If you were able to travel back to visit the Earth during the Archaean, ... At right is an artist's depiction of what an Archaean coast might have looked like 3.5 billion years ago. The mounds in the foreground are stromatolites, colonies of photosynthetic bacteria which have been found as fossils in Early Archaean rocks...
www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/precambrian/archaean.html www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/precambrian/archaean.html
Hadean ("Hades-like") Era (pictured above); This era begins about 4.6 billion years ago with the formation of Earth from dust and gas orbiting the Sun. During this era the surface of Earth is like popular visions of Hades: oceans of liquid rock, ... If you look closely, ... Image of the Earth during the Archaean Era.
www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/cambrian.htm... www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/cambrian.html
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, Herring Road, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia ... MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ... NEWS AND VIEWSArchaean stromatolites and the search for the earliest life...
www.nature.com/nature/journal/v441/n7094/abs/nature0476... www.nature.com/nature/journal/v441/n7094/abs/nature04764.html
Research Center for the Evolving Earth and Planet, ... During the Archaean era (before 2.5 Gyr ago), methanogens may have been important in regulating climate, because they could have provided sufficient amounts of the greenhouse gas methane to mitigate a severely frozen condition that could have ... MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS...
www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nature04584
what was Earth like in first 100 My ... what did the Archaean Earth look like ... what is the length of the Precambrian era...
www.eas.slu.edu/People/DJCrossley/uniquearth/studyguide... www.eas.slu.edu/People/DJCrossley/uniquearth/studyguide.htm
History of Life on Earth ... Precambrian Era (4,500 to 544 mya): Vendian Archaean ... ( drawing ) ; Horseshoe crabs evolved in the shallow seas of the Paleozoic Era (540-248 mya), Brachiopods look like clams however they are not closely related to the molluscs. There are about 300 living species of brachiopods.
www.prism.gatech.edu/~gh19/b1510/histear.htm
Cenozoic Era (Recent Life). Two periods: Quaternary and Tertiary ... At its peak, as much as 30% of the Earth's surface is covered by glaciers, and parts of the northern oceans are frozen. ... Mammals are small, shrew-like animals. Plant forms are dominated by the cycads and cycadeoides. Conifers and gingkoes are widespread.
www.sdnhm.org/exhibits/mystery/fg_timeline.html
A fossil is defined as any evidence of ancient life, and in general, the farther back in the fossil record you look, the less the fossils you find will look like you. Sabertooth cats that lived a million years ago had incisors the size of steak ... As stromatolites might result from some of the earliest life on Earth,
earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php... earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17309
The History of Life on Earth; When did life first begin on Earth? What did it look like? When did the ... The Archaean (ar-KEY-an) Era; Some time between 4.0 bya and 3.9 bya the destructive impacts into our planet became less common, and eventually conditions on Earth settled down enough so that life could survive. Still,
www.astro.indiana.edu/~gsimonel/build/History_of_Life.p... www.astro.indiana.edu/~gsimonel/build/History_of_Life.pdf
These are mostly volcanic in nature, consisting of pillow-like structures identical to those of present-day lavas which have formed underwater. The implication is that at this time the entire Earth was covered by ocean. ... Introduction to the Archaean Era...
www.palaeos.com/Archean/Archean.htm www.palaeos.com/Archean/Archean.htm