Chapter 25 Flashcards
___________________ represents the sequence and the dates of the major events the history of earth
geological time scale
three eons compromise earth’s history
- archean
- proterozoic
- phanerozoic
most ancient eon
archaean
archaean and proterozic are collectively referred to as
precambrian
middle eon
protereozoic
current eon
phanerozoic
each eon is divided into
eras
three eras of the phanerozoic eon
- paleozoic
- mesozoic
- cenozoic (current)
eras are divided into
periods
periods are divided into
epochs
age of earth
4.6 billion
the boundaries of geological time scales eon, eras, and certain periods correspond to
- mass extinction events
- a major adaptive radiation (rapid speciation) of survivors
the sequence of fossils
provides relative dates not numerical dates
____________ enables determination of numerical dates
radiometric dating
radiometric dating is based on the decay of
radioactive isotopes
while alive organisms assimilate different isotopes of an element into their bodies in the same proportion as the isotopes abundance in the environment
once dead, organisms stop assimilating isotopes, the non radio isotopes remain fixed but he radioactive isotopes begin to decay
a radioactive isotopes ________________ is the number of years it takes for half of the isotope to decay
half-life
half life is a _____________________
constant value
isotopes of carbon include
C12
C13
C14
Radio active carbon ____________
half-life: ________________________
C14
5730
example a fossil is discovered with 1/4 the carbon 14.
The fossil has gone through 2 half lives
1/2 * 1/2 =1/4
The fossil is 11460
other radioactive isotopes live much longer so older dates can be determines example ____________________________
including uranium 4.5 billion year half life
each existed without life for
1.1 billion years. The atmosphere and oceans had yet to form.
life first evolved
3.5 billion years ago