Name: Samantha Solange Salazar

Course: 4D
Subject: Geology ll
History and evidence
It is the earliest period of the Earth, he started 4,500 million years ago, what is the age
of the earth itself, and ended up about 600 million years ago. Information that you possess this
prolonged period are scarce and fragmentary. It's an era of large seizures, due to the existence
of enormous pressures and high temperatures, in the heart of the planet, so its study is very
difficult. Fossil finds are reduced to some invertebrates and algae and various cyanophytes
and bacteria (scope). The succession of formations in this period is based on structural
consideration with regard to the discrepancies and the intrusions of igneous character.
Formations of Precambrian origin are widely distributed across the globe. Structurally
two types of areas are located: in the interior of partially denuded mountain ranges and in
broad areas of low elevation (shields). The volcanic activity in this period was also very
intense, so many of the rocks that correspond to this era are of plutonic origin. Predominant
sediments consist of gravel and sandstone.
Three phases can be distinguished in this period. The first of these is the
prearqueozoica, whose oldest rocks date from a period between the 3,700 and 3,400 million
years.
Phase arqueozoica, which develops between the 3,400 and the 2,500 million years, is in fact a
stage of transition in which the Earth began its consolidation. Had to exist on it a unique
ocean and, as a result, a single continent. The existence of possible signs of life, it is
suspected although only at the bacterial level.
The third phase, the Precambrian or proterozoica, lasts approximately 2,000 million
years and several orogenias are developed in it. His home is designated by a breakdown in the
granitic crust and the emergence of processes of sedimentation, dolomite and calcite.
In relation to human beings, they found a large number of remains of multicellular beings,
such as the cyanophytes, Brachiopods, cephalopods, worms and protozoa.

The duration of the Paleozoic covers about 350 million years. In relation to
sedimentation, stands out the lower primary, where sediments of detrital origin and upper
primary, whose deposits are carbonate. However, on the basis of the abundant presence of
flora and fauna, six periods are different.
 The Cambrian period occurred between the 590 and 515 million years. Palaeographic
reconstruction suggests that in this period the emerged lands were grouped in two blocks, one
of which South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, the India and Arabia, were while the
other would be made by North America, Greenland, Europe and parts of Asia.
The climate, in General, was warm and stable and a large number of mainly marine,
living beings have emerged; ocean waters were shallow, as evidenced by fossils found. In
addition to the protozoa, especially foraminifera, radiolarians, appeared the first large groups
of meta-zoos, corresponding to calcareous sponges, echinoderms (especially cistoideos,
carpoid, crinoids, Echinoids and equinoideos), crustaceans, gastropods, Brachiopods, and,
above all, trilobites. In relation to the flora the cyanophytes were developed.

The period of Ordovician, its name comes from the ordovices, a Celtic tribe before the
Roman colonization. It is developed among the 515 and the 445 million years. Of this period,
characterized by intense orogenic movements and warm climate, there are outliers in all
continents. Geologically, continued to produce the transgressive movement in Europe, region
in which there were several geo-synclines bordering the archaic shields.
Although the flora and fauna experienced a remarkable increase in number and variety, both
continued to develop is in the marine environment, at the time that arose the first vertebrates:
the ostracodermos, or fish battleships. The warm temperature of the water and the shallow
depth of the same favoured the diffusion of living beings, as well as the development of
animals with chalky skeletons. Appeared the bryozoans, which achieved a great development,
as well as the trilobites and some cephalopods.

The Silurian period, so-called by R. Murchison in honour of an ancient Celtic tribe,

the silures, developed among the 445 and the 415 million years. In the northern hemisphere
was the continent North Atlantic, which comprised from North America to Scandinavia and
grouped most of what today is Europe. Separated from it, and also in the northern hemisphere,
was a large mass of land occupied by the current Chinese and Siberian regions. In the
southern hemisphere, continued to exist a single landmass. Siluricas rocks emerge in many
parts of the world, finding deposits of continental and marine facies. Predominant marine
materials are limestone, sandstone, carbonate and Shales.
In relation with the climate, this must have been benign, although at the end of that period
they began to manifest more stringent weather stations. The siluricas rocks contain a variety
of fossil invertebrates, mainly of brachiopod fauna in her womb. Similarly, coral fauna
increased significantly, associated with bryozoans. Abounded the cephalopods nautiloideos,
equipped with a spiral shell. Seas reached its maximum expansion in this period and appeared
fish anaspids, lacking eyes, jaws and paired fins. They began to also emerge the first
terrestrial beings, above all vascular plants and arthropods (probably myriapods and primitive
Scorpions) adapted to this environment.

Carboniferous, the name of this period, which was developed between the 370 million
and 280 million years, refers to the abundance of coal in the sedimentary deposits formed at
this time. It is a prior, and extraordinary, development of the vascular cryptogams, which
reach a large size and variety.
The weather was predominantly hot and humid, as indicated by the nature of the terrestrial
flora and marine, characteristic of shallow-water fossils.
During the long interval of time that lasted the Carboniferous period occurred some folding of
different intensity, which gave rise to the mountains. At the same time, spread the
geosinclinal of Central Asia and America suffered a breach. The vascular cryptogams
(Calamites, Sigillarias)
they expanded and proliferated quickly, which facilitated the accumulation of their remains,
which would later give rise to the coal beds. As regards fauna, trilobites, which had already
started their decadence in the Devonian, were becoming extinct gradually, as well as the
paleodictiopteros. But instead there were the protodonatos, the megasecopteros and the
Orthoptera.
During the second half of the Carboniferous, Australia was covered by an ice age and the
movements that occurred had a regressive: in Siberia and the Himalayas the ocean is shook.
Europe, due to the herciniana orogeny, began to adopt some features similar to the current and
continued together with the Mainland North Atlantic; constituted their limit in the East
geosinclinal of the Urals and in the South, the Mesogeia. North America continued separated
from South America, which, in turn, remained integrated in the continent of Gondwana,
together with Africa, Australia and the India, although all of these continental blocks were
undergoing a process of transgression.
In the North of Europe appeared coal forests and conifers and the ginkgoales were developed.

The Permian period was developed among the 280 and the 240 million years and
during it, characterized by an intense orogeny, continents rose. The Appalachians were
formed and the geosinclinal of the Urals bowed, giving rise to this chain of mountains. In
Europe, the Alps Variscos spread from southern England to the Centre of Germany and from
Normandy to the Massif Central French, at the time that there were new and large
sedimentary deposits, the new red sandstone. In relation to Australia, the ice age ended.
In terms of the climate, this underwent a series of changes and they began to differentiate
stations: whereas in the northern hemisphere it was dry, and even arid in the South was
glacial.
The end of this period was marked by a crisis of the fauna, which led to the extinction of a
large number of species, both marine and continental. Among the species that disappeared
definitely many pelecypods, fusulinas, trilobites, tretracoralarios, goniatites were Insects
underwent an expansion and emerged orders that have survived to the present day.
Land plants evolved slowly at first, then more quickly. Compared to vertebrates, the
amphibian tetrapods were abundant and some estegocefalos reached gigantic forms. Reptiles
began its evolutionary explosion and highlighted the pelycosaurians, as the dimetrodonte.

The Mesozoic era lasted for 160 million years ago. Geologically, it meant the end of
the mountainous herciniano cycle and the start of the Alpine orogeny. In this era included
carbonate deposits, so the limestones were present in large areas of Europe. This is separated
from North America. On the other hand, the India and Australia saw of the southern
continent. The weather was much warmer, and the high temperature of the sea water.

Triassic, this name comes from the triple division presenting a series of strata located
in German facies, easily distinguishable from the lithological point of view: sandstone,
limestone and Marl. Its duration was about thirty million years. Not submerged lands were
reduced in this period to the arid mountains and deserts. While North America continued to
suffer a decline, Asia experienced a breach. The Mesogeia got in touch with the geosinclinal
Himalayan but ended up becoming the Mediterranean geosinclinal and extending toward the
Atlantic, Northern Germany, central Europe and England.
The climate was warm and dry, and the fauna, mainly consisting of ammonoideos and
belemnites; also appeared in decapod crustaceans, while coral reefs were composed of
coelenterates hexacoralinos.
Reptiles they diversified and dinosaurs, some of them returned to the marine environment,
such as ichthyosaurs, while others evolved by adopting characteristics of mammals appeared.
In the flora predominated the gymnosperms, and some plants adapted to situations of drought,
rising palms.
 In the Jurassic period the seas began to grow in this period and North America
separated from the continental mass active. The European sea advanced, and the North Sea
was in communication with the Mediterranean, arriving to invade the Russian platform to the
South, finally retiring in a progressive way, allowing the rise of Europe. The North Atlantic
reached considerable proportions.
Even though the weather was mild, there were very intense rainfall, causing a large erosion;
this resulted in three large levels of sediments: the Lees, black rocks, the dagger or brown
rocks and the malm or white rocks. The climate allowed the development of vegetation and
appeared the Angiosperms, i.e. plants with seeds and flowers. Marine wildlife was abundant
and predominated the lamellibranch and cephalopods, mollusks that evolved very quickly;
they stressed the belemnites and gastropod mollusks, as well as the Brachiopods.
In Europe, coral reefs declined. Among vertebrates continued dominant large reptile,
ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, sauropods, dinosaur (Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Diplodocus) and
flying reptiles like the pterodactyl. Also arose the first birds, like Archaeopteryx, with
distinctly reptilian features. As for the mammals, appeared the marsupials.

In the Cretaceous period, in relation to the distribution of seas and continents, notably
the expansion of the South Atlantic as well as the North Atlantic, at the same time that the
continental masses continue moving southward.
With respect to the marine fauna, the ammonites fell in this period, the belemnites began its
decline, and lacking the Brachiopods. Although the crinoids were losing importance, the
Echinoids was growing, while they underwent a diversification and reached its apogee, which
also occurred with the nerineidos (gastropod mollusks) and the foraminifera orbitolinidos.
Reptiles continued its development and the dinosaurs dominated completely the Mainland,
reaching gigantic proportions. Some, like Tyrannosaurus, of 14 m in length and 6 in height,
were ferocious predators, and others such as the Triceratops, herbivorous. Also snakes
emerged and developed the first placental mammals.
In relation to continental flora, disappeared the pteridosperms, precursor of the Angiosperms.

The Paleogene period continued during this period the regressive process from Asia,
America and Europe, and the latter finally emerge, as well as held the orogeny of the
Himalayas and the Alps. The Mediterranean communication with the Himalayas was made
through a narrow arm. The Andes, Rockies, the Pyrenees and the Atlas were rising.
With the warm weather, Palm trees ranged widely, emerged the cacti and conifers were
developed.
Although the mammals had already emerged earlier, was in the Paleogene when experienced
a great adaptive radiation; they appeared as well, for example, the first hoofed animals,
creodonts and lemur (these group of primates), and also the first camels, proboscides and
rhinos. Some mammals returned to the sea, such as cetaceans and pinnipeds. Appeared also
runners, former birds of current, which gradually lost the ability to fly.

The Quaternary was characterized by the presence of character glacier or glacial

periods (it is considered that they were 4: Gnz, Mindel, Riss and Wrm), with its
corresponding interglacial periods, both in North America and Europe. On the one hand, the
glaciations produced a remarkable decrease of temperatures, affecting various species, both
flora and fauna, forcing it in some cases to perform migrations, and leading others to the
extinction of various species. From this period are typical representatives Tiger, mammoth,
woolly rhinoceros, South American Megatherium teeth Saber, giant deer, etc. On the other
hand, glaciers affecting marine waters, the level of which descended and rose alternately.
Of this age date back to early prehuman, an old approximately two million years,
corresponding to the Australopithecus and remains found in Eastern and southern Africa.
Paleoanthropologists have assigned two major species: Australopithecus africanus, which
probably inhabited areas of Savannah, short stature, and Australopithecus robust, which
populated wooded areas of southern Africa. The cranial capacity of these pre hominids ranged
between 400 and 550 cm3 and the skull had prominent jaws, thick zygomatic arches,
supraorbital torus and accused platicranian.
The protohuman phase is represented by the Homo habilis, also found in Africa. A more
recent hominid, already considered as ancient human phase, is Homo erectus, which dates
back to a million years approximately, found in China and Java, and formerly known as
Pithecanthropus. The cranial capacity was about 1000 cm3.
Behind him, entered already in the modern human phase, with the Homo sapiens
neandertalensis or Neanderthal man, whose remains correspond to the last glaciation (about
80,000 years ago) and cranial capacity was 1,400 cm3, and Homo sapiens sapiens or
Cromagno man, with a cranial capacity of 1,700 cm3, author of cave paintings.

Origin of the species by Darwin

 According to Darwin the different species were formed from a primitive individual,
possibly fish that were evolving giving rise to the animals that we know today.
The evolution of the different species is given the passage of time when natural selection
affects inherited traits DNA to play a very important role. During playback, the chromosomes
of the parents mingle producing chromosomes new containing these genes in the
chromosomes of maternal and paternal.
For Darwin the evolution through natural selection is nature selects most suitable for survival
in certain environment populations and overlook the least capable. The best trained
descendants inherited these qualities, thus producing a more suitable population.
Darwin said that these birds evolved from a single species that arrived there from long ago,
from South America. These birds are a clear example of evolution through natural selection,
and are described as one of the most famous evidence for evolution.

The natural selection

The natural selection is a phenomenon of evolution as a matter of general law and is
defined as the differential reproduction of genotypes in the bosom of a biological population.
The classical formulation of natural selection sets conditions of an environment to favor or
hinder, i.e. Select the reproduction of living organisms according to their peculiarities.

Natural selection, as a process, takes place if and only if:

1. Exist phenotypic variation (shape, size, color, etc.) between individuals.
2. Such variation is at least partly inherited.
3. Exist a causal relationship (probabilistic) between such variation and reproductive
success of individuals.
Fossil record
380 million BC: Origin of the cell prokaryote, the first living beings were the
primitive, anaerobic bacteria. By means of the fossils record one has determined that the Cells
Prokaryotes preceded the Eukaryotes and appeared approximately 3.5 million years ago.
280 million BC: Origin of the first photo-synthetic organisms, the photosynthetic
organisms are those organisms like the plants, seaweed and some bacteria receive and use the
energy of the light to transform the inorganic matter of its external way into organic matter
that they will use for its growth and development.
200 million BC: Origin of the eukaryotic cell, is a unicellular organism of type
prokaryote (bacteria aerobic) has been gulped down in a host that it would be a eukaryotic cell
higher performing symbiosis with the time and by cell evolution these bacteria would be
transformed into mitochondria (aerobic bacteria) and in chloroplasts (phototrophic bacteria).
100 million BC: Origin of pluricellular organisms, between living beings more small,
i.e. between the microbes, there are some that are formed only by a cell. Organisms, i.e. the
formed by many cells, receive the name of pluricellular.
65 million BC: Extinction of the dinosaurs and the appearance of mammals, after the
extinction of the dinosaurs, the mammals took over. Spread to all continents, diversified and
increased their size. There have been long discussions about the origin of this curious rise in
weight of these animals. Now a study published in Science has found the cause of the
appearance of the giant mammals the extinction of the dinosaurs gave way to giant mammals.
36 million BC: Origin of the terrestrial vertebrates, all have a backbone, although it is
not always marrow, and your brain is enclosed in a protective housing, the skull. These last
two features make them into members of the type of the vertebrates (animals with spinal
column) and vertebrates with skull, and distinguish them from the beings invertebrates, as the
sea urchins, worms, squid, corals and sponges, which do not have spine or skull.
10 million BC: Origin of homo sapiens, the human being is from the biological point
of view an animal species under the scientific name of Homo sapiens (from the Latin
Homo=man, sapiens=wise) and belongs to the Hominidae family.

Evolution theory
This explains that living beings do not appear from nowhere and because yes, but that
have an origin and that are changing little by little. Sometimes these changes cause a same
living being, or ancestor, arise other two different, two species. These two species are
sufficiently different as to be able to recognize them separately and without a doubt. The
gradual changes are known as evolution, because the living being evolves toward something
different. The evolution is mediated by something generally called "natural selection",
although this term is very vague. A term is more correct is the selective pressure. The theory
of evolution appears as a result of the observation. And after centuries of observation and
experimentation, the theory of evolution is what we have achieved. But we have not yet
finished. Nor is complete. But the response to the question of why appeared the theory of
evolution is because we need to know where we come from and where we are going.

Viewpoint
 In any population of individuals, there are variations between each one of them, and
some of these variations can be inherited. For Darwin there are certain changes that occur in
the species that may confer an advantage for the adaptation to the environment in which they
develop these adaptations allow agencies to resist the pressures of interaction and lead to the
evolution, and these features that empower the species to survive are transmitted to the
children, so that the changes are expressed generation after generation. A few years ago, there
were few fossils found and therefore until the arrival of the "Homo Sapiens" the criterion or
the theory used was unique. But today, with the technological advances and the large number
of discoveries of animals of other species, we know that the man in his evolution does not
differ from the other animals or species and that there can be no talk of a single development
but of many evolutions.

References:
Jablonski, D. (2017). The Future of the Fossil Record. Science. Retrieved 22 April
2017, from http://science.sciencemag.org/content/284/5423/2114.full
The Evolution of Earth System Science. (2017). Future Earth. Retrieved 23 April
2017, from http://www.futureearth.org/blog/2015-dec-14/evolution-earth-system-science
Lecture 10 - Triassic: Newark, Chinle. (2017). Rainbow.ldeo.columbia.edu. Retrieved
23 April 2017, from http://rainbow.ldeo.columbia.edu/courses/v1001/10.html
Origen y Evolucin Geolgica de la Tierra. (2017). Laboratorio.ingemmet.gob.pe.
Retrieved 22 April 2017, from
http://laboratorio.ingemmet.gob.pe/documents/73138/202784/031_2009_Presentacion_2009_
CAREC_Origen_evolucion_geologica_Tierra_Villarreal.pdf/da7c94e2-1276-46b0-a9eb-
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