Complete the \"Distance\" column in the provided Excel Geologic Time Line you us

Question

Complete the "Distance" column in the provided Excel Geologic Time Line you used for the earlier questions. You will enter your answers in the quiz questions below. The starting point is the beginning of the Precambrian and ending point is at the present. To properly place times at the proper distance, a scale must be developed. This is easy. Take the amount of time to convert and divide it by proper units. After we look at the scale and conversions, we will do the first time period as an example together. Let's imagine our geologic time stretches over 4 and a bit over half of a 5th football field (4.6 to be precise)! Abbreviations used: bys billion years, my = million years, y = years, yd = yards, ft = feet, in inches 12 in 1 yd-36 in 1 football field- 100 yd 100 yd 300 ft 1 yd-3 ft 1 ft 4.6 by = 1 by = 1 by 4.6 football fields 1 football field 100 yds 100 my-10 my-10 my 10 yd 1 yd 36 in 1 my = 100,000 y = 10,000 y 3.6 in 0.36 in 0.036 in Okay, so let's get started. In the beginning, of the Precambrian, during the Hadean Eon the Earth forms; this is where our journey will begin. So let's take the date when the Earth formed and subtract the time at which the Archean begins. 4,600,000,000-3,800,000,000 800,000,000 Now that we have our distance in years we need to convert it to an actual distance measurement. We can use calculated time in years/the scale distance to get our answer. Since we know that 100 my-10 yd and we have 800 my we can just divide 800 my by 10 yd to get 80 yds. That is almost a whole football field! Enter the 80 yds in the distance for the Archean. So from the Archean 3,800,000,000 to the Paleo Era in the Proterozoic 2,500,000,000 is how many years? well, 3,800,000,000-2,500,000,000 = 1,300,000,000 We know that 1,000,000,000 (1 by) 100 yds so we have 100 yds +300,000,000 yrs. We know that 300 my (like the above 800 my) can be divided by 10 yd to get 30 yds. So now we add the 100 yd+30 yd for our answer of 130 yds. Enter the distance of 130 yds in the distance for the Paleo Era. Continue this process for all cells in the column. As you complete the time line distances take notice of how small the units become toward modern time, remember you can convert to inches for less than a yard using the scale above. Remember your first Eon was only 20 yds short of a football field and your second was a full football field and 1/3rd of another! You can also double check your calculations by adding all of the yards together and making sure you are very very close to 4.6 football fields (460 yrds). Remember you can contact your Lab Teaching Assistant for help or questions and you can re-take the lab over one time to correct any problems you had

Explanation / Answer

The geologic history of the Earth is broken up into hierarchical chunks of time. From largest to smallest, this hierarchy includes eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. The Phanerozoic Eon represents the time during which the majority of macroscopic organisms’ algae, fungi, plants and animals lived. When first proposed as a division of geologic time, the beginning of the Phanerozoic (542.0 million years ago) was thought to coincide with the beginning of life.

In reality, this eon coincides with the appearance of animals that evolved external skeletons, like shells, and the somewhat later animals that formed internal skeletons, such as the bony elements of vertebrates. The Phanerozoic is subdivided into three major divisions: the Cenozoic, Mesozoic, and Paleozoic Eras.

The "-zoic" suffix comes from the root "zoo," which means animal. This is the same root as in the words zoology and zoological park (or zoo). "Cen-" means recent, "Meso-" means middle, and "Paleo-" means ancient. These divisions reflect major changes in the composition of ancient faunas, each era being recognized by its domination by a particular group of animals. The Cenozoic has sometimes been called the "Age of Mammals," the Mesozoic the "Age of Dinosaurs," and the Paleozoic the "Age of Fishes."

But this is an overly simplified view, which has some value for the newcomer but can be a bit misleading. For instance, other groups of animals lived during the Mesozoic. In addition to the dinosaurs, animals such as mammals, turtles, crocodiles, frogs, and countless varieties of insects also lived on land. Additionally, there were many kinds of plants living in the past that no longer live today. Ancient floras went through great changes too, and not always at the same times that the animal groups changed.

Archean Era – 130 yards

Paleoproterozoic Era – 90 yards

Mesoproterozoic Era – 80 yards

Neoproterozoic Era – 70 yards

Cambrian Period – 35.8 yards

Ordovician Period – 34.92 in

Silurian period – 12.6 in

Devonian period – 7.9y yards

Mississippian period – 6.44 in

Pennsylvanian period – 5.7 yards

Permian period – 5.5 yards

Triassic period – 5.4 yards

Jurassic period – 5.1 yards

Cretaceous period – 4.8 yards

Paleocene Epoch – 4.4 yards

Eocene Epoch – 4.1 yards

Oligocene Epoch – 2.8 yards

Miocene Epoch – 2.19 yards

Pliocene Epoch – 1.9 yards

Pleistocene Epoch – 1.77 yards

Holocene Epoch – 1.09 yards

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