Mass-Extinction-Student-Worksheet
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School
Broward College *
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Course
1005
Subject
Geology
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
docx
Pages
5
Uploaded by General_Music_Wasp
Directions
•
Watch Video Extinction:
an End and a New Beginning
(0:00 – 23:40 minutes).
•
What questions this brief film clip generates in your mind. Record your ideas.
How do species adapt to environments that are changing, and what factors determine whether they will survive
or go extinct during times of big changes in their environments?
What kinds of organisms lived in the Ediacara, and why did they not make it to the Cambrian period? In what
ways does the death of some species make room for the rise of new ones?
How do some species deal with problems in their environment without giving up?
What did mammals have going for them that helped them survive and eventually led to the development of
humans?
•
Open the Making of Mass Extinction and check carefully the 5 main mass extinctions
represented.
•
Launch and explore the features of
EarthViewer
:
•
Click, hold, and drag to rotate the planet.
•
Click, hold, and drag down the horizontal silver slider on the timeline; watch
what happens to the planet and the data indicators as you move backward and forward in time.
•
Position the silver timeline slider at 0 MYA (top of the timeline). Click on the
left "play" button at the bottom of the timeline; watch what happens. When the silver bar stops
at the bottom, click on the right "play" button and watch again.
•
Position the silver timeline slider at 0 MYA. Click on "Charts" at the bottom
of the screen. Choose a chart. Now click on the left "play" button at the bottom of the timeline.
Watch what happens on your chosen chart as the slider moves down the timeline.
•
Click "pause" before the slider reaches the bottom of the timeline. Note that
your chosen chart will show a demarcation in the data for that point in time.
•
Close your chart in EarthViewer by clicking on the "X" in the upper right-hand
corner.
•
Make sure the timeline displays 0–540 million years and then click on "View" at the
bottom of the screen; turn on "Mass Extinctions." Click "View" again to minimize the menu.
•
Note the five yellow triangles that appear on the right side of the timeline. These
correspond to mass extinctions.
•
Gather data: Drag the slider to the Ordovician extinction, 440 MYA. Use the
EarthViewer features to fill in the following chart. For Biodiversity, you will need to move the slider
carefully and record the number of marine genera present just before and just after the extinction event.
Gather data in the same manner for the remaining four mass extinctions.
What was Earth's
Biodiversity
surface like?
Avg.
(# of genera
Landmasses?
Surface
just before &
Mass
Proportion of
Temp.,
O
2
CO
2
Day
just after
Extinction
MYA
land to water?
°C
(%)
(ppm)
Length
Luminosity
extinction)
Ordovician
485
A lot of green land surrounded by water
30
16.8
4910
21.6
95.78
1133.5
Devonian
415
A lot more water than land
16
20.6
3992
21.9
96.35
929
Permian
295
Mountain and hills. Less water
13
32.7
323
22.6
97.44
774.5
Triassic
245
Land starts to breakaway and more land appears
18
24.3
640
22.8
97.86
638.5
Cretaceous
145
Land moving more apart
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16
20.7
1273
23.3
98.81
99.5
Present
14
21
415
24
•
Do any patterns and correlations emerge from your chart? Does any of the data
suggest an explanation for the occurrence of mass extinctions?
•
Calculate the biodiversity loss in each extinction and report in terms of percent.
Ordovician
Devonian
Permian
Triassic
Cretaceous
% of Genera Lost
•
What questions do you now have about mass extinctions?
ELABORATE, PART 1
•
Return to EarthViewer. Move the slider down to "Cretaceous extinction" and click on
the link. Read the information about this extinction (formally known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene or
sometimes the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction).
•
The information tells you that "overwhelming evidence suggests that the extinction
was caused by a 10-km-diameter asteroid that struck Earth." Suggest at least three lines of evidence that
might have led scientists to this conclusion. Discuss your predictions and record your ideas in the space
below.
•
Together with your class, continue watching the film,
Mass Extinction: Life at the
Brink
(1:55 - 21:00). As you watch, record the kinds of scientific evidence that support the asteroid
impact hypothesis.
•
How does your predicted evidence compare with the actual evidence used to
support the asteroid impact hypothesis?
ELABORATE, PART 2
•
Return to EarthViewer. Move the slider down to "Permian extinction" and click on the
link. Read the information about this extinction (formally known as the Permian-Triassic extinction).
•
The information tells you that "it is thought that massive eruptions of Siberian volcanoes
caused catastrophic global warming, ocean acidification, and widespread lack of oxygen in the oceans."
Predict what kinds of evidence might have led scientists to this conclusion. What kind of evidence would
suggest the existence of volcanoes? What kinds of evidence might suggest global warming, ocean
acidification, or lack of oxygen in the oceans? Discuss your predictions and record your ideas in the space
below.