major tectonic events
Rodinia; Gondwana
3 Paleozoic orogenies in eastern North America that built the Appalachians
Formation and Breakup of Pangea
Western Cordillera: formation and deformation of western North America
epeiric seas in time
sea level rose and fell through the Phanerozoic alternately flooding and exposing the continents
high sea level yielded thick sedimentary sequences across the craton
low sea level yielded major continent-wide unconformities
high sea level due to periods of rapid seafloor spreading when midocean ridge "swelled"
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"Ice Ages" |
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Paleoproterozoic (~2.2 b.y.) |
Gowganda Formation - oldest recorded glacial sediments |
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Neoproterozoic (~850 - 600 m.y.) |
Snowball Earth |
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Late Paleozoic |
Gondwana glaciations |
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Cenozoic |
Antarctica (beginning ~ 35 m.y.) |
major evolutionary trends
prokaryotes and eukaryotes
rise of metazoans (multi-cellular animals)
the Cambrian Revolution
vertebrates: fish -> amphibians -> reptiles -> mammals & birds
vascular plants: spore-bearing plants -> gymnosperms -> angiosperms
mass extinctions (Permo-Triassic, Cretaceous-Tertiary)
vertebrate evolution
fish: jawless (agnathans) (late Cambrian-Recent)
acanthodians & placoderms: (Silurian-Devonian)
sharks, bony fish (ray-fins, lobe-fins): (Devonian-Recent)
tetrapods: (amphibians) first large land animals arose in late Devonian from a line of lobe-fin fish
amniotes: (reptiles) synapsids, crocodiles, turtles, snakes, dinosaurs (Carboniferous-Recent)
mammals: from synapsids to marsupials and placentals (arose from last synapsids in Triassic)
birds evolved from small dinosaurs in Jurassic
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ages of terrestrial plant life |
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Paleophytic |
Late Ordovician - Late Permian |
spore-bearing plants (club mosses, ferns) |
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Mesophytic |
Late Permian - Late Cretaceous |
gymnosperms (naked seeds: conifers, ginkgos) |
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Cenophytic |
Late Cretaceous - Recent |
angiosperms (flowering plants: maples, grasses) |
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dominant animal groups in time |
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Cambrian |
Age of the Trilobites |
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Devonian |
Age of the Fishes |
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Carboniferous |
Age of the Amphibians |
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Permian |
Age of the "Reptiles" (synapsids) |
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Mesozoic |
Age of the Dinosaurs |
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Cenozoic |
Age of Mammals |
Geologic Developments
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Proterozoic |
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1 |
Greenville orogeny |
last Precambrian addition to Laurentia collision with/formation of Rodinia? |
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600 m.y. |
rifting - passive margin |
breakout of Rodinia? --> formation of Gondwana |
Phanerozoic
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Building of the Appalachians and Formation of Pangea |
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Late Ord |
Taconic orogeny |
accretion of minicontinent/island arc |
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a clastic wedge shed from resultant mountains |
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Late Dev |
Acadian orogeny |
accretion of minicontinent along central Atlantic |
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Caledonian orogeny |
and collision of Europe w/ Greenland & Newfoundland |
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Catskill and Old Red Sandstone clastic wedges |
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Penn-Perm |
Appalachian/Alleghenian orogeny (east N.Amer) |
Formation of Pangea |
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Mauritanide/Moroccan fold belt (NW Afr) |
" |
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Hercynian orogeny (southern Eur) |
" |
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Marathon/Ouachita orogeny (southern N.Amer |
" |
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Uralian orogeny (Eur-Asia) |
" |
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Breakup of Pangea and Gondwana |
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200 m.y. |
Newark and other rift basins |
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Breakup of Pangea |
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175 |
separation of Gondwana and Laurasia |
" |
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165 |
rifting of Africa from Antarctica |
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Breakup of Gondwana |
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130 |
separation of India from Antarctica |
" |
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125 |
separation of South America from Africa |
" |
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100 |
separation of Australia from Antarctica |
" |
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85 |
separation of New Zealand from Antarctica |
" |
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50 |
opening of the north Atlantic |
Breakup of Laurasia |
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Western Cordillera |
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Late Proterozoic - early Paleozoic |
passive margin |
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Devonian |
Antler orogeny |
terrane accreted |
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Jurassic-Cretaceous |
Sierra Nevada, etc. |
voluminous volcanic arc activity |
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rapid subduction |
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Late Cretaceous |
Sevier orogeny |
shallow subduction |
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Latest K -> Eocene |
Larmide orogeny |
flat subduction |
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29 |
beginning of ridge subduction |
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20 - Rec |
Cordilleran extension |
Basin and Range forms |
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San Andreas Fault zone |
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Cenozoic Climate |
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Early Cenozoic |
continuation of Cretaceous greenhouse warmth |
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Eocene-Oligocene |
global climate cools because seafloor spreading has decreased and Antarctica becomes isolated at the south pole - Antarctic glaciation begins |
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Pliocene |
The Isthmus of Panama forms; northern hemisphere glaciation begins |
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Pliocene-Pleistocene |
glacial cycles are controlled by variations in Earth's orbit |
environmental considerations
late Paleozoic aridity within vast Pangea supercontinent with rain shadows (mountain chains) along sutures
slow cycle
rapid seafloor spreading = high sea level = epicontinental seas = shallow marine limestones on continents
rapid seafloor spreading = increased outgassing = increased atmospheric CO2 = warmer climate
(also consider the converse)
fast cycle
cyclic variations in Earth's orbit causes cooling/warming cycles
if Earth is in tectonic cool cycle, orbital variations cause continental ice sheets to advance and retreat
Cretaceous: Pangea breakup, much seafloor formed, Sevier/Laramide orogenies, last major epicontinental sea, warm climate
last half of Cenozoic: slow seafloor spreading, isolation of Antarctica, formation of Isthmus of Panama all lead to late Cenozoic Ice Ages with many advances and retreats of continental ice sheets in sync with orbital cycles
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Precambrian |
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3.8 b.y. |
organic carbon "chemical fossils" - first evidence of life ????? (probably not!) |
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3.5 b.y. |
oldest fossil life - cyanobacteria: prokaryotes |
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3.5-3.2 b.y. |
first stromatolites - cyanobacterial mounds |
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2.1-1.7 b.y. |
first eukaryotes (acritarchs - single-cell true algae) |
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~ 630 m.y. |
Ediacaran metazoans (multi-cellular animals; jelly-fish, arthropods, etc.) |
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Paleozoic |
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543 m.y. |
Cambrian revolution |
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Early: small shellies |
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remainder: explosive evolutionary radiation of a great variety of animal |
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life; bizarre experiments and archaic forms of most important animal phyla |
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Late Ord |
first evidence of land plants (spores) and animals (burrows) |
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mid Pz |
Invasion of the Land - expansion of forests (spore-bearing ferns) |
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Penn |
wide variety of "amphibians" |
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mid Carb |
amniotes evolve: gave rise to synapsids and reptiles |
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Permian |
spore-bearing plants lose dominant position to the gymnosperms by Late Permian and amphibians lose dominance to synapsid and sauropsid reptiles as the Pennsylvanian coal swamps give way to the arid Permian climate |
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Late Perm |
MASS EXTINCTION - The largest known |
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Mesozoic |
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Triassic |
saurischian and ornithischian dinosaurs arose, pterosaurs, marine reptiles |
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mammals arose as last of the synapsids |
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Jurassic |
archaeopteryx: the first birds evolved from a group of saurischian dinosaurs |
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Cretaceous |
angiosperms evolve and become the dominant land plants |
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bees and moths probably coevolved with angiosperms |
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diminutive forerunners of marsupials and placental mammals |
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K/T boundary |
MASS EXTINCTION of the dinosaurs, marine reptiles, ammonites, and others |
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Cenozoic |
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Paleocene |
explosive evolutionary radiation of mammals |
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Eo-Oligocene |
mammals adapt from tropical/subtropical to savanna conditions as climate cools |
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Plio-Pleisto |
hominid evolution (australopithecines to homo sapiens) during the ice ages |
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Holocene |
rise of human civilization during present interglacial period |
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grasses |
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Early Cenozoic |
grasses evolve |
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Late Oligo-Mio |
continuously growing grasses evolve |
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grasslands spread while forests decline as climate cools |
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Late Miocene |
7-6 m.y. many herbivores become extinct as C4 grasses (high in silica) spread |
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those with high-crowned teeth survive to chew on the new grasses |