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Laboratory Manual for Introductory Geology 4e

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becoming extinct. When we find an index fossil, we know that the rock in which it

is found dates from that unique span of time. This is like knowing that a Ford Edsel

could have been made only in the three years between 1957 and 1960, or the Model

A between 1903 and 1931. Tyrannosaurus rex, for example, lived only in the span of

geologic time known as the Cretaceous Period; it should not have been cast as a villain

in a Jurassic theme park (representing an earlier time period).

12.3.2 The Geologic Time Scale

Determining the relative ages of rock units by physical methods and using index

fossils to place those units in their correct time spans allowed geologists to construct

a geologic time scale (FIG. 12.8). The scale divides geologic time into progressively

smaller segments called eons, eras, periods, and epochs (not shown). The names of

FIGURE 12.8 The geologic time scale.

Eon

Era

Numerical

age (Ma)

Period

Age ranges of selected fossil groups

Phanerozoic

Cenozoic

Mesozoic

Paleozoic

2.6

66

145

201

252

289.9

323.2

359

419

443.4

485

541

Quaternary

Tertiary

Cretaceous

Jurassic

Triassic

Permian

Pennsylvanian

Mississippian

Devonian

Silurian

Ordovician

Cambrian

Shelled

animals

Flowering

plants

Dinosaurs

Fish

Amphibians

Trilobites

Reptiles

Mammals

Humans

Hadean Archean Proterozoic

Several

eras

Several

eras

2,500

(2.5 Ga)

4,000

(4.0 Ga)

4.56 Ga

312 CHAPTER 12 INTERPRETING GEOLOGIC HISTORY

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