Deep Time: The Greatest Hits Collection

How water came to earth

Comets

What is the moon

A chunk of earth broken off due to a meteorite

Great oxygenation event

Photosynthesis evidence found 2-2.5 billion years ago, banded iron formation on rocks proves this

Evidence of fossils

600 million years ago

Cambrian evolution fauna

First identification of animals (Cambrian era was before the first plants)

Cambrian evolutionary fauna causation

Increasing oxygen levels - animals start to evolve to live on land

Algal Mats

First prokaryotes to move onto land (1-2 billion years ago)

First life on land

Forests

First evidence of plants fighting for sunlight by growing taller and having broader leaves, helped land living animal evolution

Techtalic

First animal to show evolutionary features of water to land (had fins but also arm and wrist bones)

End-Permian Mass Extinction

Killed 80%-85% of animal on earth

Flood basalts (vulcanism) - giant province of lava (covered land in lava)

Extreme global warming - +8 degrees celsius

Who does mass extinction effect more and why

Effect carnivores/larger animals more as their food source is being wiped out and they’re on land so they’re more vulnerable to events

Causes of the main mass extinctions

Giant volcanic provinces, climate change, asteroid

End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction

Killed 25%-75% of all animals on earth

Asteroid impact (discovery of iridium in Cretaceous layer of earth confirmed this, also found glass balls in fish fossils that would’ve been from dust from the impact)

Possibly associated with vulcanism (Deccan traps)

Animal vs. Plant evolution

Animals evolved much earlier than plants, but plants evolved to live on land much earlier than animals