Important events in the history of life (text-only

version)
A timeline can provide additional information about life's history not visible on an evolutionary
tree. These include major geologic events, climate changes, radiation of organisms into new
habitats, changes in ecosystems, changes in continental positions, and major extinctions.
Explore the timeline below to view some of the major events in life's history.

Years
Event
ago

Anatomically modern humans evolve. Seventy thousand years later, their

130,000
descendents create cave paintings — early expressions of consciousness.

In Africa, an early hominid, affectionately named "Lucy" by scientists, lives. The

4 million
ice ages begin, and many large mammals go extinct.

A massive asteroid hits the Yucatan Peninsula, and ammonites and non-avian
65 million
dinosaurs go extinct. Birds and mammals are among the survivors.

As the continents drift toward their present positions, the earliest flowers evolve,
130 million
and dinosaurs dominate the landscape. In the sea, bony fish diversify.

225 million Dinosaurs and mammals evolve. Pangea has begun to break apart.

Over 90% of marine life and 70% of terrestrial life go extinct during the Earth's
248 million
largest mass extinction. Ammonites are among the survivors.

The supercontinent called Pangea forms. Conifer-like forests, reptiles, and

250 million
synapsids (the ancestors of mammals) are common.

Four-limbed vertebrates move onto the land as seed plants and large forests
360 million
appear. The Earth's oceans support vast reef systems.

Land plants evolve, drastically changing Earth's landscape and creating new
420 million
habitats.

Arthropods move onto the land. Their descendants evolve into scorpions, spiders,
450 million
mites, and millipedes.
Fish-like vertebrates evolve. Invertebrates, such as trilobites, crinoids,
500 million
brachiopids, and cephalopods, are common in the oceans.

Multi-cellular marine organisms are common. The diverse assortment of life

555 million
includes bizarre-looking animals like Wiwaxia.

Unicellular life evolves. Photosynthetic bacteria begin to release oxygen into the
3.5 billion
atmosphere.

3.8 billion Replicating molecules (the precursors of DNA) form.

4.6 billion The Earth forms and is bombarded by meteorites and comets.
The history of life: looking at the patterns
The central ideas of evolution are that life has a history — it has changed over time — and that
different species share common ancestors.

Here, you can explore how evolutionary change and evolutionary relationships are represented in
"family trees," how these trees are constructed, and how this knowledge affects biological
classification. You will also find a timeline of evolutionary history and information on some
specific events in the history of life: human evolution and the origin of life.
4600mya – The Earth forms and is bombarded by meteorites and comets.
3800mya – Replicating molecules (the precursor of DNA) form.
3500mya – Unicellular life evolves. Photosynthetic bacteria begin to release oxygen into the
atmosphere.

555 – Multi-cellular marine organisms are common. The diverse assortment of life includes bizarre
looking animals like Wiwaxia.
500 – Fish-like vertebrates evolve, and invertebrates, such as trilobites, crinoids, brachiopods, and
cephalopods, are common in the oceans.
450 – Arthropods move onto the land. Their descendants evolve into scorpions, spiders, mites, and
millipedes.
420 – Land plants evolve, drastically changing Earth’s landscape and creating new habitats.
360 – Four-limbed vertebrates move onto the land as seed plants and large forests appear. The earth’s
oceans support vast reef systems.

250mya – The supercontinent called Pangaea forms. Conifer-like forests, reptiles, synapsids (the
ancestors of mammals) are common.
248mya – Over 90% of marine life and 70% of terrestrial life go extinct during the Earth’s largest mass
extinction. Ammomite are among the survivors.
225 – Dinosaurs and mammals evolve. Pangaea has already begun to break apart.
130 – As the continents drift towards their present positions, the earliest flowers evolve, and
dinosaurs dominate the landscape. In the sea, bony fish diversify.
65 – A massive asteroid hits the Yucatan Peninsula, and ammonites and non-avian dinosaurs go
extinct. Birds and mammals are among the survivors.
4 – In Africa, an early hominid, affectionately named “Lucy” by scientists, lives. The ice ages begin,
and many large mammals go extinct.
130kya – Anatomically modern humans evolve. Seventy thousand years later, their descendants create
caves paintings-early expressions of consciousness.
1. The Late Heavy Bombardment ends. About 4 to 3.8 billion years ago a period of
intense comet and asteroid bombardment is thought to have peppered all the planets
including the Earth.
2. No.
3. The name "cyanobacteria" comes from the color of the bacteria (Greek: κυανός, translit.
kyanós, lit. 'blue'). Cyanobacteria, which are prokaryotes, are also called "blue-green
algae", though the term "algae" in modern usage is restricted to eukaryotes.
4.
An asteroid bombardment of Earth nearly 4 billion years ago may have actually been a
boon to early life on the planet, instead of wiping it out or preventing it from originating,
a new study suggests.

Asteroids, comets and other impactors from space have been suggested as the causes
behind some of the world's great mass extinctions, including the disappearance of the
dinosaurs.
Impact evidence from lunar samples, meteorites and the pockmarked surfaces of the
inner planets paints a picture of a violent environment in the solar system during the
Hadean Eon 4.5 to 3.8 billion years ago, particularly through a cataclysmic event known
as the Late Heavy Bombardment about 3.9 million years ago.

No such record exists for Earth because tectonic processes have folded ancient craters
back into the interior, but scientists assume our planet took the same pummeling.

Although many believe the bombardment would have sterilized Earth, the new study
uses a computer model to show it would have melted only a fraction of Earth's crust,
and that microbes — if any existed in the first 500 million years or so of Earth's
existence — could well have survived in subsurface habitats, insulated from the
destruction.

"These new results push back the possible beginnings of life on Earth to well before the
bombardment period 3.9 billion years ago," said CU-Boulder Research Associate Oleg
Abramov. "It opens up the possibility that life emerged as far back as 4.4 billion years
ago, about the time the first oceans are thought to have formed."

Modeling the bombardment

Because physical evidence of Earth's early bombardment has been erased by weathering
and plate tectonics over the eons, Abramov and his colleagues used data from Apollo
moon rocks, impact records from the moon, Mars and Mercury, and previous theoretical
studies to build three-dimensional computer models that replicate the bombardment.

The researchers plugged in asteroid size, frequency and distribution estimates into their
simulations to chart the damage to the Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment,
which is thought to have lasted for 20 million to 200 million years.

The 3-D models allowed the researchers to monitor temperatures beneath individual
craters to assess heating and cooling of the crust following large impacts in order to
evaluate habitability, said Abramov. The study, detailed in the May 21 issue of the
journal Nature, indicated that less than 25 percent of Earth's crust would have melted
during such a bombardment.
The team even cranked up the intensity of the asteroid barrage in their simulations by
10-fold — an event that could have vaporized Earth's oceans.

"Even under the most extreme conditions we imposed, Earth would not have been
completely sterilized by the bombardment," Abramov said.

Instead, hydrothermal vents may have provided sanctuaries for extreme, heat-loving
microbes known as "hyperthermophilic bacteria" following bombardments, said study
team member Stephen Mojzsis. Even if life had not emerged by 3.9 billion years ago,
such underground havens could still have provided a "crucible" for life's origin on Earth,
he added.

The modeling work was supported by the NASA Astrobiology Program's Exobiology and
Evolutionary Biology Department and the NASA Postdoctoral Program.

Dawn of life

The researchers concluded subterranean microbes living at temperatures ranging from

175 degrees to 230 degrees Fahrenheit (79 degrees to 110 degrees Celsius) would
have flourished during the Late Heavy Bombardment. The models indicate that
underground habitats for such microbes increased in volume and duration as a result of
the massive impacts.

Some extreme microbial species on Earth today — including so-called "unboilable

bugs" discovered in hydrothermal vents in Yellowstone National Park — thrive at 250 F
(120 C).

Geologic evidence suggests that life on Earth was present at least 3.83 billion years
ago, Mojzsis said.

"So it is not unreasonable to suggest there was life on Earth before 3.9 billion years
ago," he added. "We know from the geochemical record that our planet was eminently
habitable by that time, and this new study sews up a major problem in origins of life
studies by sweeping away the necessity for multiple origins of life on Earth."

The results also support the potential for microbial life on other planets like Mars and
perhaps even rocky, Earth-like planets in other solar systems that may have been
resurfaced by impacts, Abramov said.

"Exactly when life originated on Earth is a hotly debated topic," says NASA's
Astrobiology Discipline Scientist Michael H. New. "These findings are significant
because they indicate life could have begun well before the [Late Heavy Bombardment],
during the so-called Hadean Eon of Earth's history 3.8 billion to 4.5 billion years ago."