Exam 12: Earths Evolution Through Geologic Time

The most economically important resource in Cenozoic strata of the Gulf Coast is ________.

________ are the dominant land plants of the Cenozoic era.

The Precambrian rock record indicates that much of Earth's first free oxygen combined with ________ dissolved in water.

When Earth's primitive surface cooled below water's boiling point, torrential rains slowly filled low areas, forming oceans.

The ________ period is sometimes called the "golden age of trilobites."

During the late Paleozoic, the present-day North America, Europe, western Asia, Siberia, and perhaps China formed the northern continent of ________.

Earth's original atmosphere, several billion years ago, was similar to the present atmosphere.

The large outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) contain huge amounts of hydrogen and other light materials as part of their composition.

The rock formations of the ________ era are more widespread and less disturbed than those of any other time.

Most Mesozoic rocks are devoid of fossils; consequently this is the least understood span of Earth's history.

Extensive deposits of ________ ore are found worldwide in Precambrian rocks.

Compare and contrast the patterns of life in the Paleozoic Era to the Mesozoic Era. What are the major differences between these two eras? Are there similarities or similar trends?

Most of Earth's iron ore occurs in middle ________ rocks.

During the Cenozoic, plate interactions gave rise to many events of mountain building, volcanism, and earthquakes in ________ North America.

Much of the original free oxygen in the atmosphere combined with iron dissolved in water to become iron oxide.

________ are among the most widespread Paleozoic fossils.

The fault-block mountains of Nevada and Mexico formed during the Cenozoic era.

Human evolution takes place during the ________ period of the ________ era.

The beginning of the Cambrian period marks an important event in animal evolution - the appearance of organisms with ________.

The supercontinent of Pangaea began to break up during the ________ era.