Timeline of evolution
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This timeline outlines the major events in the development of life on planet Earth. For context, see biology, evolution and the geologic time scale. Dates given are estimates. The table uses the abbreviations "MYA" for "million years ago" and "kYA" for "thousand years ago."
| Timeline of life on Earth | |
|---|---|
| Date | Event |
| 4500 MYA | The planet Earth forms from the accretion disk revolving around the young Sun. |
| 4450 MYA | Formation of Moon, Earth's natural satellite. (see: Moon origin). |
| 4100 MYA | The surface of the Earth cools down enough for the crust to solidify. |
| 4000 MYA | Life appears, possibly derived from self-reproducing RNA molecules. These copying/reproduction/replication requires resources like energy, space and smaller building blocks, which soon got limited, resulting in competition. Natural selection favors those molecules which are more efficient at replication. The atmosphere does not contain any free oxygen (See: origin of life). |
| 3900 MYA | Late Heavy Bombardment: peak rate of impact of Earth, the Moon, Mars and Venus by asteroids and comets, this constant disturbance may have allowed life to evolve. Cells resembling prokaryotes appear. These first organisms are chemoautotrophs: they use carbon dioxide as a carbon source and oxidize inorganic materials to extract energy. Later prokaryotes evolve glycolysis, a set of chemical reactions that free the energy of organic molecules such as glucose. Glycolysis generates ATP molecules as short term energy currency and is used in almost all organisms unchanged to this day. Although mostly inconspicuous, prokaryotes remain the dominant life form on Earth even today. (See: evolution of prokaryotes). The split between the bacteria and the archaea occurs. |
| 3500 MYA | Bacteria develop primitive forms of photosynthesis which at first do not produce oxygen. These organisms generate ATP by exploiting a proton gradient, a mechanism still used in virtually all organisms. |
| 3000 MYA | Photosynthesizing cyanobacteria evolve; they use water as reductant, thereby producing oxygen as waste product. The oxygen initially oxidizes dissolved iron in the oceans, creating iron ore. Then the oxygen concentration in the atmosphere rises, acting as a poison for many bacteria. |
| 2500 MYA | Some bacteria evolve the ability to utilize oxygen to more efficiently use the energy from organic molecules such as glucose. Virtually all organisms using oxygen employ the same set of reactions, the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. |
| 2100 MYA | More complex cells appear: the eukaryotes, which contain various organelles. The closest relatives of these are probably the Archaea. Most have organelles which are probably derived from symbiotic bacteria: mitochondria, which use oxygen to extract energy from organic molecules and appear similar to today's Rickettsia, and often chloroplasts, which derive energy from light and synthesize organic molecules and originated from cyanobacteria and similar forms. |
| 2000 MYA | Creation of 300km wide Uredefort Crater in South Africa. Formation of bottom layer of Grand Canyon. The top layer formed 250MYA. |
| 1850 MYA | Creation of 300km wide Sudbury Crater in Canada. |
| 1780 MYA | In Gabon, West Africa, a uranium deposit acted as a natural nuclear reactor. A chain reaction begins on its own and lasted for a billion years. [1] (http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0010.shtml) |
| 1200 MYA | Sexual reproduction evolves and leads to an explosion in the rate of evolution. While most life occurs in oceans and lakes, some cyanobacteria may already have lived in moist soil by this time. |
| 1000 MYA | Multicellular organisms appear: initially colonial algae and later, seaweeds, living in the oceans. |
| 900 MYA | There were 481 18-hour days in a year. Spin of the Earth slows down ever since. |
| 630 MYA | Snowball Earth, this hypothesis states that the ice age which took place in the Precambrian was so severe that the Earth's oceans froze over completely, only in the tropics oceans remained liquid. |
| 600 MYA | Sponges (Porifera), Jellyfish (Cnidaria), flat worms Platyhelminthes and other multicellular animals appear in the oceans. Cnidaria and Ctenophora are some of the earliest creatures to have neurons, in the form a simple net - no brain or nervous system. |
| 565-525 MYA | The Cambrian explosion, a rapid set of evolutionary changes, creates all the major body plans (phyla) of modern animals. |
| 505 MYA | First fish (first vertebrates) is jawless. |
| 475 MYA | The first primitive plants move onto land, having evolved from green algae living along the edges of lakes. They are accompanied by fungi, and very likely plants and fungi work symbiotically together. |
| 450 MYA | Arthropods, with an exoskeleton that provides support and prevents water loss, are the first animals to invade the land. Among the first are Myriapoda (millipedes and centipedes), later followed by spiders and scorpions. |
| 450-440 MYA | The two Ordovician-Silurian extinction events occur. |
| 400 MYA | First insects are without wings: silverfish, springtails, bristletails. |
| 365 MYA | Insects evolve on land and in fresh water from the myriapods. Some fresh water lobe-finned fish (Sarcopterygii) develop legs and give rise to the Tetrapoda. This happens in the water; tetrapods (Ichthyostega , Acanthostega and Pederpes finneyae) then use their legs to move out onto land, probably to hunt insects. Lungs and swim bladders evolve. Amphibians still retain many characteristics of the early tetrapods. Third mass extinction. |
| 360 MYA | Plants evolve seeds, structures that protect plant embryos and enable plants to spread quickly on land. Creation of Woodleigh crater (100 km wide) and Siljan Ring (40 km wide, Dalecarlia, Sweden). |
| 300 MYA | The continents on Earth fuse into one - Pangaea. Evolution of the amniotic egg gives rise to the Amniota, reptiles who can reproduce on land. Insects evolve flight. Dragonflies (Odonata) still resemble these early insects. Vast forests of clubmosses (lycopods), horsetails, and tree ferns cover the land; when these decay they will eventually form coal. Gymnosperms begin to diversify widely. Cycads, plants resembling palms, first appeared. |
| 280 MYA | Meganeura monyi was an ancient dragonfly. This flying predator was the biggest insect that ever lived - it had a wingspan of about 2 feet. Vertebrates included many Temnospondyl, Anthrachosaur, and Lepospondyl amphibians and early anapsid and synapsid (e.g. Edaphosaurus) reptiles |
| 256 MYA | Diictodon, Cistecephalus, Dicynodon, Lycaenops, Dinogorgon and Procynosuchus, are a few of the many mammal-like reptiles known from South Africa and Russia. Parieasaurs were large clumbsy herbivores. The first Archosauriformes. |
| 250 MYA | The Permian-Triassic extinction event wipes out about 95% of all animal species, the most severe mass extinction known. Lystrosaurus is a common herbivore that survives the extinction. The archosaurs split from other reptiles. Teleosts evolve from among the Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish), and eventually become the dominant fish group. Some spores of bacteria Bacillus strain 2-9-3 (Sali bacillus marismortui) are trapped in salt crystals known as halite in New Mexico. They are re-animated in 2000AD and have multiplied rapidly. Currently the world oldest living organism. |
| 220 MYA | The climate is very dry, and dry-adapted organism are favored: the archosaurs and the Gymnosperms. archosaurs diversify into crocodiles, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs.
From synapsids came the first mammal precursors, therapsids, and more specifically the eucynodonts. Initially, they stay small and shrew-like. Constant body temperature. All mammals have milk glands for their young. One of a pair of autosomes acquires a SRY gene derived from SOX3 from X chromosome to become the Y chromosome, which has been decreasing in length since. Gymnosperms (mostly conifers) are the dominant land plants. Plant eaters will grow to huge sizes during the dominance of the gymnosperms to have space for large guts to digest the poor food offered by gymnosperms. |
| 200 MYA | Fifth mass extinction event. Marine reptiles include Ichthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs. Ammonites and belemnites flourish. Dinosaurs survive the extinction and grow to large size, but "thecodonts" die out. Modern amphibians evolve: the Lissamphibia; including Anura (frogs), Urodela (salamanders), and Caecilia. |
| 180 MYA | The supercontinent Pangea begins to break up into several land masses. The largest is Gondwana, made up of the land masses which are now Antarctica, Australia, South America, Africa, and India. Antarctica still a land of forests. |
| 150 MYA | Giant dinosaurs are common and diverse - Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, along with smaller forms like Ornitholestes and Othneilia. Birds evolve from theropod dinosaurs. Archaeopteryx is an ancestor of birds, with claws, feathers but no beak. |
| 135 MYA | New dinosaurs Iguanodon, Hylaeosaurus, etc. appear after extinction of Jurassic forms. Microraptor gui, a 77-cm-long dinosaur in Liaoning, north-east China has bird-like feathered wings on 4 limbs. |
| 133 MYA | Jeholornis prima, primitive bird in the Jiufotang Formation of north-eastern China eats seed. The bird had large, strong wings, and also had a long, bony tail, like many dinosaurs. |
| 130 MYA | Angiosperm plants evolve flowers, structures that attract insects and other animals to spread pollen. The evolution of the angiosperms cause a major burst of animal evolution. |
| 128 MYA | The earliest tyrannosaur is Dilong paradoxus in Lioning Province of China. Had feathers and a small body of 5 feet long. |
| 123 MYA | Sinornithosaurus millenii is a dinosaur in Liaoning, China that has primitive feathers not used for flight. Other dinosaurs with feathers are Sinosauropteryx (most primitive feathers, simplest tubular structures) and Changchanornis. Have common ancestor with Archaeopteryx. Other dinosaurs include Polacanthus (armoured herbivore) and Eotyrannus (early tyrannosaur). |
| 125 MYA | Eomaia scansoria, a eutherian mammal, which leads to the formation of modern placental mammals. Looks like modern dormouse, climbing small shrubs in Liaoning, China. |
| 110 MYA | Sarcosuchus imperator, eight tons, head 2m long, 12m long, largest crocodile. |
| 100 MYA | Common genetic ancestor of mice and humans. |
| 88 MYA | Breakup of Indo-Malagasy land mass. |
| 80 MYA | Many kinds of duck billed, horned and meat-eating dinosaurs; half of all known dinosaur species are from the last 30 MY of the Mesozoic, after the rise of the angiosperms. India starts moving to Eurasia. |
| 65 MYA | The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event (sixth extinction event) wipes out about half of all animal species including all non-avian dinosaurs, probably because of a cooling of the climate precipitated by the giant impact of a meteor: iridium powder from asteroid forms a layer that covers the whole Earth. Creation of the Chicxulub crater (170 km across, now half-submerged off Yucatan peninsula of Mexico). Without the pressence of the giant and diurnal dinosaurs, Mammals can increase in diversity and size. Some will later return back to the sea (whales, sirenians and seals) and others will evolve flight (bats). A group of small, nocturnal and arboreal, insect-eating mammals called the Archonta branches into the primates, tree shrews and bats. Primates have binocular vision and grasping digits, features that help them to jump from one tree branch to another. One example is Plesiadapis which is extinct by 45 million years ago. |
| 64 MYA | Lemurs cross the ocean into Madagascar from Africa mainland. |
| 62.5 MYA | North Sea (Britain) Silverpit crater 3km across created by asteroid (350m wide) impact. . |
| 60 MYA | Creodonts, meat eater, northern hemisphere, extinct by 5.2 million years ago, ancestor of miacis. |
| 55 MYA | Australia breaks away from Antarctica. The earliest true primates, called euprimates, first appear in North America, Asia, and Europe. One eg. is Carpolestes simpsoni at Clarks Fork Basin of Wyoming. It has grasping digits but no forward facing eyes. Another (earliest?) euprimate Teilhardina asiatica (Hunan, China) is mouse-sized, diurnal and has small eyes. |
| 50 MYA | Creation of 45km wide Nova Scotia crater. Earliest horses are Hyracotherium,size of foxes and have large nails instead of hoofs. Ancestor of whales (which include dolphins), Ambulocetus natans( Pakistan) probably walked on land like modern sea lions and swam like modern otters. It has webbed feet that gave it added power underwater as it swam, and still hears directy from ears. Pezosiren portelli ancestor of modern manatees walk like a hippo swim like an otter. Miacis, five claw ancestor of all dogs, cats, bears, raccoon, fox, hyena, jackal, civet is a meat eating weasel-like tree climber. |
| 48.5 MYA | Gastornis geiselensis (Europe, USA) 1.75 m tall carnivorous bird. |
| 46.5 MYA | Rodhocetus, ancestor of whale, successor to Ambulocetus, no longer needs to drink fresh water.. |
| 45 MYA | Cetaceans (whales) evolve from mesonychids, carnivorous ungulates probably most closely related to the |
| 43 MYA | Earliest elephant, Moeritherium (Egypt). 1m tall, size of a large pig, eat soft, juicy plants. Long noses, but no trunks nor tusks. |
| 40 MYA | Primates (order) diverge into suborders Prosimians (a primitive monkey) and Anthropoids, the latter is diurnal and herbivorous. Examples of today's prosimians are tarsiers, lemurs, lorises. |
| 37 MYA | Creation of 100km wide Popagai crater in Siberia. Basilosaurus, up to 60 foot long snakelike ancestor of whales, has reduced but well-developed hind limbs. Hears from sounds transmitted to middle ears through vibrations from lower jaws. |
| 35 MYA | Grasses evolve from among the angiosperms. Formation of 85 km wide crater which form the Chesapeake Bay, largest in United States, 7th largest worldwide, at Cape Charles, Virginia. |
| 30 MYA | Anthropoid (suborder) splits into infraorders Platyrrhini (New World Monkeys) and Catarrhini (Old World Primates). New World Monkeys have prehensile tails and migrated to South America. Catarrhines stayed in Africa as the two continents drifted apart. One ancestor of catarrhines might be Aegyptopithecus. New world monkey males are color blind. Anthropoids: Bugtipithecus inexpectans, Phileosimias kamali and Phileosimias brahuiorum similar to today's lemurs, lived in rainforests on Bugti Hills of central Pakistan. Ancestor of all cats, 9 kg Proailurus, live on trees in Europe. Died out 20 million years ago. |
| 27.5 MYA | Indricothere, rhino relative, 4.5 m tall, tallest mammal on land, lives in Mongolia. |
| 27 MYA | Phorusrhacos longissimus (Terror Bird) 2.5m tall in the Americas. Extinct by 15,000 years ago. |
| 25 MYA | Catarrhini males gain color vision but lose the pheromone pathway. Catarrhini (infraorder)(Old World Primates) splits into 2 superfamilies, Old world monkeys (Cercopithecoidea) and Hominoids. The Old world monkey does not have a prehensile tail (e.g. Baboon); some do not have tails at all. All hominoids have no tails (e.g. the lesser apes, great apes and hominids). |
| 22 MYA | India collides with Asia, causing the rise of Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau. Cut off from the humidity, Central Asia becomes a desert. Appearance of deinotherium, ancient elephant. Extinct by 2 million years ago. Evolving from an animal that looked part dog, part bear and part raccoon, the dawn bear (Ursavus elmensis) was the ancestor of all bears living today. Size of a fox, hunting in the tree tops, supplement diet of meat with plant material and insects. The first group, the Ailuropodinae follows a plant-based diet, branches of, and only one member, the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) survives today. |
| 20 MYA | The African plate collides with Asia. Cynodictis, ancestor of dogs, have a shortened fifth claw which foreshadows the dewclaw( vestigial) of modern dogs. Look like modern day civet. Developing feet and toes suited for running. The two superfamilies of carnivores (canines and felines) were distinct. Gomphotherium, ancient elephant. |
| 21 MYA | A mongoose-like creature floats to Madagascar from Africa on a raft of vegetation. Becomes ancestor of all carnivorous mammals there. |
| 19 MYA | Megatherium americanum (giant sloth 6m long). Extinct 8000 years ago. |
| 16 MYA | Squalodon shows early echolocation of whales. |
| 15 MYA | Apes from Africa migrate to Eurasia to become gibbons (lesser apes) and orangutans. Human ancestors speciate from the ancestors of the gibbon. Orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees are great apes. Humans are hominids. |
| 13 MYA | Human ancestors speciate from the ancestors of the orangutan. A relative of orangutans:- Lufengpithecus chiangmuanensis (Northern Thailand). Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, Spain, common ancestor of great apes and humans. |
| 10 MYA | The climate begins to dry, savannas and grasslands take over the earlier forests. Monkeys proliferate, and the apes go into decline. Human ancestors speciate from the ancestors of the gorillas. This is the heyday of the horses spread throughout the Northern hemisphere. After 10 MYA they d ecline in the face of competition with the artiodactyls. Tomarctus, ancestor of dogs is an extremely dog like animal. |
| 7 MYA | Biggest primate Gigantopithecus is 2 metres tall and live in China (Gigantopithecus blacki), Vietnam and northern India( Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis). Extinct by 300,000 years ago. |
| 5.6 MYA | Drying up of the Mediterranean Sea (the Messinian Event). |
| 5 MYA | Volcanoes erupt and make the bit of land that joins North and South America. Mammals from North America move south and cause extinction of mammals there. Human ancestors speciate from the ancestors of the chimpanzees. The latest common ancestor is Sahelanthropus tchadensis (Chad, Sahara, west of Rift Valley). The earliest in the human branch is Orrorin tugenensis (Millennium Man, Kenya). Chimpanzees and humans share 98% of DNA: biochemical similarities are so great that their hemoglobin molecules differ by only one amino acid, but that 2% difference explains why, for example, chimps cannot speak. One group of chimps can have more genetic diversity than all of the six billion humans alive today, due to later population bottlenecking on the human lineage. Both chimpanzees and humans have larynx that repositions during the first two years of life to a spot between the pharynx and the lungs, indicating that the common ancestors have this feature, a precursor of speech. Both humans and chimpanzees make friends, influence peers, court the opposite sex without necessarily mating, win favors and form alliances and read facial expressions to tell the difference between a friend and an enemy, distinguish between the wimps and the bullies, and determine what's good behavior and what's bad. Each individual has its own personality, some more aggressive, some more social, and its own unique ability to navigate the social complexities of group living. They face the same problem of leaving home, finding a mate and making one's way in the world. |
| 4.4 MYA | Ardipithecus ramidus ramidus (Hominid? Walks upright most of the time? Still spend time on trees?) |
| 3.7 MYA | Some Australopithecus afarensis left footprints on volcanic ash in Laetoli, Kenya (Northern Tanzania). |
| 3.5 MYA | Orangutans diverge into Bornean (Pongo pygmaeus) and Sumatran (Pongo abelii) sub-species. |
| 3 MYA | The bipedal australopithecines (early hominines) evolve in the savannas of Africa being hunted by Dinofelis. Species include Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus bosei. Other genus include Kenyanthropus platyops.
Gorillas die out on the south bank of the Congo River, and bonobos evolve from the chimpanzees there. North and South America become joined, allowing migration of animals. Modern horses, Equu first appear. Deinotherium (4m tall), is gigantic cousin of elephant with downward pointing tusks in the lower jaw. |
| 2.5 MYA | Smilodon (Saber Tooth) appears. |
| 2.2 MYA | Gorillas diverge into the Western lowland (Gorilla gorilla) and eastern (Gorilla beringei) sub-species. |
| 2 MYA | Homo habilis (handy man) uses primitive stone tools (choppers) in Tanzania. Emergence of Broca's area (speech region of modern human brain). Probably lives with Australopithecus robustus (sometimes classified into genus Paranthropus). The Homos are meat-eating while the Australopithecine eat plants and termites. Some chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at the southern part of Zaire river branches off to form the bonobos (Pan paniscus/ pigmy chimps). Bonobos live in female dominated society. Saber Tooth moves from North America to South America. |
| 1.8 MYA | Homo erectus evolves in Africa and migrates to other continents, primarily south Asia. |
| 1.75 MYA | Dmanisi man/ Homo georgicus (Georgia, Russia), tiny brain came from Africa, with Homo erectus and Homo habilis characteristics. An individual spent the last years of his life with only one tooth by depending on the kindness or compassion of others to obtain sufficient sustenance.
The glyptodon, a giant armadillo the size of a Volkswagen Beetle lives in southern Peru. |
| 1.6 MYA | Appearance of Giant Short-faced Kangaroo (Procoptodon goliah ) in Australia.. Extinct by 40,000 years ago. 2 to 3 m tall. The largest kangaroo ever known. It weighed 200kg to 300kg. Wombat-like Diprotodon optatum, 2,800 kg , 3m long, Australia, extinct 45,000 years ago. Biggest marsupials. |
| 1.5 MYA | Marsupial lion (Thylacoleo carnifex or Leo) appears in Australia and go extinct by 46,000 years ago. |
| 1 MYA | Genus Canis (coyotes, jackals, wolves, dingoes, domestic dogs) develops as a branch from Tomarctus. The gray fox, Urocyon cinereogenteus is the most primitive canid alive today.. |
| 800 kYA | Gray wolf (Canis lupus) move to Arctic North America. |
| 780 kYA | The last geomagnetic reversal for Earth. |
| 700 kYA | Common genetic ancestor of humans and Neanderthal. |
| 500 kYA | Volcanoes create Hawaii island. Homo erectus (Choukoutien, China) uses charcoal to control fire, though they may not know how to create or start it. |
| 400 kYA | Eastern gorillas (Gorilla beringei) diverge into the eastern lowland( G. beringei graueri) and mountain (G. beringei beringei) sub-species. Giant deer Megaloceros giganteus Ireland, the antlers together span about 3.6m or larger, extinct by 9.5KYA. |
| 355 kYA | Three 1.5m tall Homo heidelbergensis scrambled down Roccamonfina volcano in Southern Italy, leaving the earliest Homo footprints, which were made before the powdery volcanic ash solidified. |
| 300 kYA | Creation of 900m wide Wolfe Creek Crater in Western Australia's Wolfe Creek Crater National Park. |
| 250 kYA | Polar Bear( newest species of bear) evolves from an isolated high latitude population of Brown Bears. |
| 195 kYA | Omo1, Omo2 (Ethiopia, Omo river) are the earliest Homo sapiens |
| 160 kYA | Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens idaltu) in Ethiopia, Awash River, Herto village, practise mortuary rituals and butcher hippos. Their dead bodies are later covered by volcanic rocks. |
| 150 kYA | Birth of the mitochondrial Eve in Africa. She is the last female ancestor common to all mitochondrial lineages in humans alive today. |
| 130 kYA | Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man) evolves from Homo heidelbergensis and lives in Europe and the Middle East, makes magic, bury the dead and care for the sick. Have hyoid bone (60,000 yrs ago, Kebara cave, Israel) used for speech in modern humans. (Today humans use roughly 6000 spoken languages). Use spear probably for stabbing rather than throwing. FOXP2 (gene associated with the development of speech) appears. |
| 100 kYA | The first anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) appear in Africa some time before this, they are also evolved from Homo heidelbergensis. Homo sapiens (humans) live in South Africa (Klasies River Mouth) and Israel (Qafzeh and Skhul), probably with Neanderthal. Modern humans enter Asia via two routes: one north through the Middle East, and another route further south from Ethiopia, via the Red Sea and southern Arabia. (See: human evolution). Mutation causes skin color changes in order to absorb optimal UV light for different geographical latitudes. Modern "race" formation begins. African populations remain more 'diverse' in their genetic makeup than all other humans, due to only a subset of their population (and therefore only a subset of their diversity) leaving Africa. For e.g. mtDNA shows that an individual with English ancestors is more similar genetically to an individual with Japanese ancestors than are two individuals drawn from two African populations. |
| 82.5 kYA | Humans in Zaire do fishing using sharp blades spears made from animal bones. |
| 80 kYA | Humans make bone harpoons in Katanda, Democratic Rebublic of Congo. |
| 74 kYA | Supervolcanoic eruption in Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia cause Homo sapien population to crash to 2,000. 6 year nuclear winter, then a 1000 year ice-age. Volcanic ash up to 5m deep covered India and Pakistan. |
| 70 kYA | The most recent ice age, the Wisconsin glaciation, begins. Humans in Blombos caves in South Africa make tools from bones, show symbolic thinking by creating ochre paintings (precursor to linguistic ability). They also collect and pierce holes through sea shells to make necklaces. Giant beavers (Castoroides ohioensis, Toronto, Canada) largest rodents length up to 2.5 m dies out 10,000 years ago. |
| 60 kYA | Birth of Y-chromosomal Adam in Africa. He is the last male human from whom all current human Y chromosomes are descended. |
| 50 kYA | Modern humans expand from Asia to Australia(to become today's aborigines) and Europe. Expansion along the coasts happens faster than expansion inland. Woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquus) in Britain. |
| 40 kYA | Humans do painting and hunt mammoths in Cro-Magnon, France. They have extraordinary cognitive powers, and become predators/hunters at the top of the food chain. Extinction of gigantic marsupials in Australia, probably due to humans. The result is the lack of domesticated animals, partially leading to the relatively primitive lifestyle of the humans there later when compared to the rest of the world. |
| 37 kYA | Creation of 1.2km wide Meteor Barringer Crater in Arizona. Due to the heat of the impact, sedimentary rock lying in-situ transformed into metamorphic rock. |
| 32 kYA | First sculpture found in Vogelherd, Germany. First (bird bone) flute found in France. Stone tools in Kota Tampan, Malaysia. |
| 30 kYA | Modern humans enter North America from Siberia in numerous waves, some later waves across the Bering land bridge, but early waves probably by island-hopping across the Aleutians. At least two of the first waves had left few or no genetic descendants among Americans by the time Europeans arrived across the Atlantic Ocean. Humans reach Solomons. Humans move into Japan. Bow and arrows used in Sahara (grassland). Fired ceramics animal models made in Moravia (Czech). |
| 28 kYA | Oldest painting in Africa, Apollo 11 Rock Shelter in Namibia. |
| 27 kYA | Neanderthals die out leaving Homo sapiens and Homo floresiensis as the only living species of the genus Homo. Czech invented textile and pressed weaving patterns into pieces of clay before firing them. |
| 25 kYA | Throwing sticks for hunting animals made from mammoth tusk (Poland). |
| 23 kYA | Venus of Willendorf, a small statuette of a female figure, discovered at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, Austria dates from this era. |
| 20 kYA | Humans leave foot and hand prints in Tibetan plateau. Oil lamps made from animal fats on shells used in caves in Grotte de la Mouthe, France. Bone needles used to sew animal hides. (Shandingdong Man, China). Microblade culture (Northern China). Mammoth bones used to build houses (Russia). |
| 18 kYA | Homo floresiensis existed in the Liang Bua limestone cave on Flores, remote Indonesian island. |
| 15 kYA | The last Ice Age ends. Sea levels across the globe rise, flooding many coastal areas, and separating former mainland areas into islands. Japan separates from Asia mainland. Siberia separates from Alaska. Tasmania separates from Australia. Java island forms. Sarawak, Malaysia and Indonesia separates.One group of humans in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East develop agriculture and, as a result of the benefits it brings, permanent settlements and cities. These appear first in what is now Iraq. This process of food production, coupled later with the domestication of available animals caused a massive increase in human population that has continued to the present. In this time, also the cave paintings of Lascaux and Altamira were produced. |
| 11.5 kYA | Extinction of the Sabertooth. |
| 11 kYA | Human population reached 5 million. Extinction of woolly mammoth. Domestication (a kind of artificial selection) of dogs ( first domesticated animal) from Grey Wolf subspecies( Canis lupus pallipes). All modern dogs today (5 main groups, about 400 breeds) belong to a single species Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris. |
| 10 kYA | Sahara is green with rivers, lakes, cattles, crocodiles and monsoons. Japan's hunter-gatherer Jomon culture creates world earliest pottery. Humans reach Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America, the last continental region to be inhabited by humans (excluding Antarctica). |
| 4 kYA | Recorded history begins. |
| 1 AD | Human population reached 150 million. |
| 1835 AD | Human population reached 1 billion. |
| 1969 AD | Homo sapiens walk on the moon. |
| 1997 AD | Human population reached 6 billion. |