Geologic Time
Billions of years of life on Earth.
In this guide we will explore species changing over long passages of time, including the era of dinosaurs.
Video Overview
We will begin with this guide overview video.
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Geologic Time Lecture Guide Contents
The material from this guide and corresponding lecture is assessed on the weekly quiz.
Geologic Time Objectives
Precambrian
Describe how researchers study early earth, including stratigraphy and geochronology; and provide the approximate time span, geologic changes, and representative organisms of the Precambrian Supereon.
Phanerozoic
Provide the approximate time span, geologic changes, and representative organisms of the Phanerozoic Eon, including the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic Eras; and tell the dinosaur story including evolutionary origins, structural features, major taxonomic groups, new avenues of research, and theories for their extinction.
Tentative & Durable
Explain how scientific knowledge can be both tentative and durable, providing examples of knowledge that exemplifies both of these characteristics; and diagram the common bones shared by vertebrates, including the significance of homologous structures in determining species relatedness.
Fossils
Demonstrate how a fossil forms and explain the types of information that can be determined from fossil evidence; and explain what a living fossil is and how the rate of change can vary in different species over time.
