Exploring the history of the Earth

By miketimeline
  • 4600 BCE

    Formation of Earth

    Earth formed when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in to become the third planet from the Sun
  • 3950 BCE

    Oldest rocks yet discovered

    The oldest material of terrestrial origin that has been dated is a zircon mineral
  • 3500 BCE

    First bacteria

    Bacteria have existed from very early in the history of life on Earth.
  • 1500 BCE

    Significant oxygen in atmosphere

    atmospheric oxygen is essential for higher forms of life (living organisms with many cells) to exist
  • 1000 BCE

    Trace animal fossils

    Our understanding of when the very first animals started living on land is helped by identifying trace fossils
  • 505 BCE

    First fish

    First fish may be the "ancestor to all vertebrates"
  • 438 BCE

    Early land plants

    Early land plants evolved from a group of green algae
  • 370 BCE

    First amphibians

    Amphibians evolved from a lobe-finned fish ancestor.
  • 360 BCE

    Start of supercontinent Pangaea (all continents pushed together)

    It remained in its fully assembled state for some 100 million years before it began to break up.
  • 310 BCE

    First reptiles

    the earliest reptiles evolved from a sauropsida ancestor
  • 240 BCE

    Dinosaurs appear

    Dinosaurs were a successful group of animals that rule the world until a giant asteroid slammed into Earth
  • 225 BCE

    First mammals

    All living mammals today, including us, descend from the one line that survived.
  • 225 BCE

    Break-up of Pangaea begins

    it eventually forming the modern continents and the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
  • 200 BCE

    First birds

    Archaeopteryx is considered by many to be the first bird
  • 140 BCE

    Flowering plants appear

    Fossil evidence indicates that flowering plants first appeared in the Lower Cretaceous
  • 60 BCE

    Massive volcanic activity marking opening of north Atlantic Ocean

    marked the whole of the North Atlantic region
  • 60 BCE

    Formation of Rocky Mountains

    a number of plates began sliding underneath the North American plate. resulting in a broad belt of mountains running down western North America.
  • 50 BCE

    Major deformation of Alps and Himalayas

    The Alps arose from Europe's collisions with Africa; the Himalayas arose from India's collision with Asia
  • 2 BCE

    Earliest humans

    One of the earliest known humans is Homo habilis, or “handy man,” lived in Eastern and Southern Africa
  • 1 CE

    Hawaii (big island) eruptions start

    During the past 3,000 years, Mauna Loa has erupted lava flows, on average, every 6 years.