In our first class, we looked at the “Cosmic Calendar,” and Earth’s place in it. The Earth is hardly the stable ground we walk on from home to work to school and so on. Many times in 4.5 billion years of existence catastrophes impacted it so severely, that life on Earth almost came to an end. Even so, most of the species that have walked on it are now extinct. its When we reached the Archean Period, I detailed the characteristics of the stromatolytes living 3 billion years ago. Your next group assignment will be to replicated what I did in class for two different species, living in another geologic period. The following links will help you make sense of the massive spaces of time our Earth has existed through:
- Working in groups, choose another, more recent period to research.
- Submit a comment to this post listing your first and second choice for a geologic time period your group will research.
- Begin researching the forms of life that existed on Earth during that period of time.
- Organize your research by the 7 Properties of Life defined on page 2 of your textbook (Miller, 7th Ed.)
NOTE: Some species have lived through multiple geologic periods of time and may still be alive today (ex: cockroaches and horses). You must describe the species as it existed in the past, not today.
Here is an example of an ‘SM’ in a previous Biology class.
NOTE: the following species have already been researched by prior classes, and cannot be chosen for this class.
No Stromatolytes or Trilobytes!
If you chose a species with a modern descendant, describe its traits back then, not as it appears today.
Cambrian
- Anomalocaris
- Brachiopods
- Hallucigenia
- Hexactinellida
- Trilobytes
Ordovician
- Arandaspis
- Conodonts
- Glomalean
- Graptolite
- Neoasaphus
- Tiktaalik
Silurian
- Coelancanthiformes
- Cooksonia
- Eurypterid
- Pneumodesmus Newmani
Devonian
- Acanthostega
- Adelophthalumus
- Attercopus
- Dicranurus
- Gogonasus
- Hyneria
- Ostracoderms
- Placoderm
- Rhyniella
- Rhyniognatha Hirsti
- Tetrapod
Carboniferous
- Arthropleura
- Colosteus
- Eryops
- Hylonomus
- Rhizodus
- Stethacanthus
- Tullimonstrum
Mississippian
- Archeothryis
- Drydenius
- Colosteus
- Eryops
- Hylonomus
- Mesolepis
Pennsylvanian
- Anthracosaur
- Arthropleura
- Edaphosaurus
- Hylonomus
- Paleodictyopterans
Permian
- Dimetrodon
- Diplocaulus
- Eryops
- Helicoprion
- Jimbacrinus
- Pareiasaur
- Raranimus
- Therapsidas
Triassic
- Clatrotitan
- Coelophysis
- Cynognathus
- Gerrothorax
- Herrerasaurus
- Huphsuchus
- Ichthyosaurus
- Lystrosaurus
- Nothosaurus
- Plesiosaur
- Prestosuchus
Jurassic
- Allosaurus
- Archaeopteryx
- Belemnitida
- Brachiosaurus
- Brontosaurus
- Camarasaurus
- Castorocauda
- Ceratosaurus
- Cryolophosaurus
- Dilophosaurus
- Diplodocus
- Glyphea
- Guanlong
- Lexovisaurus
- Megalosaurus
- Rhamphorhynchus
- Spinosaurus
- Stegosaurus
- Stenopteryguis
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
Cretaceous
- Alamosaurus
- Albertosaurus
- Ankylosaurus
- Carnotaurus
- Confuciusornis
- Dakosaurus
- Dromasaurs
- Kakuru
- Kronosaurus
- Oviraptor
- Parasaurolophus
- Platypterygius
- Pteranodon
- Pterodaustro
- Pteranodon
- Qantassaurus
- Spinosaurus
- Triceratops
- Velociraptos
Paleocene
- Chriacus
- Crodilia
- Gastornis
- Eobasileus
- Mesonychid
- Pantolambda
- Ornithorhynchiedae
Oligocene
- Archaeospheniscus
- Agriarctos
- Branisella boliviana
- Janjucetus
Eocene
- Anoplotheriidae
- Gigantophis
- Knightia
- Xiphodontidae
Miocene
- Argentavis
- Deaodon
- Hyaendon
- Livyatan
- Megalodon
Pliocene
- Chalicotherium
- Equus simplicidens
- Megatherium
Pleistocene
- Champsosaurs
- Dire wolf
- Glyptodon
- Megalonyx Jeffersonii
- sabre tooth cat
- straight tusk elephant
- woolly mammoth
- Zygomaturus