BIOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 4th ESO IES LOS MOLINOS

Unit 1: The Earth, a planet in continual change. (The history of Earth)

2011-2012

1. Formation of the Universe, the Earth and the Sun.

It has been calculated that the Universe has an approximated age of 15.000 million years old. In agreement to the phenomenon known like big-bang, the whole matter (in the shape of particles like protons, neutrons and electrons) and the energy, they were concentrated in a certain point of the space, until this "so "warm" and "so "dense" accumulation exploited, throwing(launching) the matter to great speed in all directions(addresses) of the space. Later, concentrations of matter took place in different places of the Universe due to gravity. The shock of the particles that were integrating these concentrations provoked that these were emitting heat (protostars). Our Sun is a star constituted basically of atoms of hydrogen that join (nuclear fusion) to give atoms of helium; in this reaction there becomes detached the heat that warms the Earth. Simultaneously to the formation of the Sun, the Earth and the rest of the planets were formed, all of them by gravitational attraction. At the end of this period the Earth was a great incandescent sphere that was receiving continuous impacts from meteorites, keeping the surface of the planet molten. When the impact rate decreased, the planet cooled, the water steam that was in the atmosphere became condensed and appeared liquid water, creating the first oceans.

2.Geologic time scale

Eon Hadean Archaean Proterozoic Phanerozoic Paleozoic Cambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian Carboniferous Permian Era Period Start (m.y.) 4,570 4,000 2,500 540 date Eon Era Period Start (m.y.) 250 date

Mesozoic Triassic Jurassic Cretaceous Cenozoic Paleogene Neogene Quaternary

65

3. Geological events in lifes history

Geological events The Big Bang: the origin of time, space, matter and energy, all from one single point. The Universe is expanding ever since. The Sun, formed from a giant cloud of gas and dust becomes a young star The Earth and all rocky matter in the current Solar System start forming by accretion. The Earth's atmosphere initially lacks oxygen. Time (m.y.) 13,700 Biological events

5,000 4,570

Geological events Theia, a planet of the size of Mars, collides with the Earth, which causes a massive ejection of matter into orbit around the Earth, which will finally coalesce to form the Moon.

Time (m.y.) 4,530

Biological events

Zircons found in Australia are the oldest known minerals. The surface of the Earth cools enough for the crust to solidify and the first continents ("shells") form. The atmosphere and the oceans form. The Acasta gneisses, in Canada, are the oldest known rocks.

4,400 4,100

4,000

The inner planets receive the continuous impact 3,850 of meteors, which probably boiled the oceans away and killed off any form of Life that could have developed. 3,800 First possible fossils: chemical imprints of Life in graphite granules found in the oldest known sedimentary rocks, in Greenland. The first living beings were similar to prokaryotes, and obtained the carbon from CO2 and the energy from inorganic substances such as H2S, that could have been obtained from the thermal vents that are found in the undersea tectonic boundaries. First possible physical fossils: possible biogenic stromatolites found in Australia. These are layered rocks created by a multispecific community of microorganisms dominated by cyanobacteria.

3,430

The concentration of oxygen starts to rise in the Hydrosphere and the Atmosphere, which is the most critical ecological change in the History of Earth, killing off most prokaryotes (which were anaerobic) and paving the road for the evolution of all the aerobic forms of life, including plants and animals.

2,400

2,100 Supercontinent Columbia. 1,700 1,200

Eukaryotic cells appear, probably derived from prokaryotes engulfing others via phagocytosis. Sexual reproduction appears, increasing the rate of evolutionary change. First multicellular organisms appear as colonies of cells with some kind of division of labour.

Supercontinent Rodinia.

1,000
2

Geological events Ice age: Snowball Earth. Supercontinent Pannotia.

Time (m.y.) 750 580 540 500 380

Biological events

Ediacara biota: first complex multicellular organisms. Cambrian explosion: most modern types of animals appear, including trilobites, ancestors of modern arthropods. First vertebrates(fish), plants, fungi and arthropods. Amphibians, first four-limbed tetrapods, evolved from fish, start colonising the continents. Fern forests start to dominate the land. A massive extinction at the end of the Permian eliminates 95% of living species. Dinosaurs appear. Seed plant (gymnosperms) forests start to dominate the land. Rise of angiosperms (flowering plants). A massive extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, possibly caused by a 10 km across meteorite that left the crater of Chicxulub, in Mexico, eliminates about half of all animal species, including all dinosaurs (except the ancestors of modern birds) and ammonites. Mammals take advantage of this event and diversify rapidly, occupying most ecological niches left by dinosaurs, and become the dominant vertebrates on land. Hominins (biped primates) appear in Africa, maybe with Sahelanthropus tchadensis (-7my) or Orrorin tugenensis(6my). Humans (Homo habilis) appear in Africa. Modern humans (Homo sapiens) appear in Africa. With a human population approaching 7 billion, the impact of humanity is felt in all corners of the globe. Overfishing, anthropogenic climate change, industrialisation, intensive agriculture, clearance of rain forests and other activities contribute to a dramatically rising extinction rate.

Supercontinent Pangaea starts forming.

300 250 230

Supercontinent Pangaea starts breaking up.

180 130 65

6-7

2.5 0.2 0

4. Fossils
What are fossils? Fossils are the petrified remains of the living beings from the past or of their vital traces. They are studied by the science of the Paleontology. Fossils are commonly found in sediments or sedimentary rocks (limestone, sandstone, mudstone, shale), typically as a result of the burial of the remains of a living being within a layer of sediments. Heavy metamorphism and the extreme temperatures of the magmas (> 700C) are likely to destroy any remain or trace of a living being, and so fossils are not found in heavily metamorphosed rocks (schist, gneiss) or igneous rocks (granite, diorite). Only sedimentary rocks that have undergone a gentle metamorphism, such as slates, are likely to contain fossils. The totality of fossils and their placement in the rocks containing them constitute the fossil record. This placement may be as important as the fossil itself, because it can give a lot of information about the way and the type of ecosystem in which the fossilised organism lived. For instance, if a fossil is found within a conglomerate, which is a rock formed from the sediments deposited by a river, we'll know that it is one of a land organism. Or if an unknown fossil is
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found in the same rock where we also find fossils of seashells, it will probably be the fossil of a marine living being. The fossil record is gappy and uneven. It is gappy because fossilisation is a rare event that happens sporadically and irregularly, depending heavily on the environmental conditions in the moment when a living being dies. If a land animal dies in a place that undergoes a landslide a short time after its death, most likely it will be well preserved inside the sediments. But if it dies in a place where strong winds, or heavy river flow or marine currents drag its corpse for a long time before it is left in a quiet place to be buried as sediments are deposited, chances are that the corpse will be destroyed by those currents, and the scavengers, detritivores and decomposers during the long time that it took before it was buried. And it is uneven because not all species have the same chances to leave any kind of fossil remain. As a start, hard structures (bones, teeth, shells) are commonly necessary, because soft tissues decay rapidly when the scavengers and decomposers (chiefly invertebrates, bacteria and fungi) start to predate on them. Organisms such as jellyfish or worms have really low possibilities to leave body fossils; traces such as imprints or burrows in the sediments are amongst their very few chances to leave a sign of their existence. Types of fossils Body fossils are the petrified remains of living beings from the past, and are produced by the substitution of the biomolecules that pertained to the deceased organism by mineral substances that precipitate from the groundwater that circulates through the sediments in which the corpse is buried. This requires a rapid burial of the organism following its death; otherwise, it will be soon destroyed, as explained above. Other times the remains can be destroyed once covered by sediments, but leaving an organism-shaped hole in the rock: this is called an external mould. If this hole is later filled with other minerals, it is called a cast. An internal mould is formed when sediments or minerals fill the internal cavity of an organism, such as the shell of a bivalve or the skull of a vertebrate. Trace fossils are the physical remains of the vital activity of living beings from the past, and are produced by their movement (trackways left by trilobites, footprints from hominans), their reproduction (eggs of dinosaurs), their nutrition (coprolites, gastrolites, holes drilled in the shells of the prey), and other living habits (burrows, root cavities, stromatolites...). The oldest physical fossils on Earth fall into this category. They are stromatolites, and the oldest might be the 3.5 by old found in Warrawoona, Australia. Stromatolites are layered rocks generated by communities of microorganisms, usually dominated by cyanobacteria, which produced the precipitation of mineral substances dissolved in the seawater, generating layers of sediments that stacked one on top of another creating a stratified biogenic rock.

Questions:
1. 2. What criteria are used to divide the periods and Eras of the Earth history? From which geological time comes most of the coal that we consume nowadays?

3.
4.

What period in the geologic time scale did ediacara fauna belong to?
According to the biochemical fossils of Isua (Greenland), it is said that Life appeared on Earth in the very first moment that it was possible. Why?

5. Considering the way these animals dominated the land ecosystems, the Mesozoic is known as the era of the..... 6. 7. 8. How many big massive extinctions did happen in the past? Why are fossils unlikely to be found in granite and other igneous rocks? In what kind of rocks is likely to be found fossils?