Print Form
Name ______________________ Date________ Period__________
Procedure A:
1. Calculate the corresponding distance on a football field that each event
represents and fill in the blanks under the distance column.
Using the scale 1 Yard = 50 million years (round to the nearest full yard)
2. Mark the events on the Geologic Time Football Field.
a. Mark one end zone today
b. Mark the other Before Earth 4.6 Billion years old
3. As you label your events on the football field, pay close attention to which
end is which.
Geologic Event
Approximate Age
First known fish
510 million years
Earliest humans
2 million years
Formation of the Earth
4.6 billion years
First known mammal
200 million years
First single-celled organism
1.2 billion years
Oldest rock
4.2 billion years
Extinction of the dinosaurs
65 million years
First known land plant
430 million years
First known reptile
325 million years
First multi-celled organism
700 million years
First known amphibian
375 million years
First known bird
160 million years
Distance (yds)
Procedure B:
Using page 8 of your ESRT lightly shade the football field
1. Color the Precambrian Eon - Blue
2. Draw stripes in the Phanerozoic Eon
3. Color the Paleozoic Era – Red
4. Color the Mesozoic Era – Green
5. Color the Cenozoic Era – Yellow
Discussion Questions:
1. What event /s should appear near in the middle of the football field?
2. Put these in order as to when they first appeared and list the era in which they
first appeared (oldest = 1, youngest = 5)
Fish, mammals, reptiles, plants, humans
Organism
First appearance
Era
1
2
3
4
5
3. How many years does the first 10 yards represent?
4. What events occurred within 10 yards from the TODAY end zone?
5. What are the two eons on the Geologic Time Scale?
6. Which eon covers the largest amount of time?
7. How many millions of years ago did the Paleozoic Era begin?
8. How many millions of years ago did the Devonian Era end?
9. How many millions of years ago did the Jurassic Era end?
10. During what period did the Acadian Orogeny (mountain forming) occur?
11. During what period did the following first appear on earth?
a. Earliest fish
b. Eurypterids
c. Sharks
d. Dinosaurs
12. During what period was the Palisades Sill formed?
13. For what periods is the rock record completely preserved in New York State?
14. For each of the following pairs, which form of life evolved first? (circle one)
a. Running Mammals - Earliest reptiles
b. Earliest fish - Stromatolites
c. Man - Earliest Fish
d. Eurypterids - Large carnivores
15. During Which Epoch did the advance and retreat of the last continental ice
occur?