancient beings. Finally, look for the 20+ dinosaurs trackways, which formed the basis for the novel theory that dinosaurs travelled in packs or groups.

Please respect the ancient and fragile footprints and fossils so future generations may enjoy seeing them.

Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction BBC Nature

Triassic-Jurassic extinction-NG

Jurassic Extinction

National Geographic photos of the Jurassic Period

in the Age of Dinosaurs

Oldest snake fossils show they thrived

Newfound Footprints Stir Debate Over Our Ancestors

The southern part of the hominin trackway at L8, one of the trenches newly excavated at the Tanzanian archaeological site of Laetoli.

PHOTOGRAPH BY RAFFAELLO PELLIZZON

http://www.palaeos.com/Cenozoic/Pliocene/Pliocene.htm

WBGH Channel

Pliocene Maps

A shift in the Caribbean tectonic plate joined North and South America, providing a land bridge… http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/vertpaleo/fhc/plio2.htm

Research at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)

Quaternary Period (Pleistocene and Holocene/Anthropocene)

Pleistocene Epoch

Pleistocene BBC

Last Extinction by NOVA

This video by National Geographic Wild gives you a clue about why this bear is so enormous

The Boston Globe, Metro, Friday, February 22, 2013. In N.H. scallop haul, a potential prehistoric link

Pleistocene Map World

Pleistocene Map North America

From largest to smallest: Woolly mammoth (extinct), African elephant, and American Mastodon (extinct)

Mexican Megafauna of the Pleistocene image by Sergio de la Rosa

Holocene Epoch

Holocene Epoch-BBC

Holocene Mass Extinction?

New species! walking shark

New Giant Lizard Discovery "an Unprecedented Surprise"

Holocene Map North America

Athabasca Glacier receding

Angel Glacier. Rings can be seen in ice in lake. Thick rings indicate winter snow deposition

Anthropocene Epoch

WGBH Science Editor Heather Goldstone will be here to explain why one group of experts believes the first nuclear bomb was the beginning of the end of life as we know it.

National Geographic March 2011

National Public Radio transcript of interview with researchers from University of Leicester

Top 10 New Species of the Year in Pictures by The Guardian

Top 20 New Species Discovered in 2014

List of U.S. Endangered Species

List of Extinct Species in the Midwest

Plants in Peril

Updated Box Score of Listed Species

Why Save Species?

Scientists hope "Frozen Zoo" genetic bank

FEBRUARY 27, 2015, 8:20 AM|At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, scientists are collecting samples from thousands of creatures, including rhinos, teetering on the edge of extinction. John Blackstone reports on what could be the last hope for a nearly doomed species.

will help stop extinction

Climate Anomalies from 1880 to 2013

Annual Accumulated Melt over Greenland 1979 through 2009

Scientists study how boreal forests are responding very visibly to the rise of carbon in the atmosphere

Carbon Cycle Graphic (AMNH)

Anthropocene Globes

Human Evolution

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-evolution-timeline-interactive

http://anthropology.si.edu/humanorigins/faq/gt/cenozoic/cenozoic.htm

Journey of Modern Humans across the globe. Use the interactive animation for an excellent explanation of how climate episodes during the Pleistocene and Holocene affected the journey of modern humans from East Africa to places around the world.

Only 10,000 humans survived the supervolcano eruption 70,000 years ago!