70-1 Million Years Ago
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70Mil BC The triangular continental
plate we know as the subcontinent was once part of Antarctica. Some
seventy million years ago it began drifting northward toward Asia.
(NH, 5/96, p.10)
70Mil BC In 2004 scientists reported the discovery in
Antarctica of a small meat-eating therapod dinosaur from this time.
(SFC, 2/27/04, p.A2)
70Mil BC In 2008 a Canadian researcher reported what
is believed to be North America's smallest dinosaur, a
70-million-year-old chicken-sized beast that was also unusual for its
diet of insects. Its bones were excavated near Red Deer, in fossil-rich
Alberta, in 2002 among about 20 Albertosaurus remains, and went
unnoticed.
(AP, 9/24/08)
70Mil BC The North Atlantic and Greenland ridges,
Iceland and other islands are all made up of rocks younger than 70
million years. This date seems to mark the time till which Laurasia was
intact.
(DD-EVTT, p.202)
70Mil BC In Madagascar A frog lived in Madagascar
about this time that grew to 16 inches in length and weighed 10 pounds.
In 1993 paleontologist David Krause began to find fossils of the frog.
(SFC, 2/19/08, p.A8)
70Mil BC The giant Mosasaurus reptile head, found in
the Netherlands near Maastricht in 1794, roamed the seas about this
time.
(NYT, 6/7/96, p.A4)
70Mil BC Skulls of Mongolian fossil birds from this
time were found c1997 in the Gobi desert. They were named Shuvuui
deserti. The skeleton was that of a bird but the stubby arms indicated
that it could not have flown. A fossil bird from Madagascar that lived
about this time was also reported found and named Rahona ostromi.
(SFC, 3/19/98, p.A1,9)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A8)
70Mil BC In 2006 scientists in Mongolia uncovered a
chunk of sandstone dating to this time, which contained the almost
complete skeleton of a Tarbosaurus dinosaur, related to the giant
carnivorous Tyrannosaurus.
(AP, 7/24/08)
70-65 Million The Wangshi Formation in China’s
Shandong Province contains a site with T-Rex dinosaur eggs (Tarbosaurus
to the Chinese). The eggs measure as much as 18 inches long.
Tyrannosaurus (terrible lizard) was first identified in 1905 by H.F.
Osborn.
(SFME, 5/7/95, P.5)
70-65 Million Boundary of the Cretaceous-Tertiary
zones. This is the period in which the dinosaurs become extinct. A
theory by Louis Alvarez and others in 1980AD proposes that the earth
was impacted by a large meteor around this time that caused worldwide
darkness, massive deforestation from fire, an enormous amount of soot,
prolonged cold, and a severe depletion of atmospheric oxygen that
lasted months. Lack of sunlight would have also caused the death of
photoplankton in the oceans and an oxygen drop in the oceans. The
theory is supported by a thin layer of dark clay containing iridium, an
element more common in meteors than on the surface of the earth, that
has been found in a number of locations around the world.
(TMP, KCTS-Video, 1987)
70-65 Mil The earliest fossil of a modern land bird
was found in eastern Montana in the 1960s. More primitive birds with
teeth did not survive the Great Extinction.
(SFC, 11/5/98, p.A6)
70-2 Million Tertiary period. The Atlantic widened,
the Rockies were raised, the Himalayas were formed, and the Alps formed
in that order.
(DD-EVTT, p.21)
Early Tertiary rocks form some of
the ridges that encircle Mt. Diablo, Ca.
(GH-ADH, p.23)
70 Million-present. Cainozoic Era. Age of
mammals, marsupials and placentals, begins.
(DD-EVTT, p.21,295)
The Cainozoic
might be called the ‘Age of Bony Fishes.’
(DD-EVTT, p.296)
The squid,
octopus and nautilus are the only Cainozoic representatives of the once
great house of the cephalopods.
(DD-EVTT, p.294)
68Mil BC Fossils of a Tyrannosaurus rex from this
time were found in the Hell Creek formation of Montana in 2003. In 2005
scientists reported that a femur contained soft tissue. In 2007
researchers sequenced amino acids in the tissue and reported that they
matched those of modern chickens. Some sequences matched those of a
newt, a frog and several other animals. In 2008 researchers said modern
bacterial colonies had infiltrated cavities in the bone.
(SFC, 3/25/05, p.A2)(SFC, 4/13/07, p.A6)(SFC,
7/31/08, p.A15)
67.5Mil BC A pulse of volcanic eruptions
began about this time in the Deccan area of India. A
2nd pulse took place around 65 million BC and a 3rd about 100,000 years
later. These were later believed to have contributed to the extinction
of dinosaurs due to their heqvy release of sulfur dioxide.
(SFC, 12/16/08, p.A4)
67Mil BC The remains of the hadrosaur, dubbed Dakota
and dating to about this time, were found in 1999 by Tyler Lyson (17),
on his uncle's ranch in North Dakota. The partially mummified hadrosaur
may be the most complete dinosaur ever found, with intact skin that
shows evidence of stripes and perhaps soft tissue.
(Reuters, 12/3/07)(SFC, 12/3/07, p.A7)
67-64 Million Immense volcano eruptions occurred
around the world.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.B1)
66 Million Early primates made their appearance about
this time.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A17)
66 million Scientists in 2000 reported that the 66
million-year-old plant-eating dinosaur, Thescelosaurus (marvelous
lizard), had a 4-chambered heart and was likely warm-blooded.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A1)
65.7 Million Some animal species began to suffer and
a few went extinct.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.B1)
65.3Mil BC About this time a comet struck the area of
the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula and created a crater, known today as
Chicxulub, about 150-180 miles (200 km) in diameter. The area at this
time was covered by ocean. The asteroid was initially believed to have
been 6-12 miles (10 km) in diameter. It left a thin layer of iridium in
rock strata around the world. Evidence for this was gathered by Luis
Alvarez. The asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, about 80% of the world’s
plants species and all animals bigger than a cat. In 2002 it also was
estimated to have wiped out 55-60% of the plant-eating insects. A high
oxygen level may have contributed to a worldwide firestorm. In 1997
Walter Alvarez published "T. Rex and the Crater of Doom," an account of
this critical event. The impact was estimated at 5 billion times
greater than the atomic bombs of WW II. In 2007 US and Czech
researchers used computer simulations to calculate that there was a 90
percent probability that the collision of two asteroids in 160 Mil BC
was the event that precipitated the Chicxulub disaster. In 2008 new
research using an osmium isotope indicated that the responsible
asteroid was about 2.5 miles wide.
(SFC, 2/18/96, p.A3)(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.7)(NH,
9/97, p.85)(SFC, 2/25/02, p.A4)(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.B1)(Reuters,
9/5/07)(SFC, 4/12/08, p.A4)
65 Million The K-T boundary during which the
Cretaceous gave way to the Tertiary.
(SFC, 12/20/00, p.A4)
65Mil BC Argentinasaurus, a 120 foot, 100 ton
dinosaur lived during this time in South America.
(http://tinyurl.com/r6kp2)
65 Million Placental mammals, 16 or so orders,
started to diversify after the demise of the dinosaurs.
(Pac. Disc., summer, ‘96, p.46)
65Mil BC Tyrannosaurus rex, a 40-50 foot, 6 ton
dinosaur teeth up to 13 inches long lived during this time in North
America. A 50-foot female T. rex of about this age was discovered on a
Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota by Sue Hendrickson in 1990.
The government seized the skeleton in 1992 and in 1997 it was put up
for auction by Sotheby’s on behalf of Maurice Williams, a Sioux Indian
and owner of the ranch where it was found. The proceeds were to be held
in trust by the government.
(http://tinyurl.com/r6kp2)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A13)
65 Million T. rex "Sue" ate a Duckbill dinosaur about
this time and was herself mauled by another T. rex in South Dakota. She
died in a slow moving stream near the shore of a vast inland sea that
bisected North America, and was buried under a protective layer of sand.
(SFC,12/897, p.A4)
65 Million In 2003 US and Indian scientists reported
on a new dinosaur species from western India from this time. They named
it Rajasaurus narmadensis, or "Regal reptile from the Narmada," after
the Narmada River region where the bones were found.
(AP, 8/13/03)
65 Million In the early Paleocene a branch that led
to living Cetacea (whales) separated from the Condylartha branch
("knuckle-joints") of land mammals with hooves that led to Artiodactyla
(even-toed hoofed mammals).
(LSA, Spg/97, p.7)
c65 Million In 1998 fossilized fragments of a tiny
shrew-like mammal, Batodonoides, were reported from north-central
Wyoming. It weighed as little as 1.3 grams.
(SFC, 10/1/98, p.A2)
65-64.995 Mil A dead zone that lasted about 5,000
years resulted from the impact of the asteroid that struck Earth was
indicated in 1997 seabed drill sediments.
(SFC, 2/18/96, p.A3)
65-65.9 Mil Over some 100,000 years dinosaurs and
other species slowly died out.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.B1)
65-55 Million The Paleocene Epoch.
(ADH, GHMC,1979, p.24)
65-55 Million Road cuts west of Martinez: sandstone
and shale. Coast Highway between San Pedro Point and Devil’s Slide:
shale and sandstone. Pt. Reyes and Pt. Lobos: conglomerate, sandstone,
shale.
(GH-ADH, p.25)
65-21 Million Paleocene to early Miocene. A long
period of erosion worked across the west side of the Great Valley
(California). Within the valley early Tertiary seas fluctuated widely.
A seaway, (the Markley Strait) may have connected the open sea with the
Great Valley. It is possible that the Coast Ranges consisted of a
complex of islands at this time.
(GH-ADH, p.36)
TERTIARY PERIOD 65-1.8 Million Years Ago
(www.paleoportal.org/time_space/period.php?period_id=8)
64-40 Million Fossils from Ellesmere Island in the
Canadian Arctic (480 miles from the North Pole) indicate one time warm
temperatures with coal-like fallen redwoods, large lizards and
constrictor snakes, tortoises, alligators, tapirs, and flying lemurs.
(NG, 6/1988, 757)
CENOZOIC ERA 65 Million Years Ago
to the Present
(www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/cenozoic/cenozoic.html)
Paleocene (ancient-recent) Epoch
63-58 Million Years Ago
(E&IH, 1973, p.42)(LSA, Spg/97, p.6)
62 Million In 2005 scientist at UC Berkeley reported
evidence of periodic extinctions occurring every 62 million years.
(SFC, 3/10/05, p.A7)
60 Million During the last 60 or so million years
the break-up of Pangaea continued with continents drifting northwards
and for the most part away from one another. The shapes of the
continents as we know them today began to clarify and the great
Alpine-Himalayan mountains rose from Tethys. In the Americas the
Cordilleran ranges of the west were pushed up and volcanoes rumbled.
For the first time New Zealand can be seen as a separate entity, broken
off as Australia moved northwards.
(DD-EVTT, p.204)
60 Million Fleas evolved as highly specialized
bloodsucking parasites at least 60 million years ago.
(NG, 5/88, p.675)
60 Million The Fossil Butte Member of the Green River
Formation in southwest Wyoming represents the remains of an extinct
tropical lake community that formed about this time and lasted about 20
million years. It included Fossil lake, Lake Uinta, and Lake Goshuite
and covered parts of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado.
(NH, 7/98, p.66)
60 Million The Antilles Islands [of the West Indies]
broke off from the Mesoamerican mainland about 60 million years ago.
(Nat. Hist. 3/96, p.15)
60 Million By the middle Paleocene on the branch that
led to living Cetacea there evolved the Mesonychia with blunted,
meat-eating dentition and a trotting gait. They were possibly
scavengers and are found on all northern continents. the transition to
whales began when mesonychians went into the water to feed with a
change in dentition. Next to change were the ears and then the
reduction of the sacrum for tail-powered swimming.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.7,10)
Eocene (dawn-recent) Epoch 58-36
(56-35) Million Years Ago
(E&IH, 1973, p.42)(LSA, Spg/97, p.6)
58Mil-60Mil Researchers in 2009 reported that a snake
named Titanoboa cerrejonensis (titanic boa from Cerrejon) lived in
Colombia about this time and stretched 42 to 45 feet long, reaching
more than 2,500 pounds.
(AP, 2/4/09)
55.8Mil BC In 2008 scientists reported that a small
primate species, named Teilhardina magnoliana lived about this time and
inhabited what later became east-central Mississippi.
(SFC, 3/4/08, p.A15)
55Mil BC Arctic temperatures averaged 74 degrees.
This was part of a planet-wide warming period called the Paleocene
Eocene thermal Maximum (PETM).
(SFC, 6/1/06, p.A5)
55Mil BC An increase in temperature prompted a major
shift in plant distribution. In 2005 scientists reported that Earth
warmed 9 to 18 degrees over a 10,000 years to a warm period that lasted
80-120 thousand years. Plants in the southern US spread 1,000 miles
from the gulf Coast to Wyoming, and disappeared when the climate cooled
off. In 2007 scientists said that it took about 200,000 years for the
atmospheric carbon from volcanic eruptions to be transferred to the
deep ocean, allowing the planet to cool.
(SFC, 11/11/05, p.A7)(SFC, 4/27/07, p.A9)
55Mil BC Alligators and palm trees inhabited Wyoming
during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.82)
55Mil BC Bony fish, initially fresh water creatures,
took to the sea about this time.
(Econ, 1/27/07, p.82)
55-38 Million The Eocene Epoch
(ADH, GHMC,1979, p.24)
Road cuts California south of
Antioch reservoir: sandstone and shale. Road cuts in the vicinity of
Woodside: sandstone and shale. Early gold-bearing gravels in the Sierra
Nevada.
(GH-ADH, p.25)
Eocene rocks and fossils of
Spitsbergen, now at latitude 75 degrees north, tell us that the climate
was warm or sub-tropical, with coal swamps covering hundreds of square
miles of lowland. After the separation of Greenland from Scandinavia
the colder waters of the polar basin would have mingled with the North
Atlantic. The closed North Atlantic Ocean circulation was, by linking
with the polar basin, changed to a more productive system for
supporting a large and varied biota.
(DD-EVTT, p.285-286)
Even as early as the Eocene
period there were several kinds of whales, including a slender
fearsomely toothed beast (Zeuglodon), as much as 20 meters long.
(DD-EVTT, p.296)
Daniel Axelrod (d.1998),
paleobotonist, in 1998 published "Eocene of Thunder Mountain Flora of
Central Idaho."
(SFC, 8/7/98, p.D3)
52Mil BC In 2008 the fossil of a bat from this time
indicated that it could fly but not navigate through echolocation. It
was found in Wyoming and scientists named it Onychonycteridae finneyi,
meaning clawed bat due to claws on all five fingers.
(SFC, 2/14/08, p.A2)
51-50 Million The first whales, the Archeoceti, came
from the late-early Eocene. The earliest of the archeoceti are called
pakicetids and are quite similar to mesonychians. They were found in
Pakistan with a land-mammal fauna in continental deposits.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.7)
50Mil BC There was no ice on Earth’s north or south
poles.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.11)
50Mil BC Placentals split into four superorders about
this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.88)
50 Million The Tethys Sea southern edge was the
habitat of Pakicetus inachus, a small, land mammal (whale ancestor,
pakicetids) that walked on four legs and ate fish from the shallows of
the Tethys. This area is presently a rocky, mountainous desert in
Northern Pakistan. Pakicetus had ears apparently adapted for underwater
use.
(LSA., p. 36)(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.15)(SFC,
9/28/01, p.D5)
50 Million Australia's 50 million years of utter
isolation has led to the evolution of plant and animal life that is
different than life-forms in relatively nearby parts of the world.
(PacDis, Spring '94, p.3)
50Mil BC In 2008 a well-preserved skull of a bird,
named Dasornis emuinus, unearthed on the Isle of Sheppey, east of
London, was dated to 50 million years ago. Dasornis was said to have
been "like an ocean-going goose, almost the size of a small plane."
(AFP, 9/26/08)
50Mil BC The Fossil Butte Member of the Green River
Formation in southwest Wyoming represents the sedimentary remains of an
ancient lake community that dates to this time. Crocodiles inhabited
Wyoming.
(NH, 7/98, p.66)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.11)
50Mil BC The dog traces its ancestry back to a
5-toed, weasel-like animal called Miacis, that lived about this time.
(MT, Fall 02, p.14)
50Mil BC The common ancestor of elephants and sea
cows lived about this time. Researchers in 1999 reported that elephants
showed evidence of an aquatic past and that their trunks were probably
used as snorkeling devices.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A8)
50Mil BC In 2008 scientists reported that ancestral
ant farmers emerged about this time. Over the next 25 million years
they gave rise to at least 4 different farmer tribes.
(SFC, 3/27/08, p.A5)
50Mil BC The collision of the North American and
Pacific plates about this time lifted the Clear Lake basin of
California above sea level.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.C8)
50Mil BC A sheet of ice 2 miles thick covered
Scotland.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.11)
50Mil BC The Tibetan Plateau began to lift about this
time as India thrust northward. This led to the creation of the Gobi
Desert north of the plateau.
(SFC, 5/19/06, p.B7)
50-49 Million Ambulocetus natans, walking whale that
swims, was found in earliest middle Eocene strata in Pakistan by Hans
Thewissen.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.7)
50-42 Million The Green River Formation rocks are
remnants of an ancient lake that covered more than 25,000 square miles
of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Lake Uinta, Lake Gosiute, and Fossil
Lake were deposited in this period. The Green River formation is known
for deposits such as coal and oil shale, and for limestone containing
abundant fish fossils in mass mortality layers. Fossils include the
herring-like Knightia alta, and less frequently, other fish such as
Priscacara, Mioplosus, Phareodus, and Diplomystus. Rare ancestral manta
rays, palm leaves and birds have also been found.
(SFME, 5/7/95, P.5)
49-48 Million Rodhocetus kasrani (whale from Rodho)
of the family Porocetidae had broad frontal bones, widely-spaced eyes,
hollow jaws, and massive ear bones. The four sacral vertebrae are not
fused and allowed for tail-powered swimming.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.8)
48Mil BC Indohyus, a creature about the size of a
raccoon, lived about this time and spent much of its time in the water.
Fossils of Indohyus were later unearthed in Kashmir and revealed
evolutionary similarities to what later developed into the earliest
whales and dolphins.
(SFC, 12/20/07, p.A23)
48Mil BC-46Mil BC Later protocetids that include
Protocetus atavus, found in Egypt, and Gaviacetus razai, found in
Pakistan, retained single sacral vertebrae that shows they had highly
mobile motive tails.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.8)
46 Million Rodhocetus kasrani, a whale that walked on
four legs on land, but swam with the undulating, up-and-down tail
motion. Fossil bones discovered in 1992 in Pakistan by U of Mich.
paleontologist Philip D. Gingerich and researchers from the Geological
Survey of Pakistan.
(LSA., S. Pobojewski, p. 36)
45Mil BC A planet-wide cooling period began that led
to cycles of ice ages.
(SFC, 6/1/06, p.A5)
44-40 Million Donald Savage, Russell Ciochon and team
of Burmese scientists in 1978 discovered a primate jaw in Burma dating
to this time.
(SFC, 4/14/99, p.C5)
42 Million Paleontologist Daniel Gebo announced in
2000 the discovery of bones from 2 tiny primates, the size of a human
thumb, that lived at this time in Shanghuang, China. The Eosimias
primates also lived here about this time.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A1)
c42 Million A bird ancestral to the dodo flew from
Africa about this time to the Mascarene Islands east of Madagascar. By
1681 the dodo was extinct.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A2)
40Mil BC The whale species Basilosaurus (king lizard)
isis was discovered in 1904. Paleontologists found bones of this
creature in the 1830s in Louisiana. Fossils were found by U of Mich.
paleontologist P.D. Gingerich in Egypt in 1989. With tiny hind limbs
too weak to support its body on land, Gingerich believes it spent its
entire life in the ocean. It reached about 40 feet.
(LSA., p. 36)(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.15,16)
40Mil BC In 2005 the successful excavation of an
unusually complete and well-preserved skeleton of the 40
million-year-old fossil whale Basilosaurus isis was completed in Egypt.
The 18 meter (50 feet) skeleton was found in Wadi Hitan in the Western
Sahara of Egypt. The first Basilosaurus fossil was found in 1905 but no
full skeleton has been discovered until now.
(MT, 4/05)
40Mil BC A whale fossil of this age was found in May,
1983, along the Savannah River in Georgia.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.A10)
40Mil BC Amber of the Baltic Sea formed about this
time.
(PacDis, Winter/’97, p.8)
40Mil BC In 2006 scientists presented evidence that
the Sierra Nevada mountain range rose about this time. Earlier
estimates pegged the uplift at 3-5 million years BC.
(SFC, 7/7/06, p.B1)
40Mil BC A climate change caused the end of the large
lake system in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.
(NH, 7/98, p.68)
40Mil BC The entire Tibetan Plateau underwent major
uplifting. Vast ranges rose from the Himalayas on the east to
Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush and Iran’s Elburz mountains on the west.
(SFC, 5/19/06, p.B7)
40-38Million Dorudon atrox, dating to this time, is a
classic archeocyte. Fossils of the whale-like creature, later found in
the western desert of Egypt, indicated a broad skull with multicusped
molars, a streamlined body, forelimbs modified into flippers and a
massive tail. It was of the kind first reported from scattered remains
in farmfields of the southeastern US.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.8)(NG, 11/04, p.25)
40-35 Million BCE Cynodictis resembled a modern dog
and lived about this time.
(MT, Fall 02, p.14)
40Mil BC-30Mil BC Bark beetles that farm fungus
gardens evolved during this period.
(SFC, 3/27/08, p.A5)
40-5Million The rigid rocks of the Sierra Nevada,
thrust upwards during periods estimated over this time, are riding
westward like a surfboard under the impact of the spreading crust
behind it.
(SFC, 5/3/96, A-4)
Mid-Cainozoic India encountered
the southern margin of Asia, and an open Tethys no longer existed. The
collision of India with Asia squeezed up the Tethyan sediments into the
arcs of the Himalayas.
(DD-EVTT, p.288)
A seaway
linked the Arctic Ocean and Tethys east of the Urals until Oligocene
time when uplift and the closure of the Tethyan geosyncline put an end
to it. Siberia was from now on no longer separated from Europe and when
the climate began to cool the very large land mass that was now Eurasia
felt the extremes inherent in a continental climate.
(DD-EVTT, p.290)
In late Eocene
and early Oligocene times the archaic mammals were largely replaced by
the ancestors of our modern mammals.
(DD-EVTT, p.296)
38-23 Million The Oligocene Epoch.
(ADH, GHMC,1979, p.24)
Road cuts on Route 9 between
Saratoga and Santa Cruz at Riverside Grove: Sandstone and shale. Road
cuts along Route 17 about 5 miles south of Los Gatos: sandstone and
shale.
(GH-ADH, p.25)
36Mil BC In 2005 scientists in Peru reported the
discovery of a giant penguin that lived about this time on the Peruvian
coastline. The bird was named Icadyptes salasi. It stood over 5-feet
and lived during one of the warmest periods of the world’s history.
(SFC, 6/25/07, p.A10)
36-22 (35-29) Million BP Oligocene (little or
few-recent) Epoch
(E&IH, 1973, p.42)(LSA, Spg/97, p.6)(LSA,
Spg/97, p.8)
35.7Mil BC Two meteors impacted the Earth. One landed
in Siberia and the other in the Chesapeake Bay. A major extinction also
occurred about this time. [see 35 mil]
(NPR, Nature, 7/23/97)(SFEC, 8/22/99, Par p.12)
35Mil BC In Colorado, a dozen miles from Pike’s Peak,
a warm temperate climate supported forests of now-extinct species of
white-cedar, pine, palm, maple, hickory, and members of the beech and
elm family. Redwood trees grew along streams. Animals included the
piglike oreodont, rhinoceroslike brontothere, and an ancestor of the
horse. Volcanic eruptions were common. Lake Florissant formed from a
mudflow that dammed a creek flowing through a valley. It later a dried
and provided evidence of 1,100 kinds of insects, 16 vertebrates, and
150 species of plants.
(NH, 8/96, p.62)
35Mil BC The first evidence of human ancestry from
Africa dates to about this time. In 1998 John Reader published "Africa:
A Biography of a Continent."
(SFEC, 6/28/98, BR p.12)
35Mil BC A meteorite impacted at what is now
Chesapeake Bay and formed the largest impact crater in the US. The
discovery of the 53-mile wide Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater was
announced in 1995.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A10)(SFC, 11/7/05, p.A4)
35Mil BC The oldest mysticetes, filter-feeding baleen
whales with teeth (aetiocetids) instead of baleen, date to about this
time from Antarctica.
35Mil BC-29Mil BC It was during the Oligocene that
the earliest mysticetes (filter feeders) and odontocetes (echo-locating
fish feeders) evolved from archeocetes. At this time the circulation
and the formation of water in the oceans changed greatly. This altered
the distribution of heat on the earth’s surface and the global climate.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.8)
34Mil BC-24Mil BC The first termite farmers evolved
in the rain forests of Africa during this period.
(SFC, 3/27/08, p.A5)
33Mil BC Oligocene. Egypt’s Faiyum Depression shows
sediments of tropical rain forests. Aegyptopithecus, a small fruit
eating animal of the tropical forest of North Africa. Dubbed the
"dawn-ape" this animal's snout is lemur-like, but the enclosed
eye-sockets and certain dental features, including 32 teeth - typical
of apes and man - make it a likely link with Miocene apes such as
Proconsul.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 563, 580)
33 Million Five types of mammal fossils have been
found in the Badlands of South Dakota. They are: Archaeotherium
(resembling but not related to a pig of warthog to hippo size),
Subhyracodon (an early relative of the rhinoceros), Mesohippus (a
three-toed horse), Leptomeryx (a small deer-like creature), and an
unidentified rodent.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.36)
>30 Million The Badlands of South Dakota was for
the most part a vast, featureless floodplain forged by wide,
slow-moving rivers from the west.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.31)
>30 million Wonder Cave near San Marcos, Texas,
was created on the Balcones fault line during an earthquake over 30
million years ago.
(Sp., 5/96, p.56)
~30 Mil The Mendocino triple
junction (MTJ), the meeting of the Pacific, North American and Gorda
plates, was born about this time and began moving up the California
coast. It was later believed to be responsible for the northern
California Coast Range.
(SFC, 10/13/03, p.A6)
30 Mil A giant snake, later named
Yurlunggur, lived in Australia about this time. In 2006 it was reported
fossils of the snake added a link to how snakes descended from dearly
lizards.
(SFC, 2/16/06, p.A4)
30 Mil The hedgehog Proterix
loomisi lived in North America and had developed bony plates in its
head for digging and seems to have lacked limbs.
(NH, 7/98, p.56)
30 Mil Sperm whale fossils date
back to this time.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.18)
30 Mil By 30 million years ago the
subcontinent (India) reached what was the southern coast of Asia and
began to slide beneath it. This southern shore, once at sea level, took
the full force of the collision and is now the Karakorams, the Black
Gravel Range.
(NH, 5/96, p.10)
30 Mill The Mendocino Triple
Junction, a convergence of three tectonic plates, the Gorda plate,
Pacific plate and North American plate, formed in Baha, California,
when an ocean spreading center in the Pacific plate collided with
continent’s edge. It now sits close to shore off of Cape Mendocino in
Northern California.
(Pac. Disc., summer, ‘96, p.4)
30 Mil Fossils in Europe, Asia and
North America indicate that roses existed.
(TGR, 1995, p.1)
30 Mil In what is now Cappadocia,
Turkey, 3 volcanoes: Erciyes, Melendiz and Hasan, erupted. The ash and
rock later eroded and left the harder rock in formations now called
"fairy chimneys."
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.T14)
30 Mil Camels and llamas split
apart as species about this time.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.A15)
30-25 Million Lawrence Barnes and co-workers
uncovered an early baleen whale in rock of this age near Charleston,
South Carolina.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.18)
29 Million Movement within the San Andreas fault
system began in Southern California when the East Pacific Rise,
separating the Pacific and Farallon plates, reached the continental
border.
(GH-ADH, p.234)
27 Million Six species of prehistoric mammals from
this were discovered in 2003 in the Chilga region of Ethiopia's
northwestern highlands. They included 3 species of Palaeomastadon, one
species Deinotherium, one Gompotherium, and an example of
Arsinoitherium.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.D5)
c26 Million Two separate species of dodo bird
evolved. One on Mauritius and the other on Rodrigues.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A2)
25Mil BC If there was any moment in the Cainazoic
when the mammals could be said to have reached their zenith, it would
be in the Miocene period, some 25 million years ago.
(DD-EVTT, p.296)
25Mil BC In 1997 a teenage surfer named Staumn Hunter
found a whale fossil in a limestone rock at Jan Juc Beach, Australia.
Researchers named it Janjucetus hunderi in his honor. In 2006
researchers said it was an ancestor of modern baleen whales. The fossil
suggests a creature that grew to a little more than 11 feet with teeth
about an inch-and-a-half long.
(www.livescience.com/animalworld/060830_whale_fossil.html)
25Mil BC In 2007 Scientists reported that a fossil
from this time, found in Queensland, Australia, in the 1990s, has
revealed that a predecessor of the hopping kangaroo once galloped on
all fours, had dog-like fangs and possibly climbed trees.
(AP, 12/6/07)
25Mil BC The lineage of tail-bearing monkeys split
about this time from a line that went on to develop toward apes and
humans.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A4)
24Mil BC A period of violent earthquakes shook the
region that later became China’s Yunnan province and created the Ailao
Shan range of Southwest China.
(SFC, 5/19/06, p.B7)
24-5 Million Miocene epoch, during this period an
array of early ape species spread throughout the old world. Sometime
during the last half of the epoch the ancestral line of pongid (ape)
and hominid (man and his ancestors) split.
(NG, Nov. 1985, K.F. Weaver, p.563)
24-5 Million The cliffs at Plum Point, Maryland
contain Miocene sediments and fossils. Here Toger Sasson found the five
inch tooth of the giant Miocene shark Carcharadon megalodon. It was
flawless and preserved in microscopic detail.
(SFME, 5/7/95, p.14)
23 Million A large group of primitive apes appeared
in East Africa sometime before this and expanded into many genera and
species.
(USAT, 8/27/99, p.4A)
23 Million A volcano erupted that later became known
as the Pinnacles of central California. It was on the San Andres fault
line and half stayed in southern California as the other half migrated
north.
(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.T4)
23-5 Million Miocene Epoch.
(ADH, GHMC,1979, p.24)
Volcanic outpourings have been
prolific in the California region since Miocene time, and the Sierra
Nevada has a blanket of lava and ashes about 1000 meters thick.
(DD-EVTT, p.204)
Mastadons, mammoths and rhinos roved Nevada during the Miocene.
(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.C5)
In California lower part
Claremont canyon: chert, limestone. Quarry on west side of Inverness
Ridge on Pt. Reyes Rd: chert, shale. La Honda area: basalt. Natural
Bridges State park, Santa Cruz: shale. Road cuts in Monterey town:
sandstone, shale. Pinnacles National Monument: Rhyolite volcanic rocks.
(GH-ADH, p.24)
Miocene (less-recent) Epoch 22-6
Million Years Ago
(E&IH, 1973, p.42)(LSA, Spg/97, p.6)
22Mil BC The evolution of grasses in the Miocene
allowed for the evolution of horses on hard, dry plains.
(NH, 6/96, p.24)
21Mil BC The impact of the modern San Andreas Fault,
as distinguished from possible precursors, probably did not reach
Middle California until about 21 million years ago.
(GH-ADH, p.34)
21Mil BC A fossil of a creature called Morotopithecus
bishopi, a tree-dwelling, ape-like creature that lived in what is now
Uganda, was found in the 1960s and indicated that its transverse
process had moved backward, behind the opening for the spinal cord. In
2007 Dr. Aaron Filler authored "The Upright Ape: a new origin of the
Species," in which he argued that this common ancestor, and ancestors
going back many millions of years before, walked upright. Homo sapiens,
the human species, continued upright, while apes evolved back toward
all fours.
(AP, 7/16/07)
20.6 Million A common ancestor to man and the apes,
Morotopithecus bishopi, lived about this time. Its remains were
unearthed in Uganda and indicate an animal about 4 feet tall, and
weighing 90-110 pounds. It’s suspected to have been a cautious climber
and mostly fruit-eater.
(SFC, 4/18/97, p.A5)
20Mil BC The gorilla lineage evolved from a common
ancestor of orangutans about this time.
(SFC, 8/23/07, p.A16)
20 Million Late Paleozoic rocks are widely exposed in
the Santa Lucia Range, but occur only as small patches in the Gabilan
and Santa Cruz ranges. They are not native to this area and moved into
Middle California only about 20 million years ago.
(GH-ADH, p.23)
20 million The desert tortoise has been an occupant
of the Mohave desert since at least this time.
(Pac. Disc., summer, ‘96, p.26)
20 Million Researchers agree that by this time
cetaceans looked quite similar to those in the oceans today.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.18)
c20 Million Hot water escaping from magma laid down
rivulets of metal in the Cerro Rico Mountain of Bolivia.
(NH, 11/96, p.38)
c20 Million Dominican amber was formed about this
time. It came from an extinct species of the legume tree, genus
Hymenaea, on the island of Hispaniola. A similar deposit occurs in
southern Mexico and these amber types contain a greater variety of life
than does Baltic amber.
(PacDis, Winter/’97, p.11)
20 Mil BC Grenada was formed as an underwater volcano.
(SSFC, 12/11/05, p.F4)
20Mil BC-15Mil BC In Antarctica a geologic basin
formed during a tectonic upheaval that later led to the formation of
the sub-glacial Lake Vostok.
(SFC, 8/2/04, p.A6)
20Mil BC-10Mil BC A team of Australian
paleontologists in 2006 said they had found the fossilized remains of a
fanged killer kangaroo and what they describe as a "demon duck of doom"
that lived during this period in Queensland state.
(AP, 7/12/06)
20-8 Million Candidates for intermediate ancestors of
man include Proconsul and Kenyapithecus from Kenya; Ramapithecus and
Sivapithecus from India, Pakistan, China and Kenya; and Rudapithecus
and Dryopithecus from Europe.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 582)
18Mil BC In 2004 Scientists searching for fossils
high in the Chilean Andes mountains unearthed the remains of a
tank-like mammal related to armadillos that grazed about this time.
Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis, was a primitive relative of a
line of heavily armored mammals that culminated in the massive,
impregnable Gyptodon, which died out only about 8,000 BC.
(AP, 12/12/07)
17 Million The centerpiece of Dr. Golenberg's
research is DNA from a 17 million year old magnolia leaf.
(WSUAN, Fall/95, p.5)
16 Million Orangutans estimated divergence from
hominids.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 585)
16 Million The Indian Ocean was in a state of
upheaval driven by volcanic activity. Two coelacanth species may have
diverged about this time, one near the region of the Comoro Islands and
the other off the Indonesian coast of Sulawesi.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A2)
16 Mil BC A huge asteroid hit Mars and blasted rock
into space about this time. The 1984 meteorite labeled Allan Hills
(ALH) 84001 was knocked into space and landed in Antarctica around
11,000BC.
(SFC, 8/7/96, p.A9)(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A1)(SSFC,
2/19/06, p.M6)
16-14 Million Gibbons and siamang lines split from
the apes.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A4)
15.5 Mil Southeastern Washington and Oregon were
covered by huge lava flows estimated at some 40,000 cubic miles. Some
beds were over a mile thick. The weight led to a sag in the earth and
the ancient Lake Vantage formed.
(ST, 7/29/04, NWW p.18)(SSFC, 9/12/04, p.D9)
15 Million In 2005 the fragmentary remains of a
3-toed horse from this time were reported from the central valley of
California. Merychippus californicus stood 3 ½ feet at the
shoulder.
(SFC, 2/23/05, p.B1)
15Mil BC Lake Vostok became sealed from the surface
of Antarctica about this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.87)
15Mil BC The fossil of a large bird from this time
was found in Patagonia, Argentina, in 2004. The skull of the
10-foot-tall, flightless predator measured 28 inches and was identified
in 2006 as an offshoot of the phorusrhacids (terror birds).
(SFC, 10/26/06, p.A8)
15 Million In Germany in 1725 the first fossil
salamander was found. It was at first identified as human but later
correctly identified as the extinct cryptobranchid named Andrias
scheuchzeri and dated to 15 million years of age.
(PacDis, Winter ’97, p.36)
15 Million The Baha Peninsula began separating from
the Mexican mainland.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, p.T8)
15 Million An ape genus called Equatorius was thought
in 1999 to be among the first primates to leave the treetops and live
on the ground. Some scientists placed Equatorius into the Kenyapithecus
genus.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.A7)
14 Million In 1990 paleontologists found bones from a
35-foot whale in an quarry in eastern Virginia. It took several years
to prepare and identify them as a new species. It was named
Eobalaenoptera harrisoni, after Carter Harrison, a Virginia Museum of
Natural History volunteer.
(AP, 6/14/04)
14-10 Mil Ape species moved from Africa into Europe
and Asia. They initially thrived but later became extinct.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.A7)
13 Mil In 2004 Spanish
anthropologists announced the discovery of fossils from this time of a
new ape species they named Pierolapithecus catalaunicus. Bones
suggested an adult male of 75 pounds adapted for tree climbing while
upright and knuckle walking on the ground. The ape also had a modern
ape-like thorax.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A4)
12 Million Volcanic activity results in the formation
of the tuff of Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and
proposed site for the long term storage of radio-active waste.
(Smith., 5/95, p.41-44)
12Mil BC Gorilla and chimpanzees split from a common
ancestor about this time.
(SFC, 8/23/07, p.A16)
12-10 Million Current scenarios have humans and
orangutans split from other apes about this time.
(SFC, 7/25/96. p.A3)
~11-10 Million Orangutans split
from the line of great apes.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A4)
10 Million BP to 1000 AD
10 Million By Pliocene time, the continents had
assumed their present outlines but a new phenomenon began to affect the
earth. The climate grew colder.
(DD-EVTT, p.285)
10Mil BC In 2007 Ethiopian fossil hunter found molars
of a large ape that bespoke gorilla origins from about this time. They
named the large ape Chororapithecus abyssinicus.
(SFC, 8/23/07, p.A16)
10 million Ankarapithecus meteai, a
60-pound-fruit-eating ape, roamed the woodlands of central Turkey about
30 miles north of Ankara. A face and mandible were discovered in 1995.
The ape was said to exist long before the evolutionary split that
separated humans from chimps.
(SFC, 7/25/96. p.A3)
10 Million In the Mohave National Preserve of
Southern California volcanic formations of this age formed caves of
congealed lava over 25,600 acres.
(SFC, 4/21/99, p.A17)
10 Million The Great Rift Valley lakes of Africa
originated about this time.
(NH, 7/98, p.68)
10-5 Million The Galapagos islands emerged as
volcanoes from the ocean. They are at the junction of two continental
plates, over a stationary "hot spot" in the earth’s core.
(SFC, 12/4/94, p. T-5)
9.8Mil BC In 2007 Researchers in Kenya unveiled a
10-million-year-old jaw bone they believe belonged to a new species of
great ape that could be the last common ancestor of gorillas,
chimpanzees and humans. A Kenyan and Japanese team found the fragment,
dating back to between 9.8 and 9.88 million years, in 2005 along with
11 teeth. The fossils were unearthed in volcanic mud flow deposits in
the northern Nakali region of Kenya.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
9Mil BC The predaceous hedgehog Deinogalerix lived in
the Mediterranean Islands and grew to a large size.
(NH, 7/98, p.56)
9Mil BC The first creatures in the human lineage
lived about this time.
(SFC, 8/23/07, p.A16)
8Mil BC In 2007 Hungarian scientists discovered a
group of fossilized swamp cypress trees preserved from this time. The
trees dated to the late Miocene geological period at a time when the
Carpathian basin, present day Hungary, was a freshwater lake surrounded
by swamps.
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
8 Million Antelopes split off from the sheep and goat
lineages about this time, when the Tibetan plateau had almost reached
its present height.
(NH, 5/96, p.52)
c8 Million BP Phoberomis pattersoni, a giant rodent
related to later guinea pigs, wallowed in the coastal marshes of
northwestern Venezuela.
(SFC, 9/19/03, p.A2)
8-7 Million The area where Los Angeles is in 1997 was
at least a half-mile under water at this time.
(SFC, 2/12/97, p.A1)
7.5-3.5 Mil A biogenic bloom is believed to be part
of this period, early Pliocene, when the Earth's high-latitude regions
were much warmer than they are today. Biogenic blooms are also
suggested for the Indian Ocean, the Pacific coasts of North and South
America, and in the equatorial Pacific.
(LSA, Fall 1995, p.35)
7.4Mil BC-6.5Mil BC In July, 2002, scientists led by
Michael Brunet reported a hominid species found in the Djurab desert,
Sahel region of northern Chad. They named the group Sahelanthropus
tchadensis (with the nickname Toumai, "hope of life" in the Goran
language). Other scientists later denied it was a human ancestor. DNA
analysis in 2006 suggested that Toumai, with its human and chimp
features, preceded the human-chimp split. The analysis also suggested
that human lineage stemmed from a human-chimp hybrid.
(SFC, 7/11/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/11/02, p.B1)(SFC,
10/10/02, p.A2)(SFC, 5/18/06, p.A3)
7 Million Rhinos disappeared from North America.
(SFEC, 6/15/97, Z1 p.4)
6 Million BP In 2000 French researchers found bones
in the Rift Valley of Central Kenya that they called their Millennial
Ancestor and believed to be a direct precursor of humans. Dr. Martin
Pickford and co-discoverers named the fossil Orrorin tugenensis
(orrorin means original man in the Tugen language). The bones were
found in the Lukeino Formation of the Tugen Hills.
(SFC, 2/7/01, p.A10)(SSFC, 4/8/01, p.A12)(AM, 7/01,
p.25)(AM, 5/01, p.58)
6Mil BC-5Mil BC Terminal Miocene Event. According to
C.K. Brain, a profound cooling caused a rapid buildup of ice in
Antarctica. Sea levels dropped 50-60 meters and rainfall in many places
was strongly affected.
(NG, Nov. 1985, K.F. Weaver, p. 582)
6Mil BC-5Mil BC Humans split from chimpanzees and
bonobos about this time.
(SFC, 7/25/96. p.A3)(NH, 11/96, p.12)
6Mil BC-5Mil BC The carving of the Grand Canyon
dramatically accelerated during this period. By modern times it
stretched 277-miles, 18 miles at its widest point, with depths up to
6,000 feet. In 2008 evidence suggested that the canyon could be 17
million years old.
(SFC, 3/7/08, p.A6)
6-2 Million years Ago Pliocene (more-recent) Epoch
(E&IH, 1973, p.42)
5.8-5.2 Mil In 2001 Yohannes Haile-Selassie and Giday
WoldeGabriel reported possible human fossils from this period found at
Asa Koma (Red Hill), Ethiopia. They were tentatively named as a
subspecies of Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba. Kadabba means progenitor in
the Afar language. In 2004 Ardipithecus kadabba was named a new species
base on teeth fragments.
(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A4)(AM, 9/01, p.16)(SFC, 2/05/04,
p.A2)
5.5Mil BC The main Hawaiian Islands began to form as
the Pacific tectonic plate moved over a “hotspot” in the Earth’s
mantle. The 5 largest islands formed in order: Kauai, Oahu, Molokai,
Maui and the Big Island. Molokai and Maui were originally joined.
(NH, 10/1/04, p.33)
5Mil BC Molecular biologists in the 20th century
reckoned that hominids became distinct from apes about this time.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.80)
5-1.8 Million The Pliocene Epoch.
(ADH, GHMC,1979, p.24)
Road cuts between Tomales and
Dillon Beach: sandstone. Road cuts in upper Claremont Canyon:
sandstone, shale, conglomerate. Bald Peak and Grizzly Peak: basalt.
Little Grizzly Peak: rhyolite breccia. Road cuts between Rodeo and
Oleum: tuff. Coast south of Half Moon Bay: black shale.
(GH-ADH, p.24)
Geological evidence show
temperatures were much warmer at mid-latitude and sub-polar regions
during the early Pliocene than they are today.
(LSA, Fall 1995, p.35)
The sandy peninsula of Lake Wales
Ridge of Florida evolved in isolation from the rest of the world when
the rest of Florida was covered by ocean during the Pliocene.
(PacDisc, Spring ‘96, p.6)
4.5 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
4.4 Million A partial skeleton in more than 90 pieces
was found by a group led by Tim White, Gen Suwa and Berhane Asfaw in
the Middle Awash at Aramis, Ethiopia, in late 1994. They name it
Ardipithecus ramidus, which put it in a new genus and means ground ape
root. A new argon-argon dating technique was used.
(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4-5)(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A2)(SFC,
4/23/99, p.A21)(AM, 7/01, p.25)
4.38 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
4.25 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
4.2Mil BC-3.9 Mil BC Meave Leakey and Alan Walker
found a previously unknown species named Australopithecus anamensis,
near Kenya's East Lake Turkana, in the form of jaw bones, teeth, arm
and leg fragments. The leg bones suggested that it was clearly an
ape-like but two-legged creature, making it the oldest proven bipedal
prehuman. It was thought by the Chinese to have descended from an
ancestor named Lufengpithecus.
(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4-5)(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A8)
4.1Mil BC-3Mil BC Fossils of Australopithecus
anamensis and A. afarensis, later found in Ethiopia, showed that
structures in the wrist bones had once supported knuckle walking.
(SFC, 3/23/00, p.A4)(SFC, 4/12/06, p.A2)
4.05 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
4Mil BC Human tool use goes back about this far.
(NH, 8/96, p.29)
4Mil BC Tiny foot bones and a tiny pelvis indicate
that humans walked upright by this time.
(NH, 6/97, p.16)
4Mil BC In 2007 Italian researchers found the
skeleton of a 33-foot prehistoric whale about 100 yards below ground in
the Tuscan countryside. The skeleton dated to 4 million years ago, to
the Pliocene epoch.
(AP, 4/3/07)
4Mil BC In 2008 Paleontologists reported the skull of
a giant rodent of this time found in a broken boulder on Kiyu Beach on
the coast of Uruguay's River Plate region. It was estimated to have
weighed an average of 1,008 kilos (1.008 tonnes, 2,217 pounds) and was
dubbed Josephoartigasia monesi, in honor of Alvaro Mones, a Uruguayan
paleontologist who specialized in South American rodents.
(AP, 1/16/08)
4-3 Million Mammoth first appeared in Africa. They
have 58 chromosomes and are believed to be cousins of elephants, who
have 56.
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A17)
4-3 Million Mount Whitney, Ca., and sister peaks in
the Sierra Nevada were formed during this period as a chunk of Earth’s
crust broke loose sinking into the mantle generating upward forces.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.A4)
3.92 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
3.8-4 Million In 2005 hominid bones indicting
bipedalism were discovered at a new site called Mille, in the
northeastern Afar region of Ethiopia. They were estimated to be 3.8-4
million years old.
(AP, 3/6/05)
3.70 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
3.6-3.2 Mil. A primate skeleton, australopithecine,
from the Sterkfontein cave near Johannesburg, South Africa, was
estimated at this age. Pieces of the almost complete skeleton began
emerging in 1994 and a skull was reported in 1998.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.A10)
3.6Mil BC-3Mil BC A composite skull of adult male,
Australopithecus afarensis, was found in 1975 by M. Bush at Hadar,
Ethiopia. In 1978-1979 Mary Leakey’s team excavated a 75-foot long
trail of 47 footprints, found at Laetoli, Tanzania, most likely made by
Australopithecus afarensis.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p.568)(Hem., Dec. '95,
p.24)(PacDisc, Spring ‘96, p.2)
3.5Mil BC Little Foot, the first set of bones
complete enough to reconstruct the foot of an early bipedal, or
two-legged human ancestors. Four foot bones were found in 1980 and
re-analyzed in 1995 by Ronald J. Clarke and Philip Tobias of the Univ.
of Witwatersrand. It suggests that the transition to human-type
locomotion did not happen in one step, but in a series of changes.
(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4-5)
3.5Mil BC It was reported in 2001 that a new
flat-faced hominid skull found by Justus Erus of the Leakey group near
Kenya’s Lake Turkana dated to about this time. Maeve Leakey named it
Kenyanthropus platyops, "the flat-faced man of Kenya."
(SFC, 3/22/01, p.A2)(AM, 7/01, p.24)
3.5Mil BC A brief period of global warming took place
about this time warming the Bering Strait and allowing hundreds of
species of marine life to migrate from the Pacific through the ice-free
Arctic to colonize the Atlantic.
(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.A6)
3.5-3 Million A French team of paleontologists
led by Michel Brunet on 1/23/95 discovered a lower jaw with 7 teeth and
a separate canine of a hominid from this time period. The discovery was
made in a dried lake bed of central Chad and named Australopithecus
bahrelghazalia after the Arab name of a nearby river.
(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A14)
3.32 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
3.3 Million A mile-wide asteroid hit the coast of
what became Argentina. It may have abruptly cooled the climate and
caused the deaths of 36 species of huge animals, that included giant
armadillos and sloths.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D11)
3.3Mil BC In northeastern Ethiopia scientists in 2000
found a remarkably complete skeleton of a 3-year-old Australopithecus
afarensis female dating to about this time. This is the same ape-man
species as represented by "Lucy," found in 1974.
(AP, 9/20/06)
3.2Mil BC Donald C. Johanson found Lucy's 3.2
million-year-old bones in Ethiopia in 1974. Dr. Johanson and an
international team at Hadar, Ethiopia, discovered a female skeleton in
3 million year old strata and named it Lucy. Subsequent finds there and
at Laetoli, Tanzania, led to the naming of a new species:
Australopithecus afarensis.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 564)(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4-5)
3.06 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
3Mil The 2 American continents
were joined by the rising of a land bridge in Central America. Giant
South American sloths began migrating north and gomphotheres, elephants
with great tusks built like shovels, migrated south. This era is
covered in the 1997 book: "The Monkey’s Bridge: Mysteries of Evolution
in Central America" by David Rains Wallace. This forced warm water
north and cooling currents led to snow and glaciers and an Ice Age.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, BR p.7)(SFEC, 9/19/99, Z1 p.3)
3Mil The Petrified Forest, 6 miles
west of downtown Calistoga dates to this time. A volcanic eruption
felled redwood trees that turned to stone.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.T1)
3Mil A nearly complete male A.
afarensis was found at Hadar, Ethiopia.
(AM, 7/01, p.24)
3Mil Volcanic rock was carved by
nature into fairy chimneys around Cappadocia in present day Turkey.
(Smith., 5/95, p.10)
3-2.5 Million Australopithecus africanus was the name
given to the skull of an adult male found by R. Broom and T.J. Robinson
in 1947 at Sterkfontein, South Africa. It was named by Prof. Raymond
Dart in 1924 after his analysis of the Taung child skull from a cave
South Africa. Average age of sample teeth is 22 years at death, as
analyzed by Alan Mann. In 2006 new analysis of the Taung skull
suggested that the child was killed by a predatory bird.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p.568, 578, 596)(AP, 1/12/06)
3-2.5 Mil Teeth of Australopithecus africanus
analyzed from this period indicate consumption of large quantities of
carbon 13 from either grasses and sedges of animals that ate such
plants or both. This was a transition period of movement from trees and
forests to more open land.
(SFC, 1/15/99, p.A11)
3Mil-2Mil Research in 2007 on fossil teeth from this
period suggested that Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus
robustus used plant roots extensively in their diet.
(SFC, 5/10/07, p.A17)
3Mil-1Mil So far there seems to have been four genera
in the human family tree: Ardipithecus near the root; several species
of Australopithecus that lived between 1 million and 3 million years
ago; an offshoot of vegetarian hominid species in the genus
Paranthropus that co-existed for a while with Australopithecus; and the
Homo line that emerged about 2 million years ago. Paranthropus was
characterized by brains not much bigger than modern chimpanzees, but
huge jaws and teeth, that implied a diet of tough roots and nuts.
(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4)(SFC, 1/23/97, p.A5)
3-1 Million The Pistol Star, located between the
Earth and center of the Milky Way, was first seen with infrared
equipment in the early 1990s. It was measured to be 25,000 light-years
away with a radius of 93-140 million miles. It was estimated to have
formed 1-3 million years ago and shed much of its mass in violent
eruptions estimated to have occurred about 6,000 years ago.
(USAT, 10/8/97, p.3A)
3Mil BC A nearly complete male skull of A. afarensis
was found in 1991 at Hadar, Ethiopia.
(www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/specimen.html#afarensis)
2.94 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
2.90 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
2.80Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
2.8Mil BC A. afarensis seems to disappear from
the fossil record.
(NG, Nov. 1985, K.F. Weaver, p.595)
2.8Mil BC Volcanic eruptions in the area of
Flagstaff, Arizona, began building a 16,000-foot volcano. It later
became known as the San Francisco Mountain and in 2006 stood at
12,643-feet.
(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.G4)
2.7 Million A major change in global climate occurred
about this time that may have forced the hominid line to develop
rapidly.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A17)
2.6Mil BC-2.52Mil BC Stone flakes,
flake fragments and cores of the Oldowan type from the Afar region of
Ethiopia have been dated to this time. They were excavated between
1992-1994 along the Gona River.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.13)
2.5 Million The Paleolithic began with the first
stone tools made by Homo habilis.
(WH, 1994, p.19)
2.5 Million Stone tools, choppers and flaked cores,
were made near the Gona River in central Ethiopia. Research on the
tools was published in 1997 by Sileshi Semaw and Jack Harris.
(SFC, 1/23/97, p.A5)
2.5 Million In 1999 scientists published the
discovery of hominid fossil bones from the Awash River in Ethiopia. A
team led by Berhani Asfaw and Tim D. White of UC Berkeley named the
find Australopithecus garhi (southern ape-man surprise).
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.A21)
2.5 Million Climactic change causing a re-expansion
of the Antarctic ice sheets. Africa experiences a drying up, a
reduction of wooded areas and a return of widespread open grasslands.
Elisabeth Vrba’s studies of the fossil record in South Africa show a
peak in extinctions and new species. At this time the hominid lineage
split, one branch leading to the robusts and the other to modern humans.
(NG, Nov. 1985, K.F. Weaver, p.600)
2.5-2 Million Homo habilis appeared in eastern Africa.
(WH, 1994, p.19)
2.43 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
c2.4 Million The mutated myosin gene (MYH16),
discovered in 2004, emerged about this time and launched a lineage of
prehumans with smaller jaws and larger skulls.
(SFC, 3/25/04, p.A2)
c2. 4Million Fossils suggest that the first members
of the true human genus, species known as Homo rudolfensis and Homo
habilis, emerged in East Africa about this time.
(SFC, 1/23/97, p.A5)(AM, 7/01, p.24)
2.33 Million Scientists identified a fossil jawbone
as an early member of the genus Homo dated to this time along with some
stone tools. The fossils were found at the Hadar site in northern
Ethiopia’s Afar badlands in 1994 by local team members Ali Yesuf and
Maumun Alahandu but only dated in 1996. Scientists say that there were
2-3 different species of Homo living at this time.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A1,17)
2.13 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
2.11 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
QUATERNARY PERIOD: 2 MILLION YEARS AGO To The
PRESENT
(E&IH, 1973, p.42)
2 Million to present Quaternary period.
(RFH-MDHP, p.21)
2Mil BC About this time California’s King’s Canyon
was carved out by a slab of ice 2,000 feet thick.
(SSFC, 7/24/05, p.F7)
2Mil BC Homo habilis. Skull of adult male found by B.
Ngeneo in 1972 at Koobi Fora, Kenya. His span overlaps with A. boisei
and corresponds with the appearance of simple stone tools. Habilis gave
rise to the larger brained Homo erectus.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 571, 576)
2Mil BC In 2007 researchers reported that the first
skull of the earliest known ancestor of the giant panda has been
discovered in China and estimated to be at least 2 million years old.
The animal, formally known as Ailuropoda microta, or "pygmy giant
panda," would have been about 3 feet long, compared to the modern giant
panda, which averages in excess of five feet.
(AP, 6/18/07)
2Mil BC Mount Kenya, a volcano, was born.
(NH, 6/96, p.26)
2-1.5 Million Australopithecus robustus. Skull of adult female found by
Quarryman Fourie in 1950 at Swartkrans, South Africa. A survey of
Robustus teeth by Alan Mann shows an average age at death of 17 years.
A female Paranthropus robustus was found in 1994 Drimolen, South Africa.
(NG, Nov. 1985, K.F. Weaver, p.570)(SFC, 4/27/00,
p.A4)
2-1 Million Camelids arrived in South America and
diversified to the guanaco, alpaca and vicuna.
(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.24)
1.98 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
1.95 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
1.83Mil BC In 2009 Malaysian archeologists reported
that prehistoric stone axes found in Perak state in 2008 were the
world's oldest dating to about this time. The result had a margin of
error of 610,000 years.
(AP, 1/30/09)
1.8-10,000 The Pleistocene (most-recent) Epoch.
(ADH, GHMC,1979, p.24)
The epoch is divided into Early
(to 700,000), Middle (to 120,000) and Late geologic periods. The Lower
Paleolithic extends (c250,000-100,000) through the early and middle
Pleistocene. The Middle Paleolithic extends from ~100-35,000 yrs in the
late Pleistocene. The Upper Paleolithic extends from ~35-10,000.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 447)
Terraces near Millerton: sand and
gravel. Road cuts at Colma: old beach and sand dunes. Quarries at
Irvington: sand and gravel. Volcanic rocks of Mt. Konocti at Clear Lake.
(GH-ADH, p.24)
The great coastal mountain ranges
and the eastern California mountains were pushed up. The climax of the
movements seem to have been reached in Pleistocene times and uplift is
still going on.
(DD-EVTT, p.291)
1.8-10,000BCE In the Philippines the Cagayan Valley
archaeological site has revealed stone tools from the Pleistocene.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.F)
1.8-700,000 The Early Pleistocene.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 447)
1.8 Million The Olduvai subchron occurred and serves
as a paleomagnetic marker.
(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.47)
1.8 Mil BP Scientists dated early human remains in
Java to this time. Sumatra, Java, Bali and Borneo were joined to each
other and the Asian land mass during glacial periods of low sea level.
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.A4)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.20)
1.8 Mil BP In 1936 scientists discovered the skull of
a Homo erectus infant, the “Mojokerto child,” on Java that dated to
about this time. CT scans later revealed that the 12-month old infant’s
brain was 72-84% the size of an adult Homo erectus
(WSJ, 9/16/04, p.B7)
1.8 Million A possibly 1.8 million-year-old Homo
erectus jaw was dug up in Dmanisi, Georgia (formerly of the USSR).
(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.46)
1.8-1.75 Million Australopithecus boisei (first
called Zinjanthropus boisei), robust form from East Africa. Skull of
adult male found by M.D. Leakey in 1959 at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
He had a brain of 530 mm, the same as robustus, but so massive were his
face and cheek teeth that he became know as Nutcracker man.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 570, 575,599)
1.8-1.6 Mil BP New and more precise radio-potassium
dates on the Indonesian sites gave dates earlier than 1.25 million [for
Homo erectus]. [see 53,000-27,000]
(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.46)
1.8-1.2 Mil BP The Ross Sea off Antarctica was 6-7
degrees warmer. This was determined from shellfish fossils and 15
previously unknown species of algae found under the seabed off Cape
Roberts.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A10)
1.8Mil BC Fossils of the bipedal Paranthropus
robustus from the Swartkrans cave of South Africa dated to about this
time. The species went extinct about 1Mil BC. In 2006 new evidence
suggested the species had a broader diet than was believed earlier.
(SFC, 11/10/06, p.A4)
1.8Mil BC In 2006 a Petroleos de Venezuela team
looking for oil in Monagas state, found fossils of six scimitar cats,
or Homotherium, along with those of panthers, wolves, camels, condors,
ducks and horses, that dated to about this time.
(AP, 8/12/08)
1.8Mil -400k A mammoth found in 2005 in Moorpark,
southern California, dated to this period.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.A17)
1.79 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
1.75 Million Mary Leakey found a hominid fossil skull
of about 1,750,00 years old at Koobi Fora, Kenya, in 1970. It was named
Australopithecus boisei. [see 1.8 mil]
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.164)(NH, 4/97, p.21)
1.75 Million Homo erectus remains and stone tools of
this time were later found on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. The
tools were similar to ones in China dating at 1.66 million.
(Arch, 1/05, p.12)
c1.7 million Hominid fossils and crude stone tools of
this time were found in the former Soviet republic of Georgia in 1991
beneath the ruins of a medieval castle at Dmanisi. A 3rd smaller skull
was found in 2002. All 3 were tentatively classified as Homo erectus.
One skull of a man indicated that he had been almost toothless for at
least 2 years before death.
(SFC, 5/12/00, p.A5)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A5)(SFC, 4/7/05,
p.A3)
1.7 Mil to100,000 This is the approximate cultural
period named Acheulean. Cultural period names are derived from sites in
western Europe where Paleolithic remains: such as bones, tools,
weapons, ornaments or cave art, were first identified. The Acheulean
refers to the Lower Paleolithic Age lasting from the 2nd to the 3rd
interglacial epoch and marked by the use of finely made bifacial tools
with multiple cutting edges.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 447)(WUD, 1994, p.11)
1.7-1.6 Mil Time of the "Oldowan Core," a chunk of
quartzite which appears to owe its status as a hominid tool wholly to
paleontologist Richard Leakey.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.B3)
1.66 Million Stone tools of this age were later found
in northern China in the Nihewan Basin west of Beijing.
(Arch, 1/05, p.12)
1.64 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
1.63 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
1.61 Million An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
1.6Mil BC Homo erectus found at Kenya’s Lake Turkana
(Koobi Fora) was dated to this time by Dr. Francis Brown of the Univ.
of Utah using chemical analysis of volcanic ash. Homo ergaster, the
"Turkana boy" skull from Nariokotome, Kenya, was discovered in 1984. A
team led by Richard Leakey unearthed hominid bones date to this time at
Nariokotome in West Turkana, in northern Kenya. The skeleton of the
5-foot-3 Turkana Boy, who died at age 12, was preserved in marshland
before its discovery.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p.588)(NH, 4/97, p.71)(AP, 2/6/07)
1.6Mil BC Homo erectus dates from at least this far
back and had a brain capacity of some 1,000 ml, compared with our own
1,400. He was the first to control fire and to move out of Africa into
Europe and Asia.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 452)
1.6Mil BC Josep Gibert, a Spanish fossil hunter,
found a human skull fragment in southern Spain near Orce. It was dated
by reference to paleomagnetic markers and confirming faunal evidence.
The skull came from a site called Venta Micena and had associated stone
tools of Oldowan type. Of the 15,000 bones found here, one of the most
abundant is from Pachycrocuta brevirostris, an extinct giant hyena.
(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.47)
>1.5 Million A hand ax from Olduvai is part of an
art exhibit: Africa: The Art of a Continent, that is in London and will
travel to the Guggenheim. The catalog describes it as "a first thing
made by man."
(WSJ, 11/16/95, p.A-18)
1.5 Million Homo erectus. Skull of undetermined sex
found by B. Ngeneo in 1975 at Koobi Fora, Kenya. First identified as
Java man in 1893 and later as Peking man in the
1920s. Erectus fashioned more advanced tools and controlled fire.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 571,576)
1.5 Million The human brain began to expand as the
skull gained a forehead and then ballooned out like a melon.
(NH, 6/97, p.16)
1.44Mil BC In 2007 Meave Leakey reported that a Homo
habilis jaw from Kenya, found in 2000, dated to this time. It was the
youngest ever found from a species that scientists originally figured
died off somewhere between 1.7 and 2 million years ago. It enabled
scientists to say that Homo erectus and Homo habilis lived at the same
time.
(AP, 8/8/07)
1.4 Million Stone tools indicative of human activity
have been found at Ubedeiya in Israel.
(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.46)
1.4 Mil-600,000 A human skull from this period found
in Eritrea was the only one of this period from Africa and combined
features of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Like sapiens the skull is
widest at a higher point than the skulls of erectus.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A2)
1.25 Mill-250,000BC Over this period there were 13 major periods of
eruption by volcanoes in the Grand Canyon with more than 150 lava flows
into the canyon. These are described in the 1997 book "Late Cenozoic
Lava Dams in the Western Grand Canyon," by W.K. Hamblin.
(NH, 9/97, p.37,39)
1.2 Million Homo erectus had already pioneered the
global trek to Asia and Europe.
(PacDis, Spg. 96, p.46)
1.2Mil BC In 2007 Spanish researchers said they had
unearthed a human tooth more than one million years old, which they
estimated to be the oldest human fossil remain ever discovered in
western Europe.
(AFP, 6/29/07)
1.1Mil BC In 2008 scientists reported fossils, found
in a cave in northern Spain, of Homo antecessor, that dated to before
this time.
(SFC, 3/27/08, p.A5)
1Mil BC DNA evidence in 2008 suggested that the black
rat originated in South-East Asia about this time and then split into 6
lines, one of which colonized India and the Middle East and then spread
to Europe.
(Econ, 3/15/08, p.97)
Go to 1 Mill BP