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media type="custom" key="29279731" align="right"…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… __**Grade 7.2 **__//**> **//

=//**Focus Question**: When did life begin on Earth and what were extinction cycles?// =


 * This page focuses on deep history, the time between the origin of the earth 4.5 to 4.6 billon years ago and the emergence of the first humans 200,000 years ago. **

**For more, see AP World History Key Concept 1.1**

The Development of Life on Earth has lecture notes from Professor Rich Townsend, Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin--Madison.

** Plate Tectonics and Glaciers **

 * ===== **Rodinia and Pangaea** =====

** Extinction Events **

 * =====** Dinosaurs and Extinction **=====
 * ** Historical Biography page. Mary Anning **
 * ** The De-Extinction Debate **

A Creation Myths lesson using the concept of Big History (see link 3).

**Big History**
A important resource is the book //World History: The Big Eras: A Compact History of Humankind for Teachers and Students// (available through the National Center for the Schools. The powerpoint overview just below the essay is also helpful in conceptualizing the time period.
 * The Big History Project (funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) is the other place to find current pedagogical ideas on big history. The linked site should have some curriculum materials up by the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year.

**Geologic Time Scale f**rom the University of California Museum of Paleontology includes thousands of pages of content on the history of life on earth, with many online, interactive exhibits.
 * The International Big History Association (IBHA) is free (currently) to join and has many useful links on what Big History is from its leading scholars.

Back in Time is an wonderful app that presents the history of the universe and the earth (watch a trailer to see the app in action).

Eric Idle's Galaxy Song is a fun 2:40 romp through the last several million years. A attention grabbing song for classroom sing alongs .

The Beginnings of the Solar System and the Earth
The path from the start of the universe to the existence of human beings and life on the planet Earth, spans tens of billions of years and unimaginable spaces. Here is a quick look at that complex and varied path.

You can find more information on the beginnings of the solar system at this page.

 The generally accepted theory on how the universe began is called the Big Bang Theory.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">First posited by Georges Lemaitre in 1927, the theory says that all the stuff of the universe is the result of a massive explosion that happened 10 to 20 billion years ago. The theory seeks to explain why the universe is expanding, like ripples in a pool when a rock is dropped in.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Click here to look at the planets from different points of view and angles on websites from NASA (links 1, 2).

The Virtual Fossil Museum shows fossils across geologic time and evolution.

Interactive Pre-Historic Timeline from National Geographic.

See also, History of the Earth in a 24-hour Clock from the website, //Flowing Data//.

[|Divisions of Geologic Time] is another comprehensive chart of geologic time, from U.S. Geologic Survey

[|Once in a Million Years: Teaching Geologic Time] is a lesson plan for teaching students the numeracy necessary to comprehend the large numbers used to measure geologic time.

Plate Tectonics and Glaciers
The crust of the earth is divided into dozens of plates of rock which rest on molten magma deep within the earth. These plates "float" on the magma, and often times collide with each other. Plates slip underneath or ride up on top of other plates, causing the continents to drift apart, and creating mountain ranges. Along with plate tectonics, glaciers are responsible for the geography of the earth today. Much of North America looks the way that it does because billions of tons of ice once laid on top of it, as far south as New York City. Glaciers are prominent during ice ages, periods of long term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, and have helped shape the history of life on Earth.

Plate Tectonics
Explanation of Plate Tectonics.

Information on Glaciers.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Click here for **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Plate Tectonics Animations **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> from the University of California.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">See also **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Fossils and Plate Tectonics **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">, a video from NASA.

[[image:map_icon.jpeg width="120" height="80"]]**Rodinia and Pangaea**

 * Rodinia, the First Supercontinent**
 * **Assembling the Supercontinent Rodinia**
 * **The First Supercontinent, 1.1 Billion Years Ago**


 * Pangaea**
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Pangaea Continent Maps **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> from Geology.com.


 * Pangaea Interactive Map Game

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Earth 100 Million Years from Now **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> from YouTube offers a view of how the continents have shifted and will shift over the centuries.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Extinction Events


<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">According to Janet Larsen of the Earth Policy Institute, the 5 great extinction events were:
 * <span class="mainBody" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**440 million years ago**, some 85 percent of //marine animal species// were wiped out in the earth's first known mass extinction.
 * <span class="mainBody" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**367 million years ago**, many species of //fish// and 70 percent of //marine invertebrates// perished in a major extinction event.
 * <span class="mainBody" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**245 million years ago**, up to 95 percent of all animals  —   //nearly the entire animal kingdom//   —   were lost in what is thought to be the worst extinction in.
 * <span class="mainBody" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**208 million years ago**, another mass extinction took a toll primarily on //sea creatures//, but also some land animals.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> **65 million years ago**, three quarters of all species  —   including the //dinosaurs//   —   were eliminated. Ice ages followed. Because of the lack of predators, mammals were able to thrive and the new environment. Eventually, people came on the scene a mere 230,000 years ago.

Link here for an article from MIT on mass extinction. This article refers to new evidence that a buildup of carbon dioxide may have contributed to mass extinction. There also is evidence of wildfires that may have contributed to global warming, and extinction.

Click here for a SciShow on Mass Extinctions.





Dinosaurs and Extinction

 * Impressions from a Lost World,** from Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association explores prehistory findings in New England.

Dinosaurs from the American Museum of Natural History

History Forgot This Rogue Aristocrat Who Discovered Dinosaurs and Died Penniless. Smithsonian Magazine (July 2016)

The Dino Directory, UK Natural History Museum

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 * [[image:Screen Shot 2017-06-12 at 3.55.03 PM.png link="@https://www.ted.com/playlists/426/is_it_time_for_de_extinction?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_content=playlist__2018-01-05playlist_button"]]Is It Time for De-Extinction?**=====


 * Should We Bring Extinct Species Back to Life?**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Links
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">[1] http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Look at each planet in our solar system from different points of view and angles; for example, look at the Earth as seen from the moon, or look at Mercury from the Messenger spacecraft—as it would look on today’s date (or, look at the Earth from the Sun on your birthday when you turned ten)! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">[2] http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-018 Look at Saturn as it’s seen from space via the Cassini spacecraft <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">[3] Quote from David Christian, "What's the Use of Big History?," __World History Connected__ October 2005 <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/whc/3.1/christian.html> (20 Apr. 2011). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">[4] []