EARTH SCIENCE

Chapter 9 Understanding Earth’s History

9.1 How Fossilization Creates Fossils

How do you find

fossils?
In lots of places, you
can go on a field trip
to find fossils. The
fossils are found in
rock layers. You can
break apart the rock
layers and find the
fossils.
What Are Fossils?
Fossils are preserved remains or traces of organisms that lived in the past. Most
preserved remains are hard parts, such as teeth, bones, or shells. Hard parts are
less likely to be destroyed before they can become fossils. Even so, a very tiny
percentage of living things become fossils. These types of fossils are called body
fossils (Figure below, Figure below, and Figure below)

The preserved remains of an The preserved remains of an A group of preserved trilobites, a

variety of ancient marine
ammonite. Archaeopteryx, a type of dinosaur.
arthropods.
Preserved traces can include footprints, burrows, or even wastes. Examples of
these types of fossils, called trace fossils are picture below (Figure below and
Figure below).

The preserved trace of a A preserved trace: burrows

dinosaur footprint, originally in made by prehistoric worms.
mud.

Summary
 Fossils are the remains or traces of living organisms.
 Body fossils are usually hard parts, such as bones, teeth, and shells.
 Trace fossils are the traces of organisms, not parts of them. Trace fossils
include footprints, feces, and burrows.

9.2 Types of Fossilization

Where could you find the best fossils?
The best fossils would probably be ones that
you could get DNA from. DNA holds the genes
of an organisms. The genes could tell
scientists a lot about what the organisms was
really like. Where could you find a fossil with
DNA? How about a melting glacier? You might
be able to find a creature that had been frozen
into the ice for a long time. A frozen animal
would be very well preserved!

How Fossils Form

The process by which remains or traces of living things become fossils is called
fossilization (Figure below). Most fossils are preserved in sedimentary rocks.
Fossils in Sedimentary Rock
Most fossils form when a dead organism is buried in sediment. Layers of sediment
slowly build up. The sediment is buried and turns into sedimentary rock. The
remains inside the rock also turn to rock. The remains are replaced by minerals.
The remains literally turn to stone. This type of
fossilization is called permineralization.

Fossilization. This flowchart shows how most fossils form.

Other Ways Fossils Form

Fossils may form in other ways. With complete
preservation, the organism doesn't change much. As
pictured below (Figure below), tree sap may cover an
organism and then turn into amber. The original
organism is preserved so that scientists might be able
to study its DNA. Organisms can also be completely
preserved in tar or ice.

Complete Preservation. This spider looks the same as it did the day
it died millions of years ago!

Molds and casts are another way organisms can

be fossilized. A mold is an imprint of an
organism left in rock. The organism's remains
break down completely. Rock that fills in the
mold resembles the original remains. The fossil
that forms in the mold is called a cast (Figure
below). Molds and casts usually form in
sedimentary rock. With compression (Figure
below), an organism's remains are put under great pressure inside rock layers.
This leaves behind a dark stain in the rock.

Molds and Casts. A mold is a hole left in

rock after an organism's remains break. A
cast forms from the minerals that fill that
hole and solidify.
Compression. A dark stain is left on a rock that was compressed. These leaves were fossilized by compression.

Why Fossilization Is Rare

It’s very unlikely that any given organism will become a fossil. The remains of
many organisms are consumed. Remains also may be broken down by other living
things or by the elements. Hard parts, such as bones, are much more likely to
become fossils. But even they rarely last long enough to become fossils. Organisms
without hard parts are the least likely to be fossilized. Fossils of soft organisms,
from bacteria to jellyfish, are very rare.

Summary
 Very few fossils preserve soft parts. Insects may be preserved in amber.
Insects and other animals may be preserved in ice.
 Some fossils are created when minerals replace the organic material. This is
called permineralization.
 A fossil may be in the form of a mold. A mold is the depression left in the
shape of the material.
 A fossil may be preserved as a cast. A cast is the rocky material that fills the
mold

9.3 Earth History and Clues from Fossils

How could there be seashells at 20,000 feet?
Shell beds are found high in the Andes Mountains. How did they get there? This is
more evidence that Earth is a dynamic planet! The rock that is on top of the
mountains was once beneath the sea. Due to plate tectonics, the mountains rose
slowly above the ocean. This process took a really long time. This is one way we
know that Earth is really old!
Learning from Fossils
Of all the organisms that ever lived, only a tiny number became fossils. Still,
scientists learn a lot from fossils. Fossils are our best clues about the history of life
on Earth.
Fossil Clues
Fossils give clues about major geological events. Fossils, like the one pictured
below (Figure below), can also give clues about past climates. Here are just a few
examples.
Fossils of ocean animals are found at the top of Mt.
Everest. Mt. Everest is the highest mountain on Earth.
These fossils show that the area was once at the
bottom of a sea. The seabed was later uplifted to form
the Himalaya mountain range.
Fossils of plants are found in Antarctica. Currently,
Antarctica is almost completely covered with ice. The fossil plants show that
Antarctica once had a much warmer climate.
What can we learn from fossil clues like this fish fossil found in the Wyoming desert?

Index Fossils
Fossils are used to determine the ages of rock layers. Index fossils are the most
useful for this. Index fossils are of organisms that lived over a wide area. They
lived for a fairly short period of time. An index fossil allows a scientist to determine
the age of the rock it is in.

Trilobite fossils (Figure

below) are common
index fossils. Trilobites
were widespread
marine animals. They
lived between 500 and
600 million years ago.
Rock layers containing
trilobite fossils must be
that age. Different species of trilobite fossils can be used to narrow the age even
more.
Trilobites are good index fossils. Why are trilobite fossils
useful as index fossils?

Summary
 Fossils tell a lot about the
environment during the time they
were deposited.
 Climate is one important thing that
can be indicated by fossils. This is
because organisms have specific
conditions in which they can live.
 An index fossil must be distinctive,
widespread, and short-lived. It
indicates a specific period of time.

9.4 Principles of Relative Dating

Where's a good place to see geology?

The Southwestern United States is a fantastic place to see geology. The arid
climate means that that the rocks are not covered by vegetation. In many places,
especially the national parks, the formations are fantastic. The rocks themselves
are very interesting. The principles discussed below are easily seen around the
Southwest.

Relative Age Dating

Early geologists had no way to determine the absolute age
of a geological material. If they didn't see it form, they
couldn't know if a rock was one hundred years or 100
million years old. What they could do was determine the
ages of materials relative to each other. Using sensible
principles they could say whether one rock was older than
another. They could also determine when a process
occurred relative to those rocks.

Laws of Stratigraphy
The study of rock strata is called stratigraphy. The laws of stratigraphy can help
scientists understand Earth’s past. The laws of stratigraphy are usually credited to
a geologist from Denmark named Nicolas Steno. He lived in the 1600s. The laws
are illustrated in Figure below; refer to the figure as you read about Steno's laws
below
(a) Original horizontality. (b) Lateral continuity. (c) Superposition.

Law of Superposition
Superposition refers to the position of rock layers and their relative ages (Figure
below). Relative age means age in comparison with other rocks, either younger or
older. The relative ages of rocks are important for understanding Earth’s history.
New rock layers are always deposited on top of existing rock layers. Therefore,
deeper layers must be older than
layers closer to the surface. This is
the law of superposition.

Superposition. The rock layers at the bottom of

this cliff are much older than those at the top.
What force eroded the rocks and exposed the
layers?

Law of Lateral Continuity

Rock layers extend laterally, or out to the sides. They may cover very broad areas,
especially if they formed at the bottom of ancient seas. Erosion may have worn
 away some of the rock, but layers on
either side of eroded areas will still
“match up.”

The Grand Canyon (Figure below) is a

good example of lateral continuity. You
can clearly see the same rock layers on
opposite sides of the canyon. The
matching rock layers were deposited at
the same time, so they are the same age.
Lateral Continuity. Layers of the same rock type are found across canyons at the Grand Canyon.

Law of Original Horizontality

Sediments were deposited in ancient seas in horizontal,
or flat, layers. If sedimentary rock layers are tilted, they
must have moved after they were deposited.

Law of Cross-Cutting Relationships

Rock layers may have another rock cutting across them, like the igneous rock
pictured below (Figure below). Which rock is older? To determine this, we use the
law of cross-cutting relationships. The cut rock layers are older than the rock that
cuts across them.
Cross-cutting relationships in rock layers. The rock layers at the bottom are cut off by the rock layers that are higher
up. Which layers are older and which are younger?

Unconformities
Geologists can learn a lot about Earth’s
history by studying sedimentary rock
layers. But in some places, there’s a gap
in time when no rock layers are present. A
gap in the sequence of rock layers is
called an unconformity.

Look at the rock layers pictured below

(Figure below); they show a feature called
Hutton’s unconformity. The unconformity
was discovered by James Hutton in the 1700s. Hutton saw that the lower rock
layers are very old. The upper layers are much younger. There are no layers in
between the ancient and recent layers. Hutton thought that the intermediate rock
layers eroded away before the more recent rock layers were deposited.

Hutton's discovery was a very important event in geology! Hutton determined that
the rocks were deposited over time. Some were eroded away. Hutton knew that
deposition and erosion are very slow. He realized that for both to occur would take
an extremely long time. This made him realize that Earth must be much older than
people thought. This was a really big discovery! It meant there was enough time
for life to evolve gradually.
Hutton's unconformity, in Scotland.

Summary
 Sediments are deposited horizontally. This is original horizontality.
 The oldest sedimentary rocks are at the bottom of the sequence. This is the
law of superposition.
 Rock layers are laterally continuous.This is the law of lateral continuity.
 Rock B cuts across rock A. Rock A must be older. This is the principle of
cross-cutting relationships.
 A gap in a rock sequence is an unconformity.

9.5 Determining Relative Ages

What are the relative ages of these rocks?
This photo shows rock layers and a fault—the fault is the large diagonal crack
running through this rock. These features can tell us several things about relative
age. Unless the rock was turned
over somehow, we can assume that
the layers on top are younger than
the layers on the bottom. Since the
fault separates the layers, we can
tell that the fault occurred after all
the layers were deposited.

Determining the Relative Ages of

Rocks
Steno’s principles are essential for
determining the relative ages of rocks and rock layers. Remember that in relative
dating, scientists do not determine the exact age of a fossil or rock. They look at a
sequence of rocks to try to decipher when an event occurred relative to the other
events represented in that sequence. The relative age of a rock, then, is its age in
comparison with other rocks. (1) Do you know which rock is older and which is
younger? (2) Do you know how old the rock's layers are in years? For relative ages,
you know #1 but not #2.

In some cases, it is very tricky to determine the sequence of events that leads to a
certain formation. In the picture below, can you figure out what happened in what
order (Figure below)? Write it down and then check the following paragraphs.

A geologic cross section: Sedimentary rocks (A-C), igneous intrusion (D), fault (E).

The principle of cross-cutting relationships states that a fault or intrusion is

younger than the rocks that it cuts through. The fault cuts through all three
sedimentary rock layers (A, B, and C) and also the intrusion (D). So the fault must
be the youngest feature. The intrusion (D) cuts through the three sedimentary rock
layers, so it must be younger than those layers. By the law of superposition, C is
the oldest sedimentary rock, B is younger and A is still younger.

The full sequence of events is:

Layer C formed.
Layer B formed.
Layer A formed.
After layers A-B-C were present, intrusion
D cut across all three.
Fault E formed, shifting rocks A through C
and intrusion D.
Weathering and erosion created a layer of
soil on top of layer A.
Summary
The oldest rock units lie beneath the

younger ones.
 By the principle of cross-cutting
relationships (and common sense), we know that something must exist
before something else can cut across it.
  The history of a section of rocks can be deciphered using the principles
outlined in this concept.

9.6 Correlation Using Relative Ages

How would you correlate two

rock units?
On a field trip in the southwestern
United States you would see some
very unique rock layers. You
might see a distinctive whitish
rock unit that looks like sand
dunes. This rock is the Navajo
Sandstone. The first photo is
from the Valley of Fire near
Las Vegas, Nevada. The second
is from Capitol Reef
National Park in Utah. These sites
are roughly 250 miles apart.
Sand dunes stretched across
this part of the country during
the Mesozoic.

Matching Rock Layers

When rock layers are in the same place, it’s easy to give them relative ages. But
what if rock layers are far apart? What if they are on different continents? What
evidence is used to match rock layers in different places?

Widespread Rock Layers

Some rock layers extend over a very wide area. They may be found on more than
one continent or in more than one country. They are matched up by correlation.
For example, the famous White Cliffs of Dover are on the coast of southeastern
England. These distinctive rocks are matched by similar white cliffs in France,
Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Denmark (Figure below). It is important that this
chalk layer goes across the English Channel. The rock is so soft that the Channel
Tunnel connecting England and France was carved into it!

Chalk Cliffs. (A)

Matching chalk
cliffs in Denmark
and (B) in Dover,
U.K.

Key Beds
Like index fossils, key beds are used to match rock layers. A key bed is a thin layer
of rock. The rock must be unique and widespread. For example, a key bed from
around the time that the dinosaurs went extinct is very important. A thin layer of
clay was deposited over much of Earth’s surface. The clay has large amount of the
element iridium. Iridium is rare on Earth but common in asteroids. This unusual
clay layer has been used to match rock up layers all over the world. It also led to
the hypothesis that a giant asteroid struck Earth and caused the dinosaurs to go
extinct.

Using Index Fossils

Index fossils are commonly used to match rock layers in different places (Figure
below). If two rock layers have the same index fossils, then they’re probably about
the same age.
Using Index Fossils to Match Rock Layers. Rock layers with the same index fossils must have formed at about the
same time. The presence
of more than one type of
index fossil provides
stronger evidence that
rock layers are the same
age.

Summary
A single 
rock unit
contains the story of the geology of that location. To understand the geology
of a region, scientists use correlation.
 To correlate rock units, something distinctive must be present in each. This
can include an index fossil, a unique rock type, a key bed, or a unique
sequence of rocks.
 A key bed can be global. An example is the iridium layer that was deposited
at the time of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions.

9.7 Geologic Time Scale

Why would you want to name time?
When you refer to events in the history of your life
you often link it to a time period. "When I was in
kindergarten..." might be the start of your story. It
helps scientists to have names to refer to events in
Earth history. For this reason, they developed the
geologic time scale.
The Geologic Time Scale
Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago. Geologists
divide this time span into smaller periods. Many of
the divisions mark major events in life history.
Dividing Geologic Time
Divisions in Earth history are recorded on the geologic time scale. For example,
the Cretaceous ended when the dinosaurs went extinct. European geologists were
the first to put together the geologic time scale. So, many of the names of the time
periods are from places in Europe. The Jurassic Period is named for the Jura
Mountains in France and Switzerland, for example.

Putting Events in Order

To create the geologic time scale, geologists correlated rock layers. Steno's laws
were used to determine the relative ages of rocks. Older rocks are at the bottom,
and younger rocks are at the top. The early geologic time scale could only show
the order of events. The discovery of radioactivity in the late 1800s changed that.
Scientists could determine the exact age of some rocks in years. They assigned
dates to the time scale divisions. For example, the Jurassic began about 200 million
years ago. It lasted for about 55 million years.

Divisions of the Geologic Time Scale

The largest blocks of time on the geologic time scale are called “eons.” Eons are
split into “eras.” Each era is divided into “periods.” Periods may be further divided
into “epochs.” Geologists may just use “early” or “late.” An example is “late
Jurassic,” or “early
Cretaceous.” Pictured below
is the geologic time scale
(Figure below).
Summary
 The geologic time scale divides Earth history into named units. Naming time
periods makes it easier to talk about them.
 The units of the time scale are separated by major events in Earth or life
history.
 In the geologic time scale, time units are divided and subdivided into smaller
pieces.

9.8 Tree Rings, Ice

Cores, and Varves
How could you tell the age of this
ruin?
Mesa Verde in Southwestern
Colorado is the site of beautiful cliff
dwellings. The people who
inhabited these dwellings are long
gone. If you go there you will hear
the history of the area, complete with dates. How do archeologists know when the
people lived here? How do they know the ages of the structures there? Tree ring
dating is extremely useful for finding the age of ancient structures.

Tree Ring Dating

Cut into a tree and you can see its rings. In some
locations, the summer growth band is light-colored and
the winter band is dark. Each light-dark band represents
one year. You can tell how long the tree lived by
counting the number of tree rings (Figure below). Age
dating by tree rings is called dendrochronology.
Cross-section showing growth rings.

You can tell other things from tree rings too. In a good year a tree will produce a
wide ring. A summer drought will produce a smaller ring. These variations will
appear in all trees in a region. The same pattern can be found in all the trees in the
area. This pattern helps scientist to identify a particular time period.
Scientists have records of tree rings going back over the past 2,000 years. By
matching up patterns they can tell when a tree (or a piece of wood from one) lived.
Wood fragments from old buildings and ancient ruins can be age dated. The
outermost ring gives the date when the tree died.

Ice Cores
Other processes create yearly layers that can be used for dating. On a glacier,

snow falls in winter. In summer, dust accumulates. This leads to a snow-dust

annual pattern. This pattern can be seen down into the ice (Figure below).
Scientists drill deep into ice sheets. Ice cores can be hundreds of meters long. The
ice cores show how the environment has changed. Gas bubbles in the ice can be
analyzed to show how atmospheric gases have changed. This can yield clues about
climate. Long ice cores have allowed scientists to create a record of polar climate
going back hundreds of thousands of years.
Ice core section showing annual layers.

Varves
Lake sediments also have an annual pattern. This is
easy to see in lakes that are located at the end of
glaciers. The glacier melts rapidly in the summer. This
produces a thick deposit of sediment in the lake. Thin,
clay-rich layers are deposited in the winter. The
resulting layers are called varves. Varves give scientists
clues about past climate conditions (Figure below). A warm summer might result in
a very thick sediment layer. A cooler summer might yield a thinner layer. Like tree
rings, these patterns can be used to identify time periods.
Ancient varve sediments in a rock outcrop.

Summary
 Where conditions vary seasonally, trees develop distinctive rings. Ice
contains more or less dust. Lake sediments show more or less clay.
 Tree rings, ice cores, and varves indicate the environmental conditions at
the time they were made.
 The distinctive patterns of tree rings, ice cores, and varves go back
thousands of years. They can be used to determine the time they were made.

9.9 Radioactive Decay as a Measure of Age

When do you stop counting?
Pretend that the large green cylinder is a parent isotope. Now you can visualize
the decay of the parent to the daughter. It's easy to see that the second cylinder is
half the size of the first. The third is half the size of the second. But when the
cylinders get small, the differences are much harder to see. At some point, there is
too little of the parent left. That isotope pair is no longer useful for dating.

Radioactive Decay
Radioactive decay is the breakdown of unstable elements into stable elements. To
understand this process, recall that the atoms of all elements contain the particles
protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Isotopes
An element is defined by the number of protons it contains. All atoms of a given
element contain the same number of protons. The number of neutrons in an

element may vary. Atoms of an element with different numbers of neutrons are
called isotopes.
Consider carbon as an example. Two isotopes
of carbon are shown below (Figure below).
Compare their protons and neutrons. Both
contain six protons. But carbon-12 has six
neutrons and carbon-14 has eight neutrons.

Isotopes are named for their number of protons plus neutrons. If a

carbon atom had seven neutrons, what would it be named?
 Almost all carbon atoms are carbon-12. This is a stable
isotope of carbon. Only a tiny percentage of carbon
atoms are carbon-14. carbon-14 is unstable. It is a
radioactive isotope of carbon. Pictured below is carbon
dioxide (Figure below), which forms in the atmosphere
from carbon-14 and oxygen. Neutrons in cosmic rays
strike nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere. The nitrogen
forms carbon-14. Carbon in the atmosphere combines with oxygen to form carbon
dioxide. Plants take in carbon dioxide during
photosynthesis. In this way, carbon-14 enters food
chains.
Carbon-14 forms in the atmosphere. It combines with oxygen and forms
carbon dioxide. How does carbon-14 end up in fossils?

Decay of Unstable Isotopes

Like other unstable isotopes, carbon-14 breaks down, or decays. The original
atoms are called the parent isotopes. For carbon-14 decay, each carbon-14 atom
loses an beta particle. It changes to a stable atom of nitrogen-14. The stable atom
at the end is the daughter product (Figure below).

Unstable isotopes, such as carbon-14, decay by

losing atomic particles. They form different, stable
elements when they decay.

The decay of an unstable isotope to a

stable element occurs at a constant
rate. This rate is different for each
parent-daughter isotope pair. The
decay rate is measured in a unit
called the half-life. The half-life is the
time it takes for half of a given
amount of an isotope to decay. For
example, the half-life of carbon-14 is
5,730 years. Imagine that you start
out with 100 grams of carbon-14. In
5,730 years, half of it decays. This leaves 50 grams of carbon-14. Over the next
5,730 years, half of the remaining amount will decay. Now there are 25 grams of
carbon-14. How many grams will there be in another 5,730 years? The figure
below graphs the rate of decay of a substance (Figure below)
The rate of decay of a radioactive substance is constant over time.
Summary
 A half-life is the time it takes for half
of the parent isotopes of an element
to change to the daughter product.
 With alpha decay, the nucleus loses
two protons and two neutrons.
 Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730
years.

9.10 Radiometric Dating

Can wood give an age in another way?
In the section on tree ring dating, there was a photo of a ruin at Mesa Verde
National Park. This photo is also from Mesa Verde. In archeological sites, wood
can be dated by tree rings. It can also be dated by radiometric dating. Carbon-14
dating is very useful for ruins that contain wood. If the tree died around the time
the ladder was created, then carbon-14 can tell the age of the ladder. If the ladder
was built for the site, then that age will be the age of the archeological site.

Radiometric Dating
The rate of decay of unstable isotopes can be used to estimate the absolute ages of
fossils and rocks. This type of dating is called radiometric dating.

Carbon-14 Dating
The best-known method of radiometric dating is carbon-14 dating. This method is
also called radiocarbon dating. A living thing takes in carbon-14 (along with stable
carbon-12). As the carbon-14 decays, it is replaced with more carbon-14. After the
organism dies, it stops taking in carbon. That includes carbon-14. The carbon-14
that is in its body continues to decay. So the organism contains less and less
carbon-14 as time goes on. We can estimate the amount of carbon-14 that has
decayed by measuring the amount of carbon-14 to carbon-12. We know how fast
carbon-14 decays. With this information, we can tell how long ago the organism
died.
Carbon-14 has a relatively short half-life. It decays quickly compared to some other
unstable isotopes. So carbon-14 dating is useful for specimens younger than

50,000 years old. That’s a blink of an eye in geologic time. But radiocarbon dating
is very useful for more recent events. One important use of radiocarbon is early
human sites. Carbon-14 dating is also limited to the remains of once-living things.
To date rocks, scientists use other radioactive isotopes.

Other Radioactive Isotopes

The isotopes listed below (Table below) are used to date igneous rocks. These
isotopes have much longer half-lives than carbon-14. Because they decay more
slowly, they can be used to date much older specimens. Which of these isotopes
could be used to date a rock that formed half a million years ago? How about half a
billion years ago?
Limitations of Radiometric Dating
Radiometric dating is a very useful tool, but it does have limits:

The material being dated must have measurable amounts of the parent and/or the
daughter isotopes.
Radiometric dating can only be done on some materials. It is not useful for
determining the age of sedimentary rocks. For this, geologists date a nearby
igneous rock. Then they use relative dating techniques to figure out the age of the
sedimentary rock. They may not get it exactly, but there will be some idea.
Summary
 Radiocarbon is useful for relatively young, carbon-based materials. Other
longer-lived isotopes are good for older rocks and minerals.
 Different isotope pairs are useful for certain materials of certain ages.
 Radiometric dating cannot be used if parent or daughter are not
measurable.

9.11 Age of Earth

What is deep time?
We can look so far out into space that it's hard to imagine the distances. We also
have trouble imagining the extend of geologic time. This section might help.

Age of Earth
Earth scientists use radiometric dating, index fossils, and other clues. They have
determined that Earth is 4.6 billion years old. The planet is the same age as the
rest of the solar system.

Geologic Time Condensed to One Year

It's always fun to think about geologic time in a framework that we can more
readily understand. Here are when some major events in Earth history would have
occurred if all of Earth history was condensed down to one calendar year.

January 1, 12:00 am: Earth forms from the planetary nebula – 4600 million years
ago

February 25, 12:30 pm: The origin of life; the first cells – 3900 million years ago

March 4, 3:39 pm: Oldest dated rocks – 3800 million years ago

March 20, 1:33 pm: First stromatolite fossils – 3600 million years ago

July 17, 9:54 pm: First fossil evidence of

cells with nuclei – 2100 million years ago

November 18, 5:11 pm: Cambrian Explosion

– 544 million years ago

December 1, 8:49 am: First insects – 385

million years ago
December 2, 3:54 am: First land animals, amphibians – 375 million years ago

December 5, 5:50 pm: First reptiles – 330 million years ago

December 12, 12:09 pm: Permo-Triassic Extinction – 245 million years ago

December 13, 8:37 pm: First dinosaurs – 228 million years ago

December 14, 9:59 am: First mammals – 220 million years ago

December 22, 8:24 pm: First flowering plants – 115 million years ago

December 26, 7:52 pm: Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction – 66 million years ago

December 26, 9:47 pm: First ancestors of dogs – 64 million years ago

December 27, 5:25 am: Widespread grasses – 60 million years ago

December 27, 11:09 am: First ancestors of pigs and deer – 57 million years ago

December 28, 9:31 pm: First monkeys – 39 million years ago

December 31, 5:18 pm: Oldest hominid – 4 million years ago

December 31, 11:02 pm: Oldest direct human ancestor – 1 million years ago

December 31, 11:48 pm: First modern human – 200,000 years ago

December 31, 11:59 pm: Revolutionary War – 235 years ago

Summary
 Earth is 4.6 billion years old. It is also 4,600 million years old.
 If Earth history is equal to a year, all of human history has taken place in the
last 12 minutes.
 The Cambrian Explosion took place on November 18. Life is very recent.