Question

1. which statement is incorrect about the geologic time scale?

a. life was not present when the earth was still cooling.
b. prokaryotes showed up on earth long before reptiles and small plants.
c. modern humans arrived later than reptiles and small plants
d. dinosaurs showed up just after the earth was created
(additional text: output access 3 of 4, earth was created)

Explanation:

To solve this, we analyze each option based on the Geologic Time Scale:

• Option A: When Earth was still cooling (early Hadean/Archean), life (in the form of prokaryotes) had not yet emerged. This is correct.
• Option B: Prokaryotes (like bacteria) appeared ~3.5 billion years ago, long before reptiles (which evolved later, in the Paleozoic) and small plants. This is correct.
• Option C: Modern humans (Homo sapiens) evolved very recently (~300,000 years ago), while reptiles and small plants (e.g., early vascular plants) appeared hundreds of millions of years earlier. So humans arrived much later. This is correct.
• Option D: Dinosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous (66 million years ago). The Earth’s formation (via accretion) occurred ~4.6 billion years ago, long before dinosaurs existed. The statement “Dinosaurs showed up just after the Earth was created” is incorrect, as there was a vast time gap between Earth’s formation and dinosaur evolution.

Answer:

D. Dinosaurs showed up just after the Earth was created