Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth
Activities for Grades 9-12
Investigate Earth’s Geologic History
OVERVIEW
Students will understand how scientists use the rock record to construct
Earth’s geologic history.
•B
efore Your Visit: Using videos, essays, and interactives, students will
learn about the scientific process, and how geologists examine
evidence to find out about the early Earth.
•D
uring Your Visit:
• I n the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, students will use the Geologic
Time Scale as an entry point of exploring geologic history.
• I n the Fossil Halls, students will further investigate geologic history
and look for examples of index fossils listed on the Reference Table.
•B
ack in the Classroom: Students will combine information collected
at the Museum with further research to make connections to a portion
of the Geologic History of New York State Reference Table and create
poster presentations.
NYS Physical Setting/Earth
Science Core Curriculum
PS 1.2j: Geologic history can be reconstructed by observing sequences of rock
types and fossils to correlate bedrock at
various locations.
PS 1.2h: The evolution of life caused
dramatic changes in the composition of
the Earth’s atmosphere. Free oxygen did
not form in the atmosphere until oxygenproducing organisms evolved.
BACKGROUND FOR EDUCATOR
Evidence for the development of Earth’s atmosphere includes:
•a
specimen of a banded iron formation that helps tell the story of the oxygenation of the ocean and atmosphere;
• s tromatolites, the fossilized remains of Earth’s first life forms, microbes that produced oxygen through
photosynthesis; and
•a
section of conglomerate rock that records Earth’s first prolonged glaciation.
BEFORE YOUR VISIT
Use these videos and related activities and resources to illustrate the
process of science and to help students understand the formation
of Earth.
Activity: Zircons: Time Capsules from Early Earth
sciencebulletins.amnh.org/?sid=e.f.zircons.20100401
Zircons are ancient minerals that typically exist as tiny crystals in rocks.
The oldest Earth materials ever discovered, they contain clues about
periods of geological time for which there is no direct evidence. This
video shows scientists making hypotheses about conditions of early
Earth based on zircons. Links to the activity and essay are located below
and to the left of the video window.
Plan how your students will explore the
Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth using the
student worksheets. Distribute copies of
the worksheets and reference tables to
students beforehand, and review them to
make sure everyone understands the activities. Have students work individually or in
pairs as they explore the exhibition.
Activity: The Rise of Oxygen
sciencebulletins.amnh.org/?sid=e.f.rise02.20040301
A 2.5 billion year old sedimentary formation in Ontario, Canada, records how much oxygen Earth’s early atmosphere
contained. Use this video and the related activity and interactive, “Tour the Huronian Supergroup,” to explore how
geologists collect evidence that they use to formulate and test hypotheses about the composition of the ancient
atmosphere. Links to the activity and interactive are located below and to the left of the video window.
© 2012 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.
Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth
Activities for Grades 9-12
DURING YOUR VISIT
Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth
1st floor (45-60 minutes)
Students will explore our planet’s geologic history, including formation of Earth and life in early Earth. Have them
begin their investigation at the Hall’s Geologic Timescale. Working individually or in pairs, have them use the student
worksheets to explore how our planet and its life forms evolved simultaneously over immense stretches of time. At
each stop, students will identify the age of specimens and mark this on the timescale on their worksheets.
Wallach Orientation Theater & Fossil Halls
4th floor (30–45 minutes)
Have students further investigate geologic history by watching the introductory video in the Orientation Theater and
exploring the Fossil Halls. Have them look for examples of the index fossils listed on the reference tables.
BACK IN THE CLASSROOM
Wrap-Up Activity: Modeling Geologic Time
Students will combine information collected at the Museum with further research to make connections to a portion
of the Geologic History of New York State Reference Table.
First, have students plot the age of specimens in questions 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 on the Geologic History of New York
State Reference Table.
Then, do the following activity with students to help them visualize the data.
materials:
• clothespins or paperclips
• 50 meters of thin rope or clothesline (length depends on size of classroom)
• index cards with names and ages of Museum samples as well as other significant dates and occurrences from the
ESRT table (one per student or team)
• red and black permanent markers
• metric tape measure or meter stick
Using the red marker, mark out the clothesline in five equal sections, each representing one billion years. Be sure to
allow space at each end to hold or attached the clothesline.
Using the black marker, divide each billion-year segment into 10 equal sections, each representing 100 million years.
Attach the geologic time line along the perimeter of your classroom and have students or teams come up and attach
their cards to the timeline.
Activity: Layers of Time Fossil Puzzle
amnh.org/ology/features/layersoftime/
Students can play this computer interactive to learn about how sedimentary rock layers are formed and how the
history of life is written within rocks. There are three levels of difficulty and a seven-layer puzzle in which fossils serve
as clues. Students can use a Check Your Work option to check their solutions. A shortened, print version of this
activity is available at amnh.org /resources/rfl/pdf/dinoactivity_layers.pdf
© 2012 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.
Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth
Grades 9-12
Student Worksheet: Investigate Geologic Time
Geologic Time Scale
1 Start Here: Examine the geologic
timeline of our planet.
1
Today, you will be investigating how
current conditions on Earth are the result
of our planet and its life forms evolving
simultaneously over long stretches of time.
6
7
8
9
10
5
4
3 2
Formation of Earth
2 Meteorites (samples #1-3): How old are they?
3 Four Density Blocks (#4–7): Lift the four blocks and compare their weights. Which is lightest? Heaviest?
What can they tell us about the layers of Earth? What does this tell us about the way they formed?
4 The Oldest Known Rocks (#12): How old is it?
What does it contain and what does it tell scientists about early Earth?
Life in Early Earth
5 Sulfide Chimneys (#26–30): Where are hydrothermal vents found, and how do they form? When did
they form?
Why do scientists think that life began at vents like these?
© 2012 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.
Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth
Grades 9-12
6 Stromatolite (#14): How old is it?
What are stromatolites and what can they tell us about the early Earth?
7 Banded Iron (#15): How old is it?
Examine the “How do we know about the early atmosphere?” diagram. Label it to show how oxygen and iron
composition changed over time.
4.6 billion years ago
3.8 bya
2.6 bya
560 mya
250
65
today
8 The Oldest Fossil? (#16): Watch the video above about the evolution of microfossils and examine the
fossil specimen. How old is it?
9 Pyrite-Bearing Conglomerate (#17), Gray-White Quartzite (#18), and Red Quartzite (#19): Compare the
color and composition of the three samples. What type of rocks do you think they are? What can the color
variations and composition of the Huronian Supergroup tell us about how the atmosphere has changed
over time?
Glaciation
10 Earliest Ice Ages (#20), Debris from Oldest Glaciers (#21), and Outcrop of Glacial Sediments (#22):
How old are they?
How do these samples provide evidence of an early ice age?
© 2012 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
Eon
Era
Period
PHANEROZOIC
QUATERNARY
CENOZOIC
NEOGENE
PROTEROZOIC
M
I
D
D
L
E
MIOCENE
EOCENE
PALEOCENE
ARCHEAN
55.8
65.5
First
sexually
reproducing
organisms
Earliest flowering plants
Diverse bony fishes
EARLY
146
LATE
MIDDLE
JURASSIC
Earliest birds
Abundant dinosaurs and ammonoids
EARLY
E
A
R
L
Y
Oceanic oxygen
begins to enter
the atmosphere
MIDDLE
EARLY
251
LATE
MIDDLE
PALEOZOIC
CARBONIFEROUS
Oceanic oxygen
produced by
cyanobacteria
combines with
iron, forming
iron oxide layers
on ocean floor
M
I
D
D
L
E Earliest stromatolites
Oldest microfossils
E
A
R
L
Y
Earliest mammals
LATE
TRIASSIC
EARLY
318
LATE
MISSISSIPPIAN
MIDDLE
EARLY
DEVONIAN
359
416
LATE
SILURIAN
Mammal-like reptiles
EARLY
Extensive coal-forming forests
Abundant amphibians
Large and numerous scale trees and seed ferns
(vascular plants); earliest reptiles
Earliest amphibians and plant seeds
Extinction of many marine organisms
Earth’s first forests
Earliest ammonoids and sharks
Abundant fish
MIDDLE
EARLY
Evidence of biological
carbon
Mass extinction of many land and marine
organisms (including trilobites)
Abundant reptiles
LATE
EARLY
PENNSYLVANIAN
Earliest dinosaurs
299
LATE
444
Earliest insects
Earliest land plants and animals
Abundant eurypterids
LATE
Oldest known rocks
ORDOVICIAN
Invertebrates dominant
Earth’s first coral reefs
MIDDLE
488
LATE
Estimated time of origin
of Earth and solar system
MIDDLE
CAMBRIAN
EARLY
542
580
(Index fossils not drawn to scale)
B
Many modern groups of mammals
Mass extinction of dinosaurs, ammonoids, and
many land plants
CRETACEOUS
EARLY
A
Abundant grazing mammals
Earliest grasses
200
L
A
T
E
4600
23.0
33.9
LATE
MESOZOIC
PERMIAN
4000
Bedrock
0.01
PLEISTOCENE 1.8 Humans, mastodonts, mammoths
PLIOCENE
5.3 Large carnivorous mammals
PALEOGENE
L
A
T
E
P R E C A M B R I A N
3000
Sediment
HOLOCENE 0
OLIGOCENE
1000
2000
Life on Earth
Million years ago
Million years ago
0
500
Epoch
NY Rock
Record
C
1300
D
E
F
G
H
I
Burgess shale fauna (diverse soft-bodied organisms)
Earliest fishes
Extinction of many primitive marine organisms
Earliest trilobites
Great diversity of life-forms with shelly parts
Ediacaran fauna (first multicellular, soft-bodied
marine organisms)
Abundant stromatolites
J
K
L
M
N
Tetragraptus
Cryptolithus
Centroceras
Valcouroceras
Eucalyptocrinus
Coelophysis
Stylonurus
Ctenocrinus
Dicellograptus
Eurypterus
Hexameroceras
Manticoceras
Phacops
Elliptocephala
Physical Setting/Earth Science Reference Tables — 2011 Edition
8
Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth
Grades 9-12
Student Worksheet: Investigate Geologic Time
ANSWER KEY
Geologic Time Scale
1 Start Here: Examine the geologic
timeline of our planet.
1
Today, you will be investigating how
current conditions on Earth are the result
of our planet and its life forms evolving
simultaneously over long stretches of time.
6
7
8
9
10
5
4
3 2
Formation of Earth
2 Meteorites (samples #1-3): How old are they?
(Answer: between 4.5 and 4.6 billion years old)
3 Four Density Blocks (#4–7): Lift the four blocks and compare their weights. Which is lightest? Heaviest?
What can they tell us about the layers of Earth? What does this tell us about the way they formed?
(Answers may include: #7, which represents water, is the lightest. #4 iron, which represents the core, is the
heaviest. As Earth started to grow, heavier materials sank to the center to form the core and lighter elements were
driven from the interior to form an ocean and atmosphere.)
4 The Oldest Known Rocks (#12): How old is it?
(Answer: 3.96 billion years old)
What does it contain and what does it tell scientists about early Earth?
(Answers may include: By dating the zircons embedded within the Acasta gneiss, geologists have determined its
age to be 3.96 billion years. The rock’s composition establishes it as part of a continent, indicating that continents
existed nearly 4 billion years ago.)
Life in Early Earth
5 Sulfide Chimneys (#26–30): Where are hydrothermal vents found, and how do they form? When did
1997
they form? Why do scientists think that life began at vents like these?
(Answers may include: They form when metals from underwater hot springs react with seawater to precipitate
as sulfide minerals. Scientists theorize that some of the first forms of life may have emerged around volcanic
vents along the ocean floor, and these microbes flourished in the absence of sunlight by getting energy from the
chemical compounds billowing out of these vents.)
© 2012 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.
Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth
Grades 9-12
6 Stromatolite (#14): How old is it? (Answer: 900 million years old)
ANSWER KEY
What are stromatolites and what can they tell us about the early Earth?
(Answers may include: Stromatolites are bacteria mats that formed into colonies in shallow oceans. They tell us
that life most likely began in the oceans and could only live in shallow water.)
7 Banded Iron (#15): How old is it? (Answer: 2.736–2.687 billion years old)
Examine the “How do we know about the early atmosphere?” diagram. Label it to
show how oxygen and iron composition changed over time.
Concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere
Concentration of iron in the ocean
oxygen
iron
stromatolites
iron + oxygen
banded iron
formation
black smoker
4.6 billion years ago
formation
of Earth
first evidence
of life
3.8 bya
first
microfossils
2.6 bya
560 mya
250
today
BANDED IRON FORMATIONS
8 The Oldest Fossil? (#16): Watch the video above about the evolution of microfossils and examine the
fossil specimen. How old is it? (Answer: 3.5 billion years old)
9 Pyrite-Bearing Conglomerate (#17), Gray-White Quartzite (#18), and Red Quartzite (#19): Compare the
color and composition of the three samples. What type of rocks do you think they are? What can the color
variations and composition of the Huronian Supergroup tell us about how the atmosphere has changed
time? (Answers may include: These are sedimentary rocks. They record the rise of an oxygen
over
atmosphere produced by photosynthetic organisms like the stromatolites. The oldest rocks are grey because
there was no oxygen to cause them to rust. The youngest rocks are red because as oxygen became more
abundant, the iron could then react with oxygen and turn red.)
Glaciation
10 Earliest Ice Ages (#20), Debris from Oldest Glaciers (#21), and Outcrop of Glacial Sediments (#22):
How old are they? (Answer: 2.3 billion years old)
How do these samples provide evidence of an early ice age?
(Answers may include: When rock fragments do not touch, it indicates that they were carried and deposited by
melting glaciers.)
© 2012 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.
ANSWER KEY
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
Eon
Era
Period
QUATERNARY
CENOZOIC
Early
Ice Age
7
3000
8
Oldest
Fossil
4
Oldest
Known
Rocks
MIOCENE
PROTEROZOIC
EOCENE
PALEOCENE
First
sexually
reproducing
organisms
Earliest flowering plants
Diverse bony fishes
EARLY
146
LATE
MIDDLE
JURASSIC
Meteorites
E
A
R
L
Y
Oceanic oxygen
begins to enter
the atmosphere
MIDDLE
EARLY
251
LATE
MIDDLE
PALEOZOIC
Oceanic oxygen
produced by
cyanobacteria
combines with
iron, forming
iron oxide layers
on ocean floor
M
I
D
D
L
E Earliest stromatolites
Oldest microfossils
E
A
R
L
Y
Earliest mammals
LATE
TRIASSIC
EARLY
318
LATE
MISSISSIPPIAN
MIDDLE
EARLY
359
LATE
DEVONIAN
416
LATE
SILURIAN
EARLY
Extensive coal-forming forests
Abundant amphibians
Large and numerous scale trees and seed ferns
(vascular plants); earliest reptiles
Earliest amphibians and plant seeds
Extinction of many marine organisms
444
Earliest insects
Earliest land plants and animals
Abundant eurypterids
LATE
Oldest known rocks
ORDOVICIAN
Invertebrates dominant
Earth’s first coral reefs
MIDDLE
488
LATE
MIDDLE
CAMBRIAN
542
580
(Index fossils not drawn to scale)
B
Mammal-like reptiles
Earth’s first forests
Earliest ammonoids and sharks
Abundant fish
MIDDLE
EARLY
Evidence of biological
carbon
Mass extinction of many land and marine
organisms (including trilobites)
Abundant reptiles
LATE
EARLY
PENNSYLVANIAN
Earliest dinosaurs
299
EARLY
A
Earliest birds
Abundant dinosaurs and ammonoids
EARLY
Estimated time of origin
of Earth and solar system
4600
Many modern groups of mammals
Mass extinction of dinosaurs, ammonoids, and
many land plants
CRETACEOUS
EARLY
2
55.8
65.5
Abundant grazing mammals
Earliest grasses
200
L
A
T
E
4000
23.0
33.9
LATE
MESOZOIC
PERMIAN
ARCHEAN
Banded
Iron
P R E C A M B R I A N
10
M
I
D
D
L
E
Bedrock
0.01
PLEISTOCENE 1.8 Humans, mastodonts, mammoths
PLIOCENE
5.3 Large carnivorous mammals
PALEOGENE
1000
2000
Sediment
HOLOCENE 0
OLIGOCENE
L
A
T
E
Stromatolite
NEOGENE
CARBONIFEROUS
6
500
PHANEROZOIC
Sulfide
Chimneys
Life on Earth
Million years ago
Million years ago
0
5
Epoch
NY Rock
Record
C
1300
D
E
F
G
H
I
Burgess shale fauna (diverse soft-bodied organisms)
Earliest fishes
Extinction of many primitive marine organisms
Earliest trilobites
Great diversity of life-forms with shelly parts
Ediacaran fauna (first multicellular, soft-bodied
marine organisms)
Abundant stromatolites
J
K
L
M
N
Tetragraptus
Cryptolithus
Centroceras
Valcouroceras
Eucalyptocrinus
Coelophysis
Stylonurus
Ctenocrinus
Dicellograptus
Eurypterus
Hexameroceras
Manticoceras
Phacops
Elliptocephala
Physical Setting/Earth Science Reference Tables — 2011 Edition
8