BOB and SUE REYNOLDS
FOSSILS AND MORE
Bob's E-Mail- bobr120@sbcglobal.net
Updated: March, 2020
Fossil Presentation Outline
with
Geologic Eras
Precambrian 4.567 BYA to 570 MYA ~84% of the history of life.
1. Meteorite – 4.567 BYA
a. Traveled in our solar system since its
beginning.
b. Fell in South America 4000 to 5000 Years
ago.
2. Cyanobacteria – 3.5 BYA to the present
a. Known today as “pond scum”.
b. Gave us the oxygen we breathe.
3. Stromatolites – 3.5 BYA to the present
a. A form of cyanobacteria.
4. Banded Iron – 3.8 to 1.7 BYA
a. Cyanobacteria gave oxygen to the water and
caused iron to precipitate out of the water into layers.
Paleozoic 570 MYA to 25 MYA ~10% of the history of life.
5. Trilobites – 570 to 230 MYA
a. Three-lobed, hard shelled, segmented
creatures.
b. One of the earliest forms of complex life.
6. Crinoids – 530 MYA to the present
a. Ocean invertebrate animal.
b. Known today as “Sea Lillie’s”.
c. Get their food by extending their arms and
eating plankton or waste matter.
7. Coral – 410 MYA to the present.
a. Polyps.
b. Limestone skeleton.
c. Bleached coral.
8. Lepidodendron – 360 to 286 MYA
a. Carboniferous period, Oxygen~40%,
Temperature~68f.
b. Tree grew to more than 130 feet tall, with
trunk diameter 6 feet or more in diameter.
9. Ammonites – 240 to 65 MYA
a. Squid-like animals.
b. Chambered hard shells.
Mesozoic 225 MYA to 65 MYA 4% of the history of life.
10. Dinosaurs – 231.4 to 66 MYA.
a. Some dinosaurs evolved into birds.
b. Most dinosaurs went extinct.
Cenozoic 65 MYA to the Present, ~2% of the history of life.
11. Knightia, Diplomystus, Priscacara Fish, and Muscidea Flies,
a. 56 to 34 million years ago,
Green River Formation
12. Woolly Rhinoceros 350 to 10 KYA.
a. herbivore
13. Mammoth – 5 MYA to 10 KYA.
a. Herbivore
b. Grazed on grasses
14. Mastodon 3.75MYA to 11KYA
a. Herbivore
b. Browsed on brush
