PROBLEM 2. We Learn of Vrehistoric Living Things fro?n Fossils 54.5 



3. Describe the early part and the late part of the fourth (Paleozoic) 

 era. 



4. Name some of the many kinds of animals that lived during the age of 

 reptiles. Describe the reptiles that flourished near the close of the era. 



5. Which large group of animals seems to have been the last to appear 

 on the earth? How did the earth change in its appearance and in its 

 inhabitants during the age of mammals? 



6. What changes in climate occurred during the age of man and what 

 effect did this have on plants and animals? About how long ago did 

 this era begin? 



7. Compare the animals and plants that seem to have lived in the earliest 

 as^es with those in later ages. What important biological idea does 

 this observation lead us to? 



8. Explain fully what the rocks seem to show about the origin of the 

 horse. Why are biologists justified in saying that the Eohippus is the 

 ancestor of the modern horse, even though it bears little resemblance 

 to a horse? 



9. Name other mammals the development of which can be traced by 

 means of fossil series. 



10. What important biological fact can we arrive at from a study of fos- 

 sil series? 



11. What direct evidence is there that a new species of organism can be 

 produced from an existing species? What indirect evidence is there 

 that species can change throughout the ages? What important bio- 

 logical ideas grow^ out of the evidence that species can change? Of 

 what importance is the kno^^'ledge that there has been life on this 

 earth for almost 2000 million years? 



Exercises 



1. Which do you think are more reliable, the records written in the 

 rocks (fossils) or the records written by man in early ages? Defend your 

 opinion. 



2. Organize a class committee to do this exercise. Using wrapping 

 paper begin now to prepare a large wall chart showing the geological 

 eras by means of parallel lines. As you read each paragraph fill in the 

 names of the animals (and plants) the fossils of which have been found 

 in each of the eras. 



3. If you are near a museum you can visit it and write a report. If there 

 is no museum near have the class secretary write to the Chicago Natural 

 History Museum, the American Museum of Natural History in New 

 York, or to any other large museum for a price list of the publications 

 and pictures on the subject of the history of the earth. See how interest- 

 ing a collection of pictures you can build up in this and other ways. 



4. List in order in a column the invertebrate phyla beginning with the 

 simplest and mention some common examples in each phylum. Then, 



