Across
- 4. Layered sedimentary structures formed by ancient cyanobacteria, representing some of the earliest evidence of life on Earth.
- 9. The scientific study of prehistoric life through the examination of plant and animal fossils.
- 11. The complete dying out or termination of a species or a large group of organisms throughout Earth's history.
- 13. The term for the giant animals (like mammoths and saber-toothed cats) that dominated Earth before widespread extinctions at the end of the last Ice Age.
- 14. The evolutionary branching and subsequent reconnecting of lineages, often seen in the history of plant networks.
- 15. The ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, and nowhere else.
Down
- 1. The evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct, isolated species.
- 2. A similarity in internal traits or anatomy between different species that results from shared ancestry.
- 3. The geological period during which the first major colonization of land by plants and invertebrates occurred.
- 5. The fundamental process of heritable change in populations over generations, driving all global biodiversity.
- 6. A geographic area that remained unaltered by regional climate shifts (like glaciation), allowing ancient species to survive.
- 7. The massive supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, allowing land species to mingle globally.
- 8. The ancient animal phylum, arising in the Cambrian, that features a notochord and eventually gave rise to all vertebrates.
- 10. The ancient northern supercontinent that split from Pangaea, deeply impacting the distribution of modern northern hemisphere flora and fauna
- 12. The geological period is known for a massive "explosion" of diverse multicellular marine life around 541 million years ago.