Fossil Illustration
Plant or
Animal
Name
Plant or
Animal
Group
Eon
Assignment is © L. Immoor geolor, geoteach 2005
Unless otherwise stated...Credit for illustrations:
The University Of the State of New York; Board of Regents;
Era
Period
NAME: ________________________________ DATE: _____________
CLASS: _____________ TEACHER: ____________________________
Student Worksheet: Fossil Identification
Often knowledge is acquired by looking in more than one place! This exercise will
require you to consult a reference chart, look at several areas of the chart, then fill in
answers with pertinent information for several fossils pictured on this page.
In order to complete this worksheet, be sure to consult this Geologic Time
Reference Table. Look at each illustration and provide the correct:
Name of the Plant or Animal, Fossil Category (Example: Bird, Trilobite, etc.) as well
as the Eon, Era and Period in which the animal or plant lived.
Fossil
Illustration
Plant or
Animal
Name
Plant or
Animal
Group
Continue to Page 2
Eon
Era
Period
8
4600
4000
3000
2000
1000
500
Millions of years ago
0
PHANEROZOIC
E
A
R
L
Y
M
I
D
D
L
E
L
A
T
E
E
A
R
L
Y
M
I
D
D
L
E
L
A
T
E
Estimated time of origin
of Earth and solar system
Oldest known rocks
MESOZOIC
CENOZOIC
PALEOZOIC
Geochemical evidence
for oldest biological
fixing of carbon
Oldest microfossils
Transition to
atmosphere
containing
oxygen
First
appearance
of sexually
reproducing
organisms
Oldest
multicellular
life
Era
CAMBRIAN
ORDOVICIAN
SILURIAN
DEVONIAN
MISSISSIPPIAN
PENNSYLVANIAN
PERMIAN
TRIASSIC
JURASSIC
CRETACEOUS
PALEOGENE
NEOGENE
QUATERNARY
Life on Earth
206
142
EARLY
MIDDLE
LATE
EARLY
MIDDLE
LATE
EARLY
LATE
EARLY
MIDDLE
LATE
EARLY
LATE
EARLY
LATE
EARLY
1300
580
544
490
443
418
362
323
290
LATE
MIDDLE
EARLY 251
LATE
EARLY
MIDDLE
LATE
EARLY
Stromatolites
Soft-bodied organisms
Ediacaran fauna
Earliest chordates, diverse trilobites
Earliest trilobites
Earliest marine animals with shells
Graptolites abundant
Earliest fish
Algal reefs
Burgess shale fauna
Invertebrates dominant
– mollusks become abundant
Diverse coral and echinoderms
Earliest insects
Earliest land plants and animals
Peak development of eurypterids
Earliest amphibians, ammonoids, sharks
Extinction of armored fish, other
fish abundant
Abundant sharks and amphibians
Large and numerous scale trees
and seed ferns
Earliest reptiles
Extensive coal-forming forests
Modern coral groups appear
Earliest dinosaurs and mammals with
abundant cycads and conifers
Extinction of many kinds of marine
animals, including trilobites
First mammal-like reptiles
Earliest birds
Abundant dinosaurs and ammonoids
Earliest flowering plants
Decline of brachiopods
Diverse bony fishes
HOLOCENE 0
0.01
PLEISTOCENE 1.6 Humans, mastodonts, mammoths
PLIOCENE 5.3 Large carnivores
Abundant grazing mammals
MIOCENE
24 Earliest grasses
OLIGOCENE
Large running mammals
EOCENE 33.7 Many modern groups of mammals
54.8
PALEOCENE
65 Extinction of dinosaurs and ammonoids
Earliest placental mammals
LATE
Climax of dinosaurs and ammonoids
Millions of years ago
Epoch
A
B
C
TRILOBITES
N
O
Stylonurus
Eurypterus
Mastodont
M
Beluga
Whale
D
E
F
G
H
I
L
O
J
K
P
Q
S
R
Earth’s first
coral reef
M
N
Earth’s
first forest
A
T
U
V
W
X
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Y
Z
Tectonic
Events
Affecting
Northeast
North
America
ORDOVICIAN
9
96-001TN (rev) 11/2006
458 million
years
ago
years
ago
232 million
years
ago
119 million
years
ago
59 million
years
ago
DEVONIAN/MISSISSIPPIAN 362 million
TRIASSIC
CRETACEOUS
TERTIARY
Inferred Position of
Earth’s Landmasses
Earth Science Reference Tables — 2001 Edition (Revised November 2006)
Grenville Orogeny: Ancestral Adirondack
Mtns. and Hudson Highlands formed
Rifting and initial opening of Iapetus Ocean
Erosion of Grenville Mountains
Iapetus passive margin forms
Taconian Orogeny caused by closing of
western part of Iapetus Ocean and
collision between North America and
volcanic island arc
Erosion of Taconic Mountains; Queenston Delta forms
Salt and gypsum deposited in evaporite basins
Acadian Orogeny caused by collision of
North America and Avalon and closing
of remaining part of Iapetus Ocean
Catskill Delta forms
Erosion of Acadian Mountains
Appalachian (Alleghanian) Orogeny
caused by collision of North America
and Africa along transform margin,
forming Pangea
Extensive erosion
Intrusion of Palisades sill
Pangea begins to break up
Initial opening of Atlantic Ocean
North America and Africa separate
Development of passive continental margin
Sands and shales underlying Long Island and Staten
Island deposited on margin of Atlantic Ocean
Advance and retreat of last continental ice
Uplift of Adirondack region
Important Geologic
Events in New York
Bothriolepis
Naples Tree
Lichenaria
Pleurodictyum
Mucrospirifer
Platyceras
Cooksonia
Aneurophyton
Condor
Eospirifer
Maclurites
Cystiphyllum
P
Time Distribution of Fossils
Rock
Record (Including Important Fossils of New York)
in
Lettered circles indicate the approximate time of existence of a specific
NYS index fossil (e.g. Fossil
lived at the end of the Early Cambrian).
Coelophysis
NAUTILOIDS
Period
Earth Science Reference Tables — 2001 Edition (Revised November 2006)
P R E C A M B R I A N
L
AMMONOIDS
K
CRINOIDS
Eon
TERTIARY
CARBONIFEROUS
DINOSAURS
J
GRAPTOLITES
Valcouroceras
Tetragraptus
Eucalyptocrinus
Centroceras
Cryptolithus
Ctenocrinus
Dicellograptus
Manticoceras
Phacops
Elliptocephala
Hexameroceras
PROTEROZOIC
ARCHEAN
MAMMALS
I
VASCULAR PLANTS
H
EURYPTERIDS
BIRDS
PLACODERM
FISH
G
CORALS
F
GASTROPODS
E
BRACHIOPODS
D
Rifting
Rifting
C
Subduction
B
Passive Margin
Passive Margin
A
GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
Transform Collision
(Fossils not drawn to scale)
Continental Collision