Geologic Time Scale
Across
- 5. ending with the asteroid impact that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs.
- 6. early humans that lived roughly 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago.
- 8. this is often called the "Age of Reptiles," with the rise and dominance of dinosaurs
- 10. the time of swampy forests. The decay of these plants created the massive coal deposits we mine today.
- 12. A subdivision of an era
- 13. A supercontinent that incorporated almost all of Earth's landmasses
- 14. It began roughly 11,700 years ago after the last major ice age
- 15. called the "Ice Age," this epoch lasted from 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago
- 17. The current geologic period, characterized by cyclic ice ages and the evolution of modern humans
Down
- 1. it was a warm, wet time when giant dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus thrived and the first birds appeared
- 2. The current eon, which began 541 million years ago. It is defined by the abundance of complex, "visible" life
- 3. these represent shorter blocks of time, often used to describe the most recent 66 million years
- 4. Modern humans. Our species emerged roughly 300,000 years ago in Africa
- 7. The largest formal unit of geologic time
- 9. 66 million years ago after the extinction of the dinosaurs. It is known as the "Age of Mammals."
- 11. The first 600 million years of Earth's existence with extreme heat
- 12. the most severe mass extinction event in Earth's history.
- 16. A major division of time within an eon