Evolutionary Timelines
STANDARD V: Objective 3
Background Knowledge: None
Objective: In this activity students will build timelines of the history of life in the universe. The
timelines are built to scale to help students visually see how life has developed over time.
Equipment and Supplies: 3” cash register tape, each group of 4 need 15.5 meters, colored pencils
or markers, metric rulers or meter sticks, glue, textbooks
Safety Issues: None
Duration: 2 class periods (50 minute each)
Procedures for Teachers:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Assemble needed supplies
Cut 9 strips of adding tape 15.5 meters long
Divide students into groups of 4
Pass out one student sheet to each student
Give each group adding tape and a set of the pictures to be placed on the timeline
Allow students sufficient class time to build timelines
Students may need to use their books to help them answer the analysis questions.
Scoring Guide:
Class time used efficiently: 20 points
Timeline assembled correctly: 20 points
Neatness and Color: 10 points
Total: 50 points
Answers to Analysis Questions:
1. These heavier elements were fused together inside of stars
2. 1.3 billion years apart. Eukaryotic cells contain a nucleus. Because of this, these cells can
build much more complex organisms.
3. Carbon dioxide was important because it is necessary for photosynthesis, it eventually
helped lead to the formation of photosynthesizing prokaryotes like the blue-green algae
4. Fossils were scarce because nothing had hard shells before that point, nothing to fossilze all
were soft-bodied
5. 435 mya, in order for this to happen they might have found things like internal fertilization and
resistance to drying out to be important.
6. 22.5 mya and the expansion of the savannah
7. Not a huge one, we didn’t come around until very recent history
8. The last 1 billion years
Student Sheet
Evolutionary Timelines
Name:______________________________________________________ Period:_______
Purpose: In this activity you will, based on current scientific theory, assemble a scale model,
timeline of the universe from the Big Bang to the present.
Background Information: Life developed many billions of years ago, beginning with the smallest
particles which compose matter to the most complex eukaryotic organisms alive today. Scientists
use mathematical and physical theory to help them construct how the universe began. They use the
fossil record to help establish the development of life on earth.
Prediction: If the universe formed 15 BYA (Billion Years Ago), during which billion years do think
the most rapid expansion of life occurred?
Procedure:
1. Measure as accurately as possible 15.5 meters of 3” wide cash register tape.
2. Measure 25 centimeters from one end draw a line straight across the tape and label it
"Present" or "Now".
3. Accurately measure and label the years ago every 10 centimeters (100 million years), make
and label time markers (lines straight across the tape) until you reach the 5 meter mark (5
billion years ago).
4. At the 5 meter mark change the time markers to every 50 centimeters. Do this until you reach
15 billion years ago.
5. Go back and use a darker line to show the billion year marks. (1000 million = 1 billion)
6. Color the drawings representing major events in time before you cut them out.
7. Cut out the drawings of the major events in the history of time. Expose the arrow in the
bottom left-hand corner.
8. Start at the "Big Bang" and paste the drawings on the timeline moving toward "Now". Paste
the drawings on the timeline area that corresponds to the time shown on the drawing. The
arrow should be closest to the "Now" line, the top of drawing closest to the "Big Bang" line,
don't place the drawings sideways on the timeline. It is easy at first, the events seem to be
rather well spaced out. You can glue the backs of the drawings completely down on the
timeline. As you will find out, however, the last 1.5 meters (1.5 billion years) gets rather
crowded and you must glue just the bottom edge (the edge with the arrow) to the paper. The
last twenty or so drawings will take on the appearance of pages of a book if this is properly
done.
Analysis Questions:
1. How did Hydrogen and Helium, products of the Big Bang form into the heavier elements like
Carbon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen, which make up our bodies?
2. How long after prokaryotic cells formed did eukaryotic cells finally emerge? What are the
significant differences between these two types of cells?
3. Why was the formation of carbon dioxide important and what did it lead to?
4. Why do you think fossils were scarce until around 500 MYA?
5. When did the first organisms appear on land? What adaptations do you think were important
for this transition?
6. When were early apes first found to exist and what geographical feature did their appearance
coincide with?
7. What role do humans seem to play in the grand scheme of things?
8. Where on your timeline is the majority of life and diversity located?
Conclusions: Please explain 2 concepts you learned by doing this activity. Be sure to use
complete sentences in your explanation.
Early apes are found. Savannas
expand
~22.5 MYA
Photosynthesis by blue-green
Prokaryotic cells (No
bacteria. Oxygen forms in the nucleus, small) diversify:
atmosphere but immediately
Bacteria-like blue-green
reacts with molecules in the
bacteria diversify.
ocean and crust of the Earth. The
actual atmospheric oxygen did
not start to increase until, almost
~2500 MYA
a billion years later, that is when
the ozone layer started to form!
~3000MYA
Earliest life. Prokaryotes
~3500 MYA
Prokaryotic cells diversify. More
complexity is evident. More
complex biochemical pathways.
Foundations to future eukaryotic
cells established. Ozone layer
finally starts to form in the
atmosphere.
~2100 MYA
Sexual Reproduction is
evident.
~1000 MYA
Plant and Animal Domestication by
Homo sapiens
Reptiles radiate, new forms
appear.
First stone tools discovered
with human remains.
~280 MYA
~0.01 MYA
(10,000YA)
~1.8 MYA
Multi-cellular organisms appear.
Extra-cellular matrix. First algae Reptiles appear, amphibians
and insects radiate.
(not blue green bacteria, but
Coniferous
trees appear
eukaryotic algae) Grypania spiralis
appear. Algae cysts form shortly
thereafter
~2000 MYA
~345 MYA
Shell-bearing marine
invertebrates dominate.
Vertebrates appear,
armored jawless fish
appear.
~500 MYA
Monkeys appear.
Early dinosaurs evolve.
Mammal-like reptiles
Amphibians, insects, primitive
trees, forests appear on land. evolve. Cycad and conifer
trees dominate
~395 MYA
Marine invertebrates radiate.
Shell-bearing animals appear.
~470 MYA
~37.5 MYA
~225 MYA
First birds appear.
Dinosaurs radiate. Reptiles
found on land, air and sea.
~180 MYA
Highly specialized dinosaurs
radiate
~135 MYA
Very early primates appear.
Archaic mammals dominate.
~64 MYA
Dinosaurs become extinct
(except for birds-therapods)
Jawed fish first appear.
Armored fish
dominate. Land plants,
giant ferns, arthropods
invade the land.
Early primates radiate
~53.5 MYA
~435 MYA
Primitive humans
diverge
~65 MYA
~4.9 MYA
Single eukaryotic Cells appear
(possess a nucleus, "prokaryotic"
mitochondria and chloroplasts)
~2200 MYA
-+
Miller's molecules: amino
Solar System Accretion acids, nucleic acids and, fatty Development of protocrust,
acids are formed from simple
Disk forms from nova
protohydrosphere and
atmospheric Oparin's
debris (star dust). The Sun
protoatmosphere, Meteorite
molecules.
"lights up".
impacts continue.
~4800 MYA
"Millers Molecules"
polymerize into RNA,
DNA (The Replicators)
and proteins.
~4000 MYA
Oparin's molecules: methane,
ammonia, carbon-dioxide,
hydrogen, water etc found in
the atmosphere and oceans.
~3800 MYA
~4300 MYA
Angiosperms the flowering
plants appear and radiate to
become the dominant plant
life on Earth.
~120MYA-Now
~4200 MYA
Big Bang
15000 MYA
Zosterophyllum, aquatic
plants radiate.
Psilophyton a primitive land
plant
~409 MYA
~400 MYA
Devonian forest, fern-like
leaves and lycopods.
~368 MYA
Pennsylvanian forest, tree
ferns, seed ferns, lycopods,
horsetails and conifers (early
relatives of redwoods,
spruces and pines). These
forests fossilized and made
the coal seams that powered
the industrial revolution.
~320MYA
Some typical Mesozoic plants,
Williamsonia, Ginkgos and
Cycads
~208 MYA
Primary stars form from huge
Nucleosynthesis occurs within giant condensations of Hydrogen and
primary stars. 75% Hydrogen and Helium gas produced from the
Big Bang. Temperatures and
25% Helium, the products of the
pressures build and nuclear
Big Bang event condense into huge
fusion reactors. Hydrogen is fused fusion occurs. The larger the star
the faster and hotter the fusion
into more helium.... temperatures
progresses
and pressures increase, helium is
then fused into larger and larger
atomic nuclei.... the periodic chart is
~9000 MYA
born!
~10000 MYA
.