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The extreme conditions on the young, hot planet forbade the development of life for the first few months of its existence
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Meanwhile, a protective atmosphere that includes a layer of ozone is forming, allowing the the first bacteria and blue algae to evolve and shielding the planet from searing solar radiation
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Life on the planet was still moving, one might say, at a snail’s pace, only in December, more than eleven months into our year, do we find reptiles crawling about.
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Reptiles grow tremendously and the Age of the Dinosaurs begins
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Meanwhile, the planet’s continents have been forming, drifting apart, and reforming. The last supercontinent to congeal, Pangaea, begins to break apart to form our current seven continents at the end of the second week of December.
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Mammals now grow in size and diversity.
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One particular mammal, the first hominid, known as Australopithecus afarensis, begins to walk upright
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With an hour to spare before the year expires, our stone age ancestors learn to control fire
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Eight minutes before midnight, Homo sapiens, the contemporary human race, arrives on the scene
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Christopher Columbus initiates the process of modern globalization at 4 seconds before midnight.
At this point there are about 500 million homo sapiens occupying the planet. Before the end of the day, that number will increase 14-fold. -
The Industrial Revolution Sets the world on a rapid transformation
