4 Billion Years of Life Creation

 

Evolution of the Universe and Life on Earth

 

 

Astronomical Big Bang 13.8 billion years

1.   4,500 – 4,400 million years ago (Mya). Accretion of Earth

2.   4,200 million years ago (Mya) Atmosphere and oceans form

3.   4,000 million years ago (Mya) Prebiotic chemistry became possible

4.   3,800 million years ago RNA world shown by the first chemical fossil available (viruses)

5.   3,600 million years ago the first DNA protein life came into existence

6.   3,500 million years ago LUCA: Archaea / Bacteria spilt and also photosynthesis (autotrophy) began

7.   2,700 – 1,900 million years ago the first eukaryotes / sexual reproduction became possible

8.   1,000 Mya ?

9.   650 Mya Metazoans

10.                575 Oldest large organisms

11.                555 Mya Oldest sponge fossils

12.                542 – 488 Mya Cambrian Radiation

13.                525 Mya Earliest vertebrates

14.                440 Mya First vascular land plants

15.                425 Mya First jawed vertebrates

16.                420 Mya Earliest terrestrial animals

17.                396 Mya First insects

18.                365 Mya Plants evolves seeds and first tetrapods

19.                354 Mya Insects flight

20.                350 Mya First land-swelling vertebrates

21.                240 Mya First dinosaurs

22.                210 Mya First mammals

23.                200 Mya Pangea breakup begins

24.                150 Mya Archaeopteryx / birds flight

25.                140 Mya Flowering plants

26.                128 – 124 Dinosaurs flight

27.                125 Mya Mammalian gliding flight

28.                105 – 95 Mya Gondwanaland breakup

29.                90- 80 Mya Formation of Galapagos geological hot spot

30.                57 – 53 Mya Whale ancestor

31.                55 Mya Australia breaks away from Antarctica

32.                51 Mya Mammalian powered flights (bats)

33.                50 Mya First fossil Equidae

34.                45.6 Whale ancestor

35.                40 Mya Primate order diverges

36.                35 Mya First grasses evolve

37.                30 Mya Old-world / new-world monkey spilt

38.                25 Mya Old-world monkey / apes split. Also Drosophila melanogaster / D. obscura split

39.                15 Mya Apes migrate to Asia

40.                6 -7 Mya Sahelanthropus

41.                5 - 4 Mya Common ancestors of chimps and humans. Formation of current Galapagos Islands

42.                3.6 Mya Panama Isthmus rise / Lucy fossil / Australopithecus afarensis footprints

43.                2.5 Tool use

44.                1.8 Mya Homo habilis out of Africa

45.                1.6 Mya Homo erectus in Asia

46.                600,000 years ago Human / Neanderthal spilt

47.                500,000 years ago Homo erectus use fire

48.                355,000 Homo heidelbergensis footprints

49.                200,000 years ago Anatomically modern human

50.                250,000 – 160,000 Homo sapiens

51.                120,000 Homo language possible

52.                100,000 years ago Wolf / dog split

53.                79,000 – 15,000 years ago Start of Wisconsin glaciations

54.                50,000 years ago. Humans migrate from Asia to Australia

55.                45,000 years ago. Megafauna extinction in Australia

56.                30,000 years ago. Human migration from Asia to North America

57.                14,000 – 10,000 years ago. Domestication of dog and Megafauna extinction in North America

58.                12,000 years ago. Early agriculture

59.                8,000 years ago Domestication of cattle

60.                6,000 years ago Domestication of horse

61.                3,000 years ago Iron tools

 

Major extinctions of life took place during:

62.                445 Mya in the Late Ordovician

63.                375 Mya Late Devonian

64.                251 Mya End Permian

65.                200 Mya Late Triassic

66.                65 Mya Cretaceous-Tertiary

Reference:

 

Evolution by:

 

Nicholas H. Barton

Derek E.G. Briggs

Jonathan A. Eisen

David B. Goldstein

Nipam H. Patel