Visual representation of the history of life on Earth as a spiral.
Our universe is 13.8 billion years old; our solar system is 8 billion years old; and the earth is 4.5 billion years old. A timeline on earth from that point on reads like this (and what a testimony to scientific achievement this list is):
- billion years of simple cells (prokaryotes),
- 3 billion years of photosynthesis,
- 2 billion years of complex cells (eukaryotes),
- 1 billion years of multi-cellular life,
- 600 million years of simple animals,
- 550 million years of complex animals,
- 500 million years of fish and proto-amphibians,
- 475 million years of land plants,
- 400 million years of insects and seeds,
- 360 million years of amphibians,
- 300 million years of reptiles,
- 200 million years of mammals,
- 150 million years of birds,
- 130 million years of flowers,
- 65 million years since the dinosaurs died out
- 40 million years of butterflies and moths
- 20 million years of giraffes
- 15 million years of hominids
- 13 million years since orangutan-hominid split
- 10 million years since gorilla-hominid split
- 6 million years since chimpanzee-hominid split
- 5 million years of Australopithecines
- million years of Ardipithecus
- million years of Australopithecus afarensis
- 5 million years of Homo habilis
- 8 million years of Homo erectus
- 2 millions years of Homo antecessor
- 600 thousand years of Homo heidelbergensis
- 350 thousand years of Neanderthals
- 200 thousand years of Anatomically modern humans
- 160 thousand years of Homo sapiens
- 50 thousand years since migration to South Asia
- 40 thousand years since migration to Australia and Europe
- 15-40 thousand years since migration to Americas
- 12 thousand years since evolution of light skin in Europeans
Is something happening here? Is there anything we can infer from all this?
