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- It is probable that the first life was developed in this year, based on RNA and not DNA.
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- The oldest fossils of single-celled organisms date from here.
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- Viruses are presented.
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- The Great Oxidation Event.
- Waste produced by photosynthetic cyanobacteria starts to build up in the atmosphere.
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- Earth freezes over.
- Lack of volcanic activity.
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- First fossil evidence of cyanobacteria and photosynthesis.
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- Eukaryotic cells come into being.
- Later, eukaryotic cells engulfed photosynthetic bacteri.
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- The eukaryotes divide into three groups:
- The ancestor of modern plants.
- Fungi.
- Animals (split into different lineages).
- The eukaryotes divide into three groups:
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- The first multicellular life develops.
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- Multicellular animals divide into, essentially the sponges, and everything else.
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- The planet freezes again.
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-The comb jellies split from the other multicellular animals.
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- Some animal are moving under their own power.
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- The first true vertebrate appears.
- It is probably similar to a lamprey, hagfish or lancelet.
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- Cambrian explosion: appearance of many of the major phyla that make up modern animal life.
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- Explosion on animal life on earth.
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- Animals were exploring the land. -The first animals to do so were probably euthycarcinoids
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- Plants begin conolising the land.
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- 85 percent of marine species became extinct.
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- The bony fish split into two major groups: the lobe-finned fish with bones in their fleshy fins, and the ray-finned fish.
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Lungfish, a legendary living fossil, follow the coelacanth by splitting from the other lobe-finned fish, it counts with a sophisticated pair of lungs.
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- The oldest known insect appeared around this time
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The first four-legged animals, or tetrapods, evolve from intermediate species, probably in shallow freshwater habitats.
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-The first major split occurs in the tetrapods, with the amphibians branching off from the others.
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-The pelycosaurs, the first major group of synapsid animals, dominate the land.
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- 95 percent of marine species, 82 percent of genera, and 51 percent of families of animals became extinct
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Some early dinosaurs are already evolving into birds at this time.
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The Triassic period ends, a mass extinction strikes, dinosaurs take over from their sauropsid cousins.
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The first split occurs in the early mammal population. The monotremes, a group of mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth, break apart from the others.
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- The impact of an asteroid which provoked the extinction of 76 percent of species, 47 percent of genera, and 16 percent of families.
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- The primates split into two groups, known as the haplorrhines (dry-nosed primates) and the strepsirrhines (wet-nosed primates).
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- A sudden rise in greenhouse gases sends temperatures soaring and transforms the planet, wiping out many species in the depths of the sea.
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- First primitive primates evolve.
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- Apes split from the Old World monkeys.
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- First gorillas evolve.
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- Humans diverge from their closest relatives; the chimpanzees and bonobos.
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- Orrorin tugenensis, oldest human ancestor thought to have walked on two legs.
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- Australopithecines appear. They walk upright on two legs. First human ancestors to live on the savannah
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- Paranthropus, live in woods and grasslands, have massive jaws for chewing on roots and vegetation. Becomes extinct 1.2 million years ago.
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- Homo habilis appear.
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- Homo ergaster.
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- Homo erectus.
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- Homo Heidelbergensis. Similar brain capacity to modern humans
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- Homo sapiens appear.
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- Homo Floresiensis. Stand just over 1 meter tall.
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- The Sumerians of Mesopotamia develop the wold's first civilization.