Essay on Extinction Event and Period

Submitted By isadorable96
Words: 1926
Pages: 8
Open Document
Our planet has changed a great deal in its 4.6 billion years of life. Earth’s climate, tectonic plates, and organisms are constantly evolving as time goes on. 4.6 billion years is a very long period of time to study in-depth and it would be too confusing to organize all the events in earth’s geological and biological history into one division of time, so scientist have split them up in order to better organize and understand how earth was like at particular periods of time. We’ll start at the beginning, 4.6 billion years ago, at the beginning of the Hadean Eon. The inspiration for the name of this eon came from the conditions of earth at the time. Earth was nothing more than a large magma ocean of molten rock material. It was very hot and unable to sustain life, therefore it earned the name Hadean, originating from the Greek god of death and the underworld, Hades. These are the reasons why I also chose to use an illustration of an ocean of magma, and also a skull and crossbones to represent this eon on my poster. There were no fossils of living organisms from this eon, therefore it hasn’t been divided into further sections of time. Directly following the Hadean Eon came The Archean Eon, which began 3.8 billion years ago. This eon is know best for its high amounts of volcanic activity, hence the illustration of a volcano on my timeline. There were no large continents on Earth at this time, but there were small fragments of continents dispersed across the globe. These mini continents were the “seeds” of larger continents that were to come later on. One significant detail about the Archean Eon was that it was the period of time where life first emerged on planet Earth. During this time, oxygen was not present in Earth’s atmosphere. Instead, the toxic gases methane and ammonia, byproducts of volcanic activity, filled the air. The only life forms on earth at this time were microscopic bacteria that could survive without the presence of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere. After the Archean Eon ended 2.5 billion years ago, came the beginning of the Proterozoic Eon. I chose to draw a supercontinent and simple bacteria to represent this eon because during this time on earth, massive continents had just began to develop and bacteria were beginning to evolve with more structural complexity. Rodina, a supercontinent that included almost one-hundred percent of the land on Earth at the time, formed during this eon. Scientists believe that earth was completely covered in ice due to the fact that large glacial deposits have been found dating back to this eon. During the Proterozoic, approximately one billion years ago, trace fossils of simple single, and multi-celled eukaryotes, with complex organelles, have been found. The eon we are currently living in today is the Phanerozoic Eon, which started approximately 542 million years ago following the end of the Proterozoic. The beginning of this eon began with explosion of biodiversity, as many new creatures emerged on Earth for the very first time. Even though it is the youngest of the four eons, the Phanerozoic Eon had had the most variety of life forms, therefore it has been divided into twelve periods of time. The first period of the Phanerozoic Eon was the Cambrian Period, beginning 542 million years ago. This is where metazoans, or multi-celled organisms, began to appear. These organisms included worms, jellyfish, coral, Bilaterians, and the very strange and still poorly understood creatures of the Ediacaran family, like the infamous Hallucigenia. I chose to use a trilobite to represent the Cambrian Period because it was a very common anthropoid swimming in the vast oceans during this time. During the Cambrian Period most of earth’s land was located below the equator in the Southern Hemisphere. Though there was land present during this period, there were no existing land organisms. The next period was the Ordovician Period that began 488 million years ago. This period saw the origin
Show More

Related Documents: Essay on Extinction Event and Period

Geology: Permian–triassic Extinction Event and Triassic Geologic Periods Essay example

through Time Dr. Workman The Permian Triassic Mass Extinction The Permian Triassic extinction was an event of cataclysmic disaster and almost the extinction of all species on planet earth. The Permian Triassic extinction is said to have occurred millions of years ago, geologist have estimated that its occurrences happened about 248 million to 286 million years ago. This rare occurrence of events proceeded the Triassic geologic periods and the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. This mass disaster…

Words 704 - Pages 3

Essay on Task 3 Mass Extinction

Running head: MASS EXTINCTION History of Life - Mass Extinction Susan Penick Western Governor’s University QXT2 ID Biological Science March 13, 2015 History of Life - Mass Extinction More than 99 percent of all species that have ever lived are now extinct. Usually, extinctions happen gradually, but several times in Earth’s history mass extinctions wiped out entire ecosystems. During these events, some biologists propose, “many species became extinct because their environment was collapsing…

Words 784 - Pages 4

Sixth Mass Extinction Benton Analysis

The sixth mass extinction event is just within spitting distance! Scientists have evidences to support this point by comparing the present conditions to the previous five mass extinction events and with the extinction rates. According to the dictionary, mass extinction is defined as the extinction event of a large number of species within a relatively short period of geological time, thought to be due to factors such as a catastrophic global event or widespread environmental change that occurs too…

Words 939 - Pages 4

The Aquatic Lifestyles: The Devonian Period

The Devonian Period The Devonian period occurred from 416 million to 358 million years ago. It was the fourth period of the Paleozoic Era and it was followed by the Silurian Period. The Devonian period is known as "The Age of the Fishes". This name came to be because of the diverse, abundant, and, in some cases, bizarre types of these creatures that swam Devonian seas (House). During most of the Devonian Period, North America, Greenland, and Europe were united into a single Northern Hemisphere landmass…

Words 698 - Pages 3

Mass Extinction In Evolution

Mass Extinction. Source: https://worldatlas.com Mass extinction has impacted our earth's evolution tremendously. From as far back as 500 million years ago during the Cambrian period, to as close to us now 65 million years ago during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, and all 3 events in between have affected the animals and plants surrounding our planet gigantically. Mass extinction is when there is a rapid decrease of animals and plant species on earth due to the earth's natural disasters…

Words 809 - Pages 4

Animals: Extinction Event and Major Mass Extinctions Essay

Animals We all studied the extinction of dinosaurs in middle school. We know that, two hundred fifty million years ago, more than 90% of the planet species became extinct. There have been five major mass extinctions during the life history of planet earth. Scientists now agree that we are experiencing a sixth major extinction. The big difference between the older events and now is, “unlike earlier extinctions, this one results from the work of a single species, Homo sapiens. We are relentlessly…

Words 370 - Pages 2

Richard Owen Research Paper

to know how dinosaurs became extinct. Many controversial theories of dinosaur’s extinction surfaced such as volcanism -Deccan traps and Craters. Following these theories different researches put together pieces weak and strong evidence to find the initial cause of the dinosaur’s extinction and to discover which hypothesis has that best explain with the data representing it. Dinosaurs first evolved in the Mesozoic period (Age of the dinosaurs) on the known supercontinent called the Pangea.…

Words 1577 - Pages 7

Biodiversity: Extinction and assembly. Aquatic Biodiversity Essay

to slow in the future. Fast environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions. One guess is that 1%-3% of the species that have existed on Earth are still alive today Since life began on Earth, five major mass extinctions and several minor events have directed to huge and quick drops in biodiversity. The Phanerozoic eon (the last 540 million years) marked a speedy growth in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosion—a period during which the common species of multicellular phyla first appeared. The…

Words 297 - Pages 2

Essay on The End Permian Mass Extinction

associated with a mass extinction event. A shift can occur due to a decrease in plant production following a meteor impact or from a large decrease in sea level that reduces shelf area, exposing the shelf and its accumulated organic carbon to erosion. There are sections examined in the Alps of Italy and Austria that actually show a gradual change in the C-13 content of marine organisms across the PTB. These sections show no dramatic shifts that can be associated with a mass extinction. Thus as you can…

Words 6173 - Pages 25

Double Whammy Theory

their extinction and how their extinction opened the door for humans. One well known theory that scientists believed made the dinosaurs go extinct is the asteroid theory. It is believed that an object, ten kilometers across, struck off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula sixty-five and a half million years ago (What). The result of that would be a huge explosion that would throw dust clouds into the sky and darken the planet (Who). Also, massive…

Words 1146 - Pages 5