AndaBien.com

Evolution Timeline — From first life-forms to homo sapiens

• The background indicates inches and feet.
• 1/20th in. = roughly 100 thousand years. (108,000)
• 1 inch = about 2 million years. (2,160,000)
• 1 foot = about 26 million years. (25,920,000)
• The whole page is about 135 feet wide, almost half a football field, representing 3.5 billion years. (3,500,000,000)

To really gain some perspective, pay attention to the bottom scroll bar.

For more information, move your cursor over the bars.

This is best viewed with Firefox, or some other standards compliant browser. If you are viewing this page with Internet Explorer 6, the right end of the chart may seem confusing.

To make this more accessible to the average person, I have simplified the presentation of the evolutionary record. Students of paleontology will notice many omissions.

Zoom in by a factor of 1,000 on the Hominid Timeline, from walking upright to the present day.

• Cellular Life (Invertebrates)
• Fish
• Amphibians
• Reptiles
• Birds
• Mammals
• Primates

First Life (Prokaryotes), photosynthesis

Eukaryotes - multicelled organisms

Cambrian Explosion, hard-bodied organisms (Not teenyboppers, yet)

Ordovician Period - 1st fish vertebrates

Millipedes - 1st land animals

Devonian Period (Age of Fishes)

Mississippian Era - 1st amphibians

Pennsylvanian Era - 1st reptiles

Roaches and termites have evolved

Jurassic Era, 1st birds

Tertiary Era (Age of Mammals)

Primitive monkeys

Proconsul, 1st apes

Ramapithecus

Chimpanzee & hominid lines diverge

Hominid line begins

Australopithecus walks upright

Homo habilis makes stone tools

1st use of fire for cooking

Homo erectus, crafted tools

Homo erectus migrates out of Africa

1st artificial shelter, Europe

Neanderthals

Homo sapiens

Zoom in 1000x
on the
hominid timeline

Notes

• The theory of evolution is not a fact; it is a scientific theory, but the theory is well supported by abundant facts. Some people claim there is substantial debate among scientists about its validity. This is simply not true.
• Evolution itself, as a process that occurred, is acknowledged as a scientific fact.
• I notice that there is an amazing life force in the Universe, and I am sure it is not limited by our inability to comprehend it. Personally, I think the process of evolution emphasizes the magnificence of life-energy, or creationary power. Call it whatever you like.
• One of the things that I am most amazed about is how long the dinosaurs endured on earth, and how briefly humans have lasted, so far.
• Many of these dates, but not all, came from “Smithsonian Timelines of the Ancient World: A Visual Chronology from the Origins of Life to AD 1500”.
• My inspiration to display the timeline this way came from www.troybrophy.com/projects/solarsystem/index.html.
• Converting Years into Pixels
  • My reduction factor (RF) is 30,000 years/pixel
  • 3.5 billion years / RF = 116,667 pixels
  • 116,667 pixels / 72 pixels/inch = 1,620 inches
  • 1,620 inches / 12 inches/foot = 135 feet
• Here is the data I used.
• Gratuitous link to SimplyFULL.com, my web design service.