As animals and plants evolve (change over time), some groups die out - become extinct - as most of the dinosaurs did 65 million years ago. New groups have also appeared, like the birds, which evolved from one group of dinosaurs.
Palaeontologists use the extinction and appearance of different groups to define geological periods. If you put all the geological periods together you have constructed a geological time scale.
The geological time scale records changes in the fossil record.
Click on the geological periods on the timescale below to see which groups of plants and animals were alive in each of them
https://view.genial.ly/6061e307cec16a0d41abb02e
About this resource
Science topic: Fossils, Rocks, Evolution
Key Stage: KS2
Type: Information, Activity
Keywords: Geological timescale, history of life, evolution of life on Earth
Learn more about the history of life on the Museum's websites
