What do you think this is?• Coprolite- “dung

stone” or fossilized animal feces.

• Why would finding this fossil be important?

• Tell us what animal it was from, what animals ate, how big the animal was, how long ago the animal lived, etc.

• It tells us about Earth’s history!!!!!!!

Earth’s Story• For 1000s of years humans have wondered

about Earth’s history.

• 2 main view points: 1. the Earth was shaped suddenly and 2. the Earth was shaped slowly over billions of years.

Greatest Discoveries:

Catastrophism

• The concept was first promoted by Georges Cuvier, a famous French comparative anatomist and vertebrate paleontologist

Uniformitarianism vs. Catastrophism• Catastrophism- principle that states all

geologic change occurs suddenly

• Evidence- Biblical floods, asteroid strikes and other catastrophes created mountains, canyons, and seas.

Uniformitarianism

• Lyell turned to the fifty-year-old ideas of a Scottish farmer named James Hutton. In the 1790s, Hutton had argued that the Earth was transformed not by unimaginable catastrophes but by imperceptibly slow changes, many of which we can see around us today.

Uniformitarianism vs. Catastrophism• Uniformitarianism- principle that states the

same geologic processes shaping Earth today have been working throughout Earth’s history.

• Evidence: Weathering, erosion and other geologic processes happen slowly. Therefore the Earth must have been shaped slowly.

Conclusion• Earth has been shaped by a combination of

catastrophism & uniformitarianism.

• Most geologic change is slow & gradual.

• But catastrophes have contributed to shaping Earth.