PENT Archean to Mesozoic

A Planet of "Bacteria": most common form of life

Some stars (not Hollywood stars)
Mary Anning
The Iceman
The Bogman
Coelacanth
Cadborosaurus
Chewing teeth, hearing, warm bodies, “cute babies”
Cambrian explosion
Boyd Bushman

Obama/Attenborough meeting

Scotese continent animations

•Earth is unique in the Solar System:

    it supported life

.   Numerous earth-like planets in universe

.  Our solar system is not a 1st generation (~ 2rd)

. Earth went through many stages: One life form gave rise to another by necessity (reasons like change in climate or a disaster that killed many life forms)

Rise in Intelligence with time

One example is humans: size of brain increased as early humans worked hard to find food, planned a hunt, avoid predators or made tools

•There have been other forms of intelligent life before the humans appeared

Examples are cephalopods (like squid today). By imitating them we build submarines. Another example is Velociraptor 

Origin of Life

•Life almost as old as the earth

•Life on Earth is marine in origin(we see that in newborn babies, can swim & like water, also like climbing trees like our immediate ancestors)

•Earliest about 3.8 b.y. old in the sea

•Life didn’t move onto land until ~ 400 m.y. ago

•Needed enough oxygen as well as the protective ozone layer

•Plants moved first

•Animals did not have hard parts (skeletons)- not enough O2 in the water

How do we know about previous life?

•Simple: remains of previous life incorporated into sediments after death

•The sediments formed rocks which contain remains of life as fossils

•Rocks with fossils exposed to the surface today

•Discovered by prospectors/geologists/other interested people

Invertebrates & Vertebrates

•First animals (without skeletons) rarely become fossils, mostly stationary on ocean floor

•Some decided to explore & acquired skeletons

•First vertebrate was the fish

•During Carboniferous, vast forests & swamps with insects of tremendous size

•Fish stayed at water’s edge to hunt insects

•Became part-time land animals = amphibians

Land looked attractive

•Lots of food

•More oxygen to breath

•Protection from ozone available

•Less competition & no predators

•Became permanent residents = reptiles

•Some returned to the sea, because they sniffed food like ammonite meat & couldn’t pass up such a treat

A Landmark event

•Reptiles were the 1st 100 % land animal to appear on the Earth

•Its reproduction (the amniotic egg) method was a major achievement in the planet’s history

•Many of our features were created by the dinosaurs (such as chewing, cuteness of babies, warm blood, etc)

•Some colonized the skies by imitating the insects

•Climate got cold, too hard for cold-blooded animals

•The dust from the asteroid collision & the volcanoes that were created as a result finished most of the animals

•When the dust settled, there were only birds & mammals around

•This time the animals were warm-blooded and & could cope with a colder climate

Tree of Life

•Invertebrates -->  Fish--> Amphibians -->reptiles --> mammals & birds

Animals to Humans

•Dried-up forests of Africa brought the chimps (99 % identical to humans) to the ground looking for food

•Difficult to survive without fast-moving legs

•Required strategy of immense proportion – i.e. bigger brain

•Made tools & fire: a dramatic progress

•Made sounds, communicate, paint, travel, make a spear, make a boat

•Begin to wonder about the earth, religion, bury the dead

•Real progress in intelligence

•Now, we are able to destroy the whole humanity with nuclear weapons – practically insane

Genesis (Bible) versus Science
Both tells us a similar story if you could read the initial text of the Bible– in ancient Greek
(Ancient Hebrew text lost)
Some words have different meaning today, or words have many different meanings depending on the subject in question
The following from a publication of mine

•“day” or   verse      Events in   Events in       Radiometric

•  stage        in           Genesis    Science               dates

•               Bible                                                      (in 

•                                                                      billion/million

•                                                                          years ago)

•-------     -------       -----------     -----------        ---------------        

•                 1            Summary 

•                 2           Unformed

•                               matter

•                     (water=protons)

• First         3           Light         Big Bang        13.7  b.y.

•                                            First photons, protons

•               4,5     light divided 

•                      from darkness  Atoms form    ½ m.y. after Big

•                                                                                      Bang

•                                             Last scattering

• Second  6–8  firmament 

•                separating waters  Formation of stars/earth 4.6 b.y.

•                                              Creation of the earth

•Third      9,10  seas, land  form  Ocean, land      4.0   b..y.

•             11–13 green plants,

•                   trees, seeds First plants on ocean floor  3.8 b.y.

• 

•  Fourth 14–19  sun, moon, 

•                          stars           The sun is visible

•                                             First photosynthesis     3.0  b.y.

• 

•  Fifth    20–23 living things

•                          in water,       First fish,insects      ~ 400 m.y.

•                        Flying creatures, etc

• 

•  Sixth    24, 25  all kinds of 

•                       living creatures First land animals  ~ 300 m.y.

•                           reptiles

•               26–31  Humans        First humans             ~ 5 m.y.

It seems that someone from space is maintaining order 

By destroying some nuclear weapons 
. Their messages in crop circles and lights / sounds in the sky are amazing when studied
. Demonstrations of energy production without noise & poisonous exhaust would be beneficial if adopted my humans

•Remains of a factory waste processing tungsten & molybdenum, maybe 100,000 years old, found in Russia– this shows our planet is rare (has metals)

•Made their presence known since man created the atom bomb & nuclear weapons

EVENTS during Earth’s history

•It was all molten mantle to start with

•Crust formed from slow cooling of the magma

•Sea and atmosphere

•Later, creation of the continents

•Movement of the continents

•Mountains, reefs, deserts, coal & oil deposits

•Glaciations

UNIVERSE

•13.7 b.y. old & undergoes accelerated expansion

•Dark matter is 30 %: holds things together

•Dark Energy is 65 %: causes expansion of Universe to accelerate

•All visible matter (5 %) doesn’t have enough gravity to stop the expansion

•Cosmic microwave background radiation: echo of the Big Bang (annoying hiss out of a communications antenna)

The Solar System

•One star: our Sun (= >99 % of mass)

•Planets & their moons (used to be meteors)

•Minor planets (Pluto & friends)

•Meteors from the Asteroid Belt, all combined together would form a small planet- but didn’t

•Comets from the outer reaches of solar system (Oort Cloud)

Distances in space

•Pioneer 10 spacecraft blasted off Mar. 1972

•Reached Jupiter   at 15km/s          Dec  1973

•Is now 13 billion km away

•Practically the edge of our Solar System

•Is aiming for star Aldebaran

•It will be there in 2 million years

•Only item that will outlast Earth- last forever

•Earth will be a Red Giant in 5 b.y.

Our Sun

•The Star : a nuclear factory

•2 Hydrogen atoms fuse to form one Helium, then,lithium, …………. last one to form is Iron

•The atoms bigger than iron created by supernovas

•Heaviest atom on Earth: Uranium

•Therefore, we are a “two-times re-processed material” very interesting to alien visitors

Planets & their moons

•Two groups of planets:

•The Terrestrial &      the Jovian (Jupiter-like)

solid rock on surface                   gases

condensed at high Temp         low temp

very dense                                 low density

Fe – Ni alloys &                      ices of water,

silicates                                    ammonia, methane

Small                                                Large

                                                 radiate more heat than

                                                     they receive

      Few moons                          Many moons

Mercury

•Weak magnetic field

•Large solid core with thin mantle

•Many meteorite craters

•Some flood basalts

•Some cracks due to cooling of rocks in the interior

•Revolves around the sun very fast

Venus

•Brightest object in the sky

•“Earth’s twin”, similar size, but retrograde rotation

•Dense clouds of CO2 with sulfuric acid

•The ultimate greenhouse effect

•Air pressure on surface = 90 X Earth’s

•Very strong wind

•Recent volcanism

Mars

•The “Red Planet”

•Thin air with CO2, N2, no ozone. Most air escaped into space. Before, the greenhouse effect allowed water on the surface

•Strong wind up to 450 km/h

•Used to have stream channels

•Iron regolith with 13 % Fe –iron oxides & clay

•No organics in the soil

•Volcanic rocks ~ 50 % of surface

•Olympus Mons volcano ~  22 km high (tallest in Solar System)

•Polar ice caps with CO2 ice

•Landslides, craters & rift valleys

•No surface tectonism now

Ice Caps prominent (picture)        Mars “blueberries” (picture)

Hematite nodule: formed in water (picture)

Has to be sedimentary rocks (picture)    desert-like (picture)

Barchan dunes(picture)   wind storm (picture)

Jovian planets

•Small metal-silicate core

•Mantle with liquid metal, ice of water, methane & ammonia

•No firm surface

•Thick clouds rich in Hydrogen, water snowflakes & ammonia snowflakes

•Colors due to sulfur, phosphorus

Moons of Jupiter - of interest to us because of possible life

•Callisto: weak crust of ice + rock

                   mantle of water or water ice

                   no relief

. Ganymede: Craters & mountain ridges

. Europa: crust of ice, watery mantle

              “cracked eggshell” --> plate tectonics

            The largest ocean in the Solar system

            ~ 100 km deep

Io

•Sulfur-rich crust with molten sulfur mantle

•Active volcanoes

•No craters

•Brilliant yellow, red & brown

•Heat from tides of Jupiter

Enceladus: water under its ice?      Titan: atmosphere & surface lakes

Our Moon

•Receding 5 cm per year!!

•New Moon Blast Theory, 4 b.y. ago

•A Mars-size body hit earth at 50 km/sec. It set the stage for ocean tides & reproduction

•Evidence moon was closer: a Devonian coral had 3 ridges /year, so lunar month was 1 ½ day shorter

•Enough debris ejected from Earth’s outer layers (low in Fe) to form the moon

•Its movement is moderated (synchronized) so that its rotation period is the same as orbital period (27.3 days)

•No atmosphere (gravity force is too low to keep the air)

•Surface: “Highlands”      &    “Seas”

                    older rocks         younger rocks

                    4 – 4.6 b.y           3 – 3.9 b.y.

                    anorthosite         basalt

.  Soil: fragmentation of surface rock by meteors

            20 m deep

.  No hydrous minerals (clays, micas, amphibole)

•No water

•Chemistry: high in titanium

                        low in Fe, K, volatiles

.  Very thick lithosphere, cannot have plates

.  No magnetic field

.  Moonquakes : weak up to Richter 2

.  Density = 3.34 (Earth’s is 5.52)

Meteorites (3 types)

•“Stony”: silicates of Fe, Mg    like our “mantle”

                    olivines, pyroxenes

.  “Irons” : Fe & Ni alloys               like our “core”

.  Carbonaceous chondrites: carbonates, water,

                  sulfates, volatiles – both high & low

                  temp. minerals: could not have

                  formed together, primitive solar

                  system material (not melted)

Falling stars, shooting stars, fireballs, thunderstones

•Travel very fast: 11 -70 km/sec

•Burn up by friction with air molecules, so they have a black crust, may fragment before hitting earth’s surface

•Expelled from the Asteroid Belt by collisions

•Fast collisions make craters, largest at Sudbury, 260 km across, 1.8 b.y. old

•Manitoba’s largest at Gypsumville, 40 km wide

•Largest recovered the Hoba Iron, S.Africa weighs 66 tons

•Down to micrometeorites

•The one responsible for the dinosaur demise was 10 km big & caused an “atmospheric blow-out” disaster

•People watch out for Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) whose orbits may coincide with ours

•Aug.’72 “near miss” filmed over Wyoming

“Falls” v. “Finds”

•To see & recover a meteor is rare

•More frequently, one can find them in deserts or in Antarctica (frozen desert) or with a metal detector

•About 75 “finds” in Canada

•Finds named after nearest locality & owned by the finder (who can lease them to a museum)

•See Urals’ meteorite, Febr.15, 2012 (youtube videos)

•The largest since Tunguska in 1908

•Blinding glare from the East (direction of Sun, 9 am)

•A fireball, 3 min later a shock wave (air compressed in front of object)

•100,000 windows smashed, 1,500 people injured

•Explosion 23 km up, moving at 18 km/sec

•Force radiated by fireball ~ 90 kilotons (Hiroshima atom bomb was only 15 kilotons), but total energy delivered during entire entry was ~ 440 kilotons

•Meteorite was an ordinary chondrite with density of 3.6, therefore, should have been 18 m in diameter & 11,000 tons in mass

•Because it came from the east (China) many thought of a nuclear attack

Orbit

•Many cameras recorded the event, so scientists could work out direction and speed and it could be traced to its origin

•Another asteroid was coming 16 hours later, 2012 DA, in close proximity, but was much bigger.

•Two such extremely rare events occurred so close together, but were not related

•Meteor came from the Apollo group of asteroids – the largest class of asteroids whose orbits cross Earth’s

•Only Paul Chodas of NASA can calculate the orbits of meteors, comets, etc

Some meteorites / craters 
Tagish meteorite, Yukon, 2001: the most rare ever
-Willamette, USA’s biggest brought to the States by a glacier (from Canada)!
-Meteor crater, Arizona: best example of a crater
-Manicouagan: the “eye of Quebec”, 4th largest
-New Quebec crater, perfectly circular lake
-Peekskill meteorite broke a girl’s car in NY

The Sikhote Alin, Russia 1947: largest meteorite fall in history

Two volunteer astronomers spotting meteors/comets

Earth Impacts at a glance – red dots on the map

The meteor that killed the dinosaurs - poster

Comets (person with long hair)

•The comet of 79 AD was blamed for eruption of Vesuvius & destruction of Pompeii

•Halley’s comet of 1066 was hanging in the sky for 2 months & “ favored” the victorious French at the battle of Hastings

•In 1665, one was responsible for the Black Plague

•Influenza or flu was attributed to a passing comet

•Hale-Bopp in 1997: 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult in Calif. committed suicide to “take a ride” on the comet. Did they?

“frozen mudballs”, “dirty snowballs”

•Hale-Bopp was unusually bright & the farthest comet ever discovered by amateurs

•Originated from Oort Cloud, place of 1 trillion comets waiting to be disturbed

•Main body 15-20 km, usually peanut-shaped with long tail (coma) ~300 million km long

•Speed of 60 km/sec

Coma

•2 comas point away from the sun, top is dust & bottom is ionized gases

•Solar Wind vaporizes the ice & jets of water vapor & gases shoot out from the colder depths or cracks

•Comet’s fate is to crust over & suffocate becoming like a meteor

•Rich in hydrocarbons, aminoacids & organic molecules ---brought life to Earth?

Nucleus of a comet - picture

1994 crash on Jupiter (picture)

•Comet broke apart into 22 fragments as it passed Jupiter on its way to the sun

•Their orbits were predicted to crash on Jupiter a year later & all telescopes were looking when they created huge explosions bigger than the Earth

•If Jupiter is hit, it is possible Earth may get hit in the future

What does it represent?

•Primitive building blocks of the solar system

•“time capsules” of 4.5 b.y. ago

•Balls of ice & dust that did not get incorporated into planets

•Many probes sent to sample the coma & take pictures of the nucleus

Tunguska, 30 June, 1908

•Largest explosion of the century & also the mystery of the century

•Fireball from the SE, leaving a trail of light 800 km long, descending & shattered with cataclysmic explosions

•Tremendous noise, heard 1000 km away

•Explosion 7.6 km up, like 2000 atomic bombs

•Mass of 100,000 tons

•Magnetic storms & tremors recorded in Moscow

•“sky split apart” & great fire appeared

•People blown over 6 m

•Unusually colorful sunsets & sunrises continued for weeks worldwide. Bright enough at night to read a newspaper

•First scientists arrived in 1927

On the ground

•2000 km2 forest burned with radial tree-fall pattern (like a crop circle)

•Biological mutations & genetic abnormalities in trees / insects

•Some cosmic globules recovered made of Ca, Fe-Ni, silicates, Co-W, Pb

•It was like a nuclear blast

•The “thing” went back into space, 10 km large

Mystery problems

•Many favor a comet causing it

•No mushroom cloud, therefore not a nuclear explosion (as we know it)

•A meteor / comet cannot cause a geomagnetic storm

•In 1959 Russians reported radiation on the site, this suggests extra-terrestrial origin

•Explosion of a nuclear engine entering our atmosphere (it came at too shallow angle)

Long term results

•People started thinking about space

•Russians started the space exploration program (if someone came from space, we should go out and find out)

The USA followed soon enough. Space race had started

Fireball 2008, Alb /Sask border            The Buzzard Coullee meteor fall (pictures)

TELLING   TIME
Earth takes 365 days to orbit around the sun, but it slows down 
               It loses ½ sec in 100 years
                       or 5 days in 100 m.y.
               in 7 b.y. it will grind to a halt
However, the Sun will explode in 5 b.y.

BIOLOGICAL CLOCK
Our bodies are regulated by slight pull from the moon
The 28-lunar month -24.9 hours for a lunar day- affects mostly females ( hormonal cycle, period)
Also the blind  & those in polar winters (dark) follow the 24.9 hour clock acc. to the moon rise and fall
Tides also follow moon rise & fall

ABSOLUTE DATING

Many “clocks” were tried in the past to find the age of the earth

. 1600’s   Bishop Ussher   bible/counting generations    4004 BC Oct 26 9am

.Mayas                                                                                     3114 BC – 2012 AD

. 1800’s George Buffon       cooling of iron spheres                     75,000 years

. Late 1800’s Lord Kelvin     cooling of molten rock                 20 – 40 m.y

. 1899              John Joly      salinity of the oceans                         100 m.y.

. Early 1900’s  Madame Currie    radioactive decay                       4.6  b.y.

.   today                             more than 40 radiometric methods     no change

The NAMES we use

“month” from  “moon”                              (French name)

Monday                         moon                      Lundi

Tuesday       (Tiw’s)      Mars                       Mardi

Wednesday (Woden)  Mercury                 Mercredi

Thursday     (Thor)       Jupiter                    Jeudi

Friday          (Freya’s)   Venus                      Vendredi

Saturday                       Saturn                     Samedi

Sunday                          Sun                          Dimanche

William Smith, “strata man”

“Discovered earth’s strata on company time”

Canal surveyor, a misunderstood genius

Compiled a complete geological map of England & Wales based on fossils, published in 1815

Bedding in sedimentary rocks (picture)        Geological fault (picture)

9 Laws (principles) of Stratigraphy

1. the principle of Superposition

2.  ‘          ‘           ‘   Original Horizontality

3.  ‘          ‘          ‘  Original Continuity

4. Cross-cutting Relation

5. Inclusion: a rock fragment is older than the rock that surrounds it

6. Metamorphism

3 principles on fossils

7. Faunal Assemblage : unique to an interval of time

8. Faunal Succession: Life changes with time

9. Correlation: Same assemblage of life means same age

Explanations of Laws

1. younger layers on top & progressively older downwards
2/3. since sediments laid down in the shallow ocean, the layers are originally horizontal and continuous
4. If layers are disrupted / offset by a fault, the fault came afterwards
5. Inclusion could be a fossil. The animal is older than the rock it is found in

6. Metamorphism is later, it affected a previously un-metamorphosed rock
7. The group of fossils in a layer is unique (like the composition of our class)
8. Vertically layers have different groups of fossils
9. Comparing fossil assemblages from one area to another, if you find same fossils, it must be the same age

Unconformity
An interruption in the geologic record (like pages missing from a book)
Rocks missing because the area was dry land & erosion of exposed rocks took place and nothing was deposited

Hutton’s unconformity in Scotland (picture)

Radiometric Dating

Radioactive decay

Can be compared to an hourglass

Radioactive elements give off:

 -alpha particles: 2 neutrons + 2 protons  can be stopped by a piece of paper

 - beta particles: electrons     can’t go through skin

 - gamma radiation: extremely powerful (more powerful than X rays)

When an igneous rock crystallizes from the liquid state, a large variety of chemical elements are “frozen” into the host minerals of the rock

Some of these elements are unstable & their atoms spontaneously change into other atoms (daughter atoms or isotopes) through the process of radioactive decay

Rate of decay

Is constant

Measure amount of daughter element and parent element to find age of rock

For uranium, the daughter product is lead

About 20 radioactive elements exist, most decay extremely slowly

Only 4 radioactive isotopes useful for dating

Potassium -40, rubidium – 87, uranium – 235 & uranium - 238

There is a mineral called “Zircon”

Minerals with uranium are very rare

However, minerals with uranium in trace quantities are common

Because of its excellent stability, zircon is found in certain rocks that formed throughout Earth’s history

Excellent for the uranium / lead method in geochronology 

Carbon 14 method of age dating half life = 5,730 years 

For specimens younger than 70,000 years

Can date formerly living material

The C 14 clock starts ticking when an organism dies & is no longer taking C from the environment

C 14 is produced in the air by bombardment of cosmic rays which turn a certain proportion of N 14 into radioactive C 14

All organisms take in C 14 with the carbon they use for energy, at a ratio of about 1 in a trillion

Once it dies, the C 14 begins to decay

Tree ring dating

Back to 14,000 years

How old ? Nat. Geog. Sept 2001

Hubble Constant: galaxies move away from each other at speeds that increase proportionally with distance

Quasars & galaxies speed off, & their light that they emit lowers in frequency & shifts towards the red end of the spectrum

Fortunately, nature has created the perfect clock for geologists: Zircons are God’s gift to geochemistry

Examples of dates

Grand Canyon: bottom layer 2 b.y.

                                    top layer   250 m.y.

. Carving of the canyon started about 5 – 6 m.y. ago

.The Pyramid in Egypt: 4,440 years old ? From the alignment of pyramids with 2 polar stars visible at the time

. Saber Tooth Cat skull: 12,000 years old by C14

. The Shroud of Turin: 610 -740 years old by C14

Geological Time Scale

THE PRECAMBRIAN

Cambria: ancient name for Wales, U.K.

Where they found oldest fossils a long time ago

They thought there was no life before then

However, since then evidence of microscopic life forms plus soft-bodied creatures emerged

One can say that Precambrian is the Age of Bacteria 

The PRECAMBRIAN –lasted 21 hours of a day

Archean  4.0 – 2.5 b.y.                         Proterozoic 2.5b.y.—542 m.y.

Superior Province                                Churchill Province

Precambrian scenery (picture)

4.0 b.y. ago: collision

Mars-size asteroid (500 km big)

Experiments done (video)

Problem was HEAT generated by the impact

Evaporated all oceans

Still life survived or started right after

Conditions then

Hot temperatures, molten mantle on surface, lots of volcanoes

No oxygen in the air

Atmosphere: methane, ammonia, hydrogen

Oldest part of every continent called a SHIELD, because it has that shape in section

No magnetic field (need solid iron moving in the core)

The Canadian Shield has the largest exposure in the world – some parts are covered by later formations

Shields are made up of many parts amalgamated together by collisions

The margins of the shield are covered by later sedimentary rocks when they were submerged by the sea. These are called Platform areas. In Manitoba they cover the NE & SW corners

SHIELDS

Made up of two parts: Granite / gneiss & greenstone belts

Granite/ gneiss formed under the mountains

Volcanic & sedimentary rocks make up the greenstone belts. Their color is due to the abundant mineral chlorite. They may contain mineral deposits that formed along rifts

North America was part of Laurentia that also included Greenland & Northern Europe

Mountain Belts

Events in the Archean

Early: volcanoes, island arcs, mid-ocean rifts

Late: mountains from collision of volcanic belts, granite, gneiss, metals

10 hours in a day

All rocks completely deformed, rare fossils

Surface: hot, molten, lots of volcanoes

No magnetic field

UV radiation, moon was closer, strong tides

No crust to start with - evidence from meteorites

It took 0.5 b.y. to form some crust

High heat flow as the crust is thin. As it gets thicker, heat is trapped inside the earth. Released by plate tectonic processes

First Ice Age in lake Huron (2.5 b.y.)

How Ice Age can start: too much sulfur dioxide in the air (it blocks the sunlight)

Events of the Proterozoic 

In Manitoba: Trans Hudson Mountains (THO)

The tallest in Earth’s History (15 – 20 km high)

We know because the metamorphic minerals on the surface today (such as garnet) formed under the earth at depths of 15-20 km

Lynn Lake, Flin Flon, Snow Lake: metals  from black smokers in mid-ocean rifts – copper, zinc, nickel with some gold / silver

Supercontinent Rodinia formed 1.3 b.y. & broke apart 750 m.y.

Snowball Earth: 800 – 650 m.y. 

Too much sulfur dioxide in the air probably created it

With time carbon dioxide was produced under the ice and eventually broke through the ice and raised the temperature of the air

That is how the Ice Age ended

IRON

Was dissolved in the sea making the water red

When oxygen became available from bacteria, iron turned into oxide (magnetite) and was deposited on the ocean floor, like a sediment

This was the Banded Iron Formation (BIF)

Deposited between 2.5 b.y to 1.75 b.y. ago

Never formed again since

Today, it is the source of iron

Since that time iron is produced by weathering on land and gets oxidized into hematite (rust). The result is rocks stained red

So we have the “Red Beds” forming ever since instead of BIF

Rodinia, 1.1 b.y. ago (picture)

Snowball Earth

LIMESTONE

CO2 also caused limestone to form for the first time (it forms in warm, shallow seas)

Limestone trapped CO2 from the air and prevented Earth from spiraling into a never-ending greenhouse inferno like Venus’s

Explosion of Life soon after Snowball Earth

Unique rocks

Because Earth was bare of soil & trees (only trees keep the soil in place) the sediments were made of pure quartz (good for making glass)

Greywacke, made up mostly of clay & sand, formed in submarine slides (due to its clay content). It never formed since

Precambrian Metal deposits

Iron – most of the world’s

Nickel – most of the world’s

Uranium – most of the world’s

Copper – zinc

Gold, silver – a big part of the world’s

Titanium (Cross Lake)

Platinum – all of the world’s

Pegmatites with lithium, cesium, beryllium, tantalum

Gold: exceptional properties

One of the noble metals (resists chemical action, does not tarnish in air/water)

Only soluble in aqua regia

Can be alloyed with silver (electrum) & mercury (amalgam)

100 % pure known as 24 carats, but is soft

Malleability: 31 gr (1 oz) can be drawn into a wire more than 100 km long

Will make a perfect frying pan (no metal smell in food)

Excellent conductor of heat / electricity

Reflects IR light efficiently – used in office windows (only need a very small amount)

Extremely small amounts in perfume bottles, but it looks like a lot

If you see a small speck underground, you think it is as bright as the sun!

Copper (name from Cyprus, “Kypros”, in Greek)

Conductor of heat & electricity

Used in alloys such as brass / bronze

Also needed in the living in trace amounts

Nickel

Alloy with iron, stainless steel (no rust)

In loonie coins (that is why they created the coin, to use up Canada’s nickel production when price was very low)

Last time nickel was used in coins was by the ancient Greek kings in Afghanistan 200 years BC. They took the art of making nickel coins from the Chinese in exchange for method of making fortifications of cities (Wall of China)

Zinc

Used mostly in galvanizing iron (for example, nails have a whitish zinc coat so that they will not rust)

Beryllium

Light in weight

For aerospace industry

satellites

Lithium

The lightest metal

Mostly used in batteries (electric cars will use these when they will be in production)

A lithium mine in Manitoba, one of few in the world

Tantalum

Chemically inert

For capacitors in computers / mobile phones

For bone repairs

PRECAMBRIAN LIFE

Ingredients of life may have come by comets & some meteorites that contain aminoacids

Bacteria was the first & is the most abundant organism on Earth

3.8 b.y. Sulfur bacteria: oldest fossil. It forms in sulfur springs & black smokers. Breaks down S compounds from volcanoes to get the energy - chemosynthesis

Chemosynthesis

Fist form of life on earth

Found along ocean’s rifts where black smokers accompany the extrusion of basaltic lava

Clouds of superheated steam at ~ 400 degrees C charged with metals & hydrogen sulfide

Source of energy is the oxidation of sulfur compounds

Basis of food chain is bacteria

Bacteria metabolize sulfur gas

Giant invertebrates like blind crabs, 30 cm long worms, 60 cm clams & 2 m long blood-red tubeworms (have no mouth or stomach, bacteria live in their interior sac, they shoot minute stinging tentacles into the current to capture food)

Abundant food gives rise to Giantism

All live short lives & reach maturity 500 X faster than in shallow water 

Tube worms

Are like giant lipsticks

Tube is made of chitin

Symbiotic with bacteria

Bacteria metabolize H2S to produce carbohydrates--> energy 

H2S gas is toxic to life on land

Fossil black smokers

Today, represented by accumulation of metal sulfides of copper, nickel, zinc with gold, silver & also graphite (from organic remains of plants/animals)

Examples in Manitoba are in Thompson, Flin Flon, Snow Lake, Lynn Lake & Leaf Rapids

First photosynthesis CO2 + H2O-->  sugars + O2

Blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) fossils 3.0 b.y. old

Built stromatolites, cabbage-like mounds on the sea floor (still do that today)

Some of the first oxygen produced used to precipitate the iron in the sea to form BIF

After that, oxygen released into the air & killed other types of bacteria (“Gas Attack” ~ 3 b.y.)

Stromatolites: Earth’s First Fossils

Video: “Life from the Sea”

1.5 b.y. ago

Dramatic increase in size of micro-organisms

Bacteria combined with a nucleus bacteria to form a co-op  first single-cell animal

These animals incorporated cyanobacteria to form the first single-cell plants

Earliest cells were prokaryotes (no nucleus), reproduction by division

Later, eukaryotes (nucleus to protect organs from oxygen)

The invention of sexual reproduction, a definite speed up of evolution. Increases VARIATION among individuals

Multicellar animals from 750 m.y.

Each cell has specific function (tissue, organs)

The first animals were soft-bodied, left impressions as carbon films in rock by the process of distillation (carbonation)

Ediacaran Fauna: from 600 – 542 m.y.

Early forms had to make their own food (use sulfur compounds, sunlight & break down sugars)

Burgess Shale

Later invention was to eat another organism – only need to break it down with the help of oxygen

This is the first PREDATOR

In the Burgess Shale Fauna the predator was difficult to identify. It was called Anomalocaris

This Fauna was part of the “Cambrian Explosion”, all phyla evolved at once, then, nothing else since

Burgess Shale Fauna: World Heritage site

520 m.y. old, extends for 20 km along a side of a mountain, near Field, BC

Found by Walcott, 1909, 2,300 m altitude

The world’s most significant fossil find

Unusually diverse fauna of soft body animals

Ancestors of invertebrates, even an ancestor of all vertebrates – Pikaia

All known phyla of invertebrates are represented plus some others who did not survive

Pikaia: ancestor of all vertebrates

Hallucigenia (wrong way up)       Right way up

Excellent preservation in fine mud. Deep water environment below a shallow water algal reef

Mudflows carried animals over the reef, killing them & burying them in mud

Details like muscles, gut, fins, spines

200,000 fossils recovered

It is an extraordinary buried treasure, the animals have NO BONES

Philosophers have debated

Many questions are raised here: how are body plans constructed & how new phyla emerge?

Two kinds of opinions

Stephen Jay Gould: proposed the Marxist view that Human is an accident (in evolution). His book, “Wonderful Life”, 1989 was a best seller

Simon Morris: proposed the Christian view, that Intelligence will always come in the end

Anomalocaris: First PREDATOR 

Walcott quarry

History of Life & Fossilization

Life started about 4 b.y. ago & until 400 m.y. ago was entirely in the OCEAN

No life was possible on land due to bombardment of UV radiation from the sun

As soon as the level of oxygen in the air was ~ 10 %, the ozone layer started forming, which blocked the uv

Onto the land

First to conquer the land was the plants

Then the insects, which could decompose the plants

Finally, the fish who could avail of the abundant insect food on land

Animals

Invertebrates

Have external skeletons

First abundant animal life on Earth

Their fossils are so numerous & essential to make up the Earth’s History

Vertebrates

Internal skeletons

An invention to TRAVEL & look for food elsewhere

Fish was the first vertebrate animal

The Invertebrates

9 phyla or groups – all possible structures that nature could produce

Protozoa : have single cell- foraminifera have built the pyramids & responsible for oil/gas deposits

Porifera (sponges) : are primitive

Coelenterata: the corals

Bryozoa : moss-like animals

Brachiopods : ancient clams, stationary on the ocean floor

Molluscs: 3 subgroups- gastropods (snails), pelecypods (modern clams) & cephalopods (squids, octopus)

Echinoids : 5-fold symmetry

Arthropods: trilobites, today mostly insects

Graptolites: extinct plankton

Size of Life forms

From microscopic

Examples:

Diatoms (plants produce ¼ of our oxygen)

Foraminifera

Radiolaria

Bacteria: every time we wash our hands, we get rid of 25 million bacteria

To monsters 

Examples:

Giant squid, 8 m long

Dinosaurs 30 m long

Marine reptiles 13 m long

Fossilization

Living things have soft parts (decomposed by bacteria) & hard parts that can be preserved (usually made of calcite that reacts with the acid)

For preservation it is necessary to be buried in sediment

In unusual circumstances even soft parts can be preserved – like the Burgess Shale of deep water environment

Unaltered preservation

1. In ice    -Iceman in the Alps- 5,300 years ago

                                                    (in the Bronze Age)

                    - Iceman in BC – 500 years old

                   - Frozen mammoths in Siberia, also in

                           Canada, but ice has melted, only

                            tusks can be found

2. mummies     - in Egypt (dry climate)

                               - in Peru mountaintops,

                                        sacrificed maidens

3. in amber         trapped insect by the sticky-ness, attracted by smell. Resin polymerized when fossilized

4. tar pits          Los Angeles La Brea. Cenozoic with animals as old as 30,000 years

5. bogs, swamps       Denmark: body with rope around head from about 100 BC. In his intestines were seeds with disease that made him behave with mental problem - doped

La Brea tar pits, Los Angeles (video)

Altered

1. opal

2. petrified wood – silicified & permineralized.

                                       molecule by molecule

                                       Souris, Manitoba

3. pyrite in shells

Methods of alteration

Permineralized: cavities filled-in in teeth & bones. Much heavier than original

Distillation / carbonation : plants & insects, only carbon left, black in color

Impression: casts (internal) & molds (external)

   only shape preserved, skeleton dissolved

. Trace fossils: evidence that organism was there- footprints, burrows, borings, coprolites, gastroliths

The Iceman

Found in 1991 in the Alps

World’s most ancient intact human

46 years old, 1.6 m tall, 50 kg weight

Tatoos on lower spine, ankles, knees, normally covered by clothing, not for show off 

Hair cut

Body brown & dried out, mummified naturally

Trapped in ice at 98% humidity & - 6 ‘C (like our freezer)

Leather shoes were straw –insulated

Cap of brown bear fur

Wooden backpack with copper ax, stone dagger, bow from yew tree (the best in Europe), leather quiver with 14 arrows- flint points & feather- & an arrow repair kit

Food: berries & mushroom with infection-fighting properties

After thorough investigation

Killed by a flint arrowhead in an area with blood vessels, shot from behind

Deep wound in right hand, so he had hand-to-hand armed combat

Arthritic & infested with whipworm. Seriously ill 3 times in last several months

Cu, As in his hair: involved in copper smelting

Surprised investigators that he recently ate cereals & ibex meat (a real feast!)

Amber : name means electron

“gold of the north” : Baltic

Fossilized resin (burn: incense)

As old as Carboniferous up to Pleistocene

Most common in Cretaceous, Tertiary & Quaternary

Occurrences

With lignite beds

Coal beds

Sandstones

Clay shales

In Manitoba: Cedar Lake, excavated by Sask. River along its course

Uses

For varnish & lacquers

Burned as incense to dispel evil spirits & fumigate against mosquito (beware: the burning should be done indirectly)

Sailors to drive away sea serpents

Applied to violins

Removes lint from clothing

Jewelry & rosary beads

Beware

Hairsprays & perfumes will make a whitish coat that may be permanent

Kitchen substances or sources of heat will damage it

Opal

Hydrated silica. Water content varies, so is the color
Iridescent: rainbow effect from reflection / refraction of light as it passes through
Forms in volcanic areas
Hot groundwater seeps through replacing wood by hydrated silica as spheres
It is the alignment of these spheres in a bath of silica solution that creates the iridescence

Deposits

Coober Pedy, Southern Australia

E. Slovakia is the original site since the Roman times

Honduras

Mexico

Lab on Fossils

Lab on Fossils: some conclusions

“Scuba diving”: is to admire bright colors of the living invertebrates

People who live by the sea paint their houses with these colors

The invertebrates produce these COLORS:

    - certain clams, oysters produce purple (symbol of royalty) & red – also known as porphyry- (symbol of the Byzantine Emperors) also, the hierarchy in the Andes

    - squid produces black ink (to confuse predators)

----plane of symmetry of animals & humans

----You can eat inside of invertebrates raw (but beware of pollution today)

----Clam shells found to clean water from pollution (student project in Nova Scotia) 

Suture in ammonites: how soft parts are attached to the skeleton. The shorter the suture line, the easier to get eaten. So, the ammonites were intelligent, because they made their suture much longer, so they could survive from predators

The ammonite skeleton also has inter-connected chambers where air is passed along. The more air, the higher it climbs in the water. The less air, the deeper it can go.

This mechanism was “borrowed” by humans to make submarines

Sea shells: symbol of Australia (picture of the Sydney Opera House)

Ages

Precambrian              Age of bacteria

Paleozoic = old life    Age of invertebrates

Mesozoic = middle life  Age of Reptiles

Cenozoic = recent life    Age of Mammals

The PALEOZOIC : summary of main events 542 – 250 m.y.

Lots of shallow water (snowball had melted)

Appalachians in North America formed

Continents drift & combine to form Pangea

Unique environment in the Carboniferous: immense tropical forests that turned into coal

Widespread deserts in the Permian

Skeletons formed (there was enough oxygen)

“Explosion” of invertebrates (Cambrian explosion)

First fish, first amphibian, first reptile

Land plants, insects

Largest Mass Extinction on record (“Permian Death” or “The Great Dying” ) at ~ 250 m.y.

Environment

Shallow water: good place for life, soft bodied animals picked up O2 & CO2, Ca 2+ from erosion to form skeletons

Protection against predators

Their skeletons formed limestone

Previously plants manufactured their food from a gas (CO2) in the air

Now animals use O2 from plants to break up their food – very convenient

Sedimentary rocks form in shallow water from sediment transported by water/wind

Sand is no longer pure quartz

Shale in deeper water is rich in carbon and O2-poor. No scavengers in deep water

Reefs

Previously reefs were constructed from bacteria. Now invertebrates added, living in symbiosis with the algae

Reefs are barriers against waves of the ocean

The back-reefs are tremendously rich in invertebrates

If the sea level falls, the lagoon dries up depositing the salts dissolved in the water 

Evaporite deposits

In order of deposition:

1. halite

2. gypsum & anhydrite

3. magnesium salts

4. The last to form is potash

Continents

N. America had combined with Europe & Greenland to form Laurentia

Now, Laurentia + Asia = Laurasia

S. America + Africa + Australia = Gondwana

Finally,

Laurasia + Gondwana = Pangea

One detail: Florida was added to N. America, it was part of Africa

Videos on “supercontinents” on youtube
The earth’s continents for past 4.4 billion years
    (video probably by a teacher, uses today’s outline of continents, 2 minutes)


 .  Earth 100 million years from now (has exact shape of old continents, 3 minutes)

Mountains

The Appalachians were prominent like the Rockies. It is the result of collision of continents. Afterwards, erosion has lowered their peaks

3 stages:

Subduction of Iapetus under Laurentia

Caledonian Mts from subduction of Iapetus under N. Europe

Result was volcanic rocks & Red sandstone

Acadian: Baltica collided with Laurentia, uplift & deposition of red clastic rocks on land from erosion (red from iron oxides)

Carboniferous

A unique environment: widespread forests in N. America & Europe – in tropical climate

Forests & swamps periodically flooded

Sea level rises & falls due to glaciation in Gondwana

Cycles of non-marine deposits: sandstone + coal & marine shale and limestone

PALAEOZOIC   LIFE

First skeletons: protection from predators, protection from UV & attachment of muscles

In Cambrian: 50 % of fossils are trilobites – they lasted 340 m.y.; they have very advanced eyes – with 360 degree view of the sea for protection

From Ordovician get corals, graptolites, etc

360 degrees view (one of two eyes) - picture of trilobite eyes

First Fish

530 m.y.: Jawless Agnathids later get extinct

450 m.y.: Jawed with gills turning into jaws

                     Placoderms later get extinct

.Cartilaginous : primitive – sharks & rays

. Later, bony fishes appear of two types:

                         a. ray fins (most fishes) &

                         b. lobe fins with bones. These turned into amphibians 

Jawless fish          Placoderm (scary!) 

Archeopteris, first tree

Early fish developed lungs, vital to jump onto land. Lungfish breaths air, it lives in freshwater

A 360 m.y. old tetrapod from Greenland had 8 fingers. Limbs were not for walking, but pushing logs in freshwater lakes/swamps

Earliest footsteps, 348 m.y. old, in W. Ireland

Devonian  

The “Age of Fishes”

First time they are abundant

First Land Plants

Vascular 

First populated along the shores. Soil now can stay on land – kept by roots. This slowed down erosion, nutrients stayed on land. Enough oxygen (O2) in the air (from plants) to form the ozone (O3) layer

With plants on land, bacteria would stay on land to decompose them, so the insects invaded the land to feast on them. Dragonflies were 60 cm long (giants) & cockroaches 10 cm, etc

Animals

Fish turns into amphibian to avail of abundant insects – therefore, first amphibians were  meat-eaters

Later, amphibians turn into reptiles – the first 100 % land animals

Primitive reptiles were Dimetrodon (“sail-back”) & Theraspids, forerunners of mammals

Our babies

One can see various stages during their development

Embryo has eyes on the side (fish, amphibian, primitive reptiles), then they move to the front (advanced reptiles, mammals)

When baby is born is able to float (swim) in water

Mother’s womb is a bit of the ocean. Last stage before was the chicken egg. Mother has the egg –so to speak – inside the body. Why? For protection

Dimetrodon

New invention in plants

Gymnosperms

Female seeds stay on plant while male seeds are spread by wind (hit-and –miss)

Conifers survive in winter (that is why they were invented)

Manitoba in the Palaeozoic

Limestone with reefs & caves

Evaporites: gypsum, anhydrite, halite underground comes out as salt springs

Williston Basin: oil / gas deposits

Landmark events

Searching for the first animal: 570 m.y. South China, embryos in the earliest stage of division

First steps on land: near Kingston, Ont. 478 m.y. Arthropod trackways in sandstone, ripple marks in a dune, 8 pairs of legs moved in unison (like oars, rather than one after the other), must be on land

First land walker : Scotland, 345 m.y. tetrapod, amphibian, croc-like

First steps on land: Tetrapods

Walking feet

First proper walking foot, thought to be in a fish: one limb has complete foot attached with 5 digits, 1 m long

Has a twist on its bones that allows it to bring its feet forward for walking

Previously, feet pointed out or back for swimming

A decapitated chicken runs for a while without the brain (spinal cord regulates the locomotion)- in a salamander diagonally opposed limbs move together

Transformations

Ocean plants to Land plants

Fish to Amphibian

Amphibian to Reptile

Reptile to Mammal

Reptile to Bird

Warm-blooded animals

Cold-blooded animals

Ocean plants to Land plants 400 m.y.

Modifications needed:

Resistant to drying

Get roots to obtain nutrients from soil

Ability to transport water from roots to higher parts where photosynthesis occurred

Respire in air

Get strong to support against gravity

First reproduced by spores, which had to go to water to be fertilized

Primitive fish

No fins, no jaws

Armor of thick plates & thick scales

Some are 10 m long, look like armored tanks!

With time the front gills turn into lungs

Fish into Amphibian 370 m.y.: “Not so Great a Change”

Fins turn into limbs

Return to water to lay eggs

Larvae have gills that turn into lungs

Thick, scaly skin to avoid drying out

3-chamber heart to pump blood

Moved eyes from side to top of head

Early amphibians had tail fin like a fish 

Amphibian to Reptile 340 m.y. “A Major Change”

Most important: amniotic egg (leathery shell for protection, contains water, shell allows exchange of gases O2, CO2 – it was like a private pool!

Thicker, scaly skin to protect body against drying

Primitive had limbs on side, later limbs underneath

Hind legs stronger

Front legs lifted off ground later

Tail as balance

Cold-blooded first, some prob. Became warm-blooded

Dinosaurs are advanced land reptiles

Stronger lungs

Reptile to Mammal  200 m.y.

Warm-blooded

Produce milk from sweat glands + suckle young

Live young (“egg” inside mother)

Hairy skin to keep temperature

Complex teeth

Highly active (high metabolism)

Separate passages for air & food (so young could suckle from mother)

Breathing assisted by chest diaphragm

4-chamber heart

Typical mammalian string of sound-conducting bone (originally a reptilian jaw joint)

Large brain / body mass ratio

The marsupials were primitive mammals – the embryo stays in pouch & suckles

Reptiles to Bird   175 m.y.

Hollow bones (hard to fossilize)

Powerful arm muscles to flap wings

Rigid breastbone + vertebrae

Keen vision

Sense of balance

Landing requires retractable feet

Flight requires enormous energy (warm-blooded)

Insulated cover (fur, feathers) to keep body warm

Wings tucked away (Pterosaurs could not do that)

Warm blood?

To protect life during the Ice Ages – must have suffered a lot, so decided to make changes

First it was the dinosaurs who changed

Later was passed on to mammals & birds

Warm-blooded animals: mammals, birds

Temperature at 36.6’ C

Walk upright

Food intake & rate of metabolism is 2 – 10 X that of cold-blooded

Production of heat more efficient

Temperature is maintained by ‘waste’ heat of metabolism

Bones have blood passages

Heat retained by insulation (fat, fur, feathers)

Less difficulty coping with cold weather (shivering produces heat)

Poor radiators (few degrees higher than 36.6’ C is lethal

Cold – blooded animals: fish, amphibians, modern reptiles 

Temperature same as the environment

Legs on the side

Low food intake & low metabolism

½ of energy in food is released

Uses devices like “sail-back” & hibernations

Low blood pressure

Late Paleozoic plants: Group name, features, examples, method of reproduction, height, today

Psilophytes: most primitive, spores, 0.5 m

Lycopsids: “scale trees” leaves directly from trunk, Lepidodendron, spores, 30 m club moss

Pteridosperms: seed ferns, Glossopteris (tongue-leaf), seeds, 12 m, Lowly ferns

Sphenopsids: Jointed stems, Calamites (reed-like), 12 m, spores, Horsetail, Scouring rush

Pteropsids, True ferns, spores, 20 m, ferns

Gymnosperms (means naked seeds): cycads, conifers, Ginkgo, seeds, 30 m, pine, spruce. This was an invention to protect from cold during Ice Ages

Formation of coal & oil/gas

Plants                                            Animals

Get buried                                     Get buried & become

Peat, Lignite shallow                    Tar (asphalt) shallow

Coal deeper                                   Petroleum below 2 km

Anthracite much deeper                Natural gas (methane)

Below 9 km turn into graphite      Below 9 km all are

At 150 km turn into diamonds       destroyed

Coelacanth: Fish with legs : A "Living Fossil"

A “living fossil”

Spotted in fishing market by Mrs. Latimer, 1938 in South Africa. No fridges then, soft parts decayed. Expert came 2 months later

No backbone, empty spine filled with oil under pressure, can swim very deep, low metabolism, needs little food

Gives birth to live young (200 m.y. before mammals appeared!)

Observe lobe fins in motion: like walking

Blue color with blue eyes

At depth lots of oxygen, can’t survive in swallow water

The tail is very distinctive, belongs to the primitive fish

Appeared 350 m.y., closest living relative of the first fish that came ashore to live on land, 360 m.y.

Rarely found in water less that 200 m deep

Still air-breathing, 3-lobe tail, 1.5 m long 45 kg

Covered with white splotches & looks like a sponge (camouflage)

Several rows of pointed teeth

Eyes are lined with reflecting cells that enhance vision, sensory system detects weak electric signals emitted by other life forms

Live young, 5 – 25 babies

Fossil forest underground in Illinois - picture          Primitive fish: Dunkleosteus - picture

Sturgeon: primitive fish in Manitoba

No backbone, but a notochord

First of the ray-finned fishes to appear

No scales, tail like a shark, lives long & produces few offsprings

Commercial fishing in Manitoba stopped in 1992 

Salt lakes in Saskatchewan

Manitou Beach, Watrous lake (name from “Waters Work Wonders”, or “doctors” lake)

You float in the water

Cures fever, clears up skin eruptions, eases pain for arthritis

Slightly oily water puts an end to constipation

From the cured: lumps on skin, then in the lake a burning sensation & they are gone!

A bad paper cut: an hour later could not find it!

Eczema: stings a bit, but went away

World’s Largest trilobite found in Manitoba

Tyndall Stone

Quarry north of Winnipeg

Discovered along CN line

Building stone for Legislature & the Parliament in Ottawa, later all public buildings in Manitoba

Paleozoic Metal deposits   -As in the Precambrian but much less plentiful

Permian Death: mother of mass extinctions

96 % of marine life gone

75 % of land life

Destruction caused by heat?

Extinct: trilobites, most sea urchins, gorgonopsid reptiles, almost all insects

Fluid inclusion evidence: too much oxygen in the air

Possible explanation

Siberian Traps: largest volcanic eruption in earth’s history. Lasted 1 million years. Not violent eruption. Lavas cover an area as large as the USA, 4 km thick, can cover entire planet 3 m deep

The release of sulfur could bring about an ice age – that will drop temp. by 5 degrees C

A Carbon 12 anomaly was due to a methane “burp” that can be responsible for another 5 degrees drop in temp.

Other evidence

Traces of complex organic molecules called fullerines or buckyballs. Have a soccer ball structure with 60 atoms of carbon

Such atoms found in Carbon stars. Could have come with an asteroid collision. Crater invisible today, covered up with lava

Life bounced up 80 m. y later & it was more diverse than ever before

The MESOZOIC: Main events     250 my to 65 my