History/Origins of Energy, Matter, Space, Time, and Life (2 of 3)
Dan Fake
*** From ~95 Million Years Ago to ~42,000 Years Ago ***
Years Ago
Event
------------------------------------------
~95 million ....
Australia and Antarctica are still connected over
the South Pole; Europe and India are islands, North
America is mostly a shallow sea with most of its land
area out in what occupies the current day Atlantic
Ocean.
~65 million .....
Cretaceous mass extinction, the 2nd largest
extinction in history with over 85% of all families
disappearing, including most dinosaurs - causality
suspects:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/darwin/exfiles/asteroid1.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/darwin/exfiles/asteroid2.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/darwin/exfiles/volcano.htm
Volcanic explosions occur - The Deccan Traps in
west-central India, consisting of basalt lava flows
covering an area of nearly 200,000 square miles
(roughly the size of the states of Washington and
Oregon combined):
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/southeast_asia/india/deccan.html
North America's land mass is divided by a vast
shallow sea; the island of South America is quite
south of its eventual location; Europe has split
into several smaller islands; Africa is divided into
a large eastern island and a smaller western one in
its northwest hump; Australia has separated from
Antarctica on its northward journey to its current
location; the island of India is still quite distant
from Asia.
~60 million .....
Earliest-known rodents evolve, resembling small
squirrels - rodents are the largest order of
mammals in the present day, by far, with about
2,000 species in 35 families; first armadillos
evolve; creodonts, the dominant flesh-eating
mammals for 30 million years, appear on the
scene.
~55 million .....
Mammals begin to thrive; earliest lagomorph
(ancestor to pikas, rabbits, hares) evolves.
~50 million .....
Bear-dogs, a varied and successful group of
hunting animals, originate and spread through
Europe and North America.
~45 million .....
First anteaters evolve.
Shallow seas retreat in North America; continents
appear fairly modern in form; quite a large sea area
still separates Africa from Europe and Asia; India
is now north of the equator on its journey towards
its eventual landfall in Asia.
~40 million .....
Life thrives and expands in cold but nutrient-
rich Antarctic bottom waters; toothed whales'
land-roving mammalian ancestors return to the
sea; canids (including the modern foxes, jackals,
coyotes, wolves, and dogs) originate at this
time; camels make their debut.
~35 million .....
Beavers evolve - the early beaver was small
and lived on and near freshwater lakes;
creodonts evolve to a large size in Mongolia
with one of the largest, Sarkastodon, bigger
than the biggest bear; modern raccoons and
pandas first appear; earliest cats evolve;
rhinoceroses evolve; deerlike animals evolve.
~33 million .....
New world monkeys evolve in South
America (Bolivia).
~30 million .....
Grassland and trees with fruits spread; mammals
help pollinate and fertilize as they graze and
swallow fruits; earth grows cooler and extinction
overtakes animals requiring steamy climates;
seals first appear; pigs make their debut.
~25 million .....
Onset of Antarctic ice shelf.
~20 million .....
Mountain ranges (the Cordilleras, the Andes,
the Himalayan range) form; most great groups
of mammals appear essentially modern in form;
opening of Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
India has merged with Asia; Africa is still
separate from Europe and Asia; Hawaiian
volcanic islands have been formed; South
and North America are still separated and
North America and Asia are still connected
via an Alaskan land bridge. Australia and
Antarctica are near their modern-day locations.
~18 million .....
Proconsul africanus (woodland ape) appears to be
the best candidate yet discovered to be the origin
point (distant ancestor) from which all modern
species of apes and all hominids--human beings
included--evolved.
~15 million .....
Hyenas appear.
~13 million .....
Orangutans depart from the combined great ape
and human line.
~12 million .....
Dryopithecus ("tree ape") may have begun the
evolutionary line that developed into modern apes
and Homo sapiens; Sivapethecus appears, an ape
between life in the trees and life on the ground,
chimpanzee-like feet, orangutan-like face;
Ramapithecus ape appears, a little smaller in
stature than Sivapethecus.
~10 million .....
Opening of Gulf of California.
~8 million ......
The great ape (or gorilla) line splits from the
combined chimpanzee and human line.
~7 million ......
A fall in sea level cuts off the Mediterranean from
the Atlantic Ocean - over the next 2 million years,
the Mediterranean repeatedly reflooded and dried
out; salt deposits of up to 6,500 feet have been left
in some places.
~5 million ......
The human line splits from the chimpanzee line.
Continents are essentially modern in form; Iceland
volcanic island appears; Atlantic Ocean rises enough
to flood back into the Mediterranean.
~4.4 million ....
Earliest known hominid fossils, Australopithecus
ramidus, found in Aramis, Ethiopia, in 1994
(hominids are any of a family of bipedal primate
mammals including recent humans together with
extinct and related forms).
~4.2 million ....
Australopithecus amenesis found in Lake Turkana,
Kenya, in 1995:
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline/afarensis/afarensis-a.html
~4 million ......
Australopithecus afarensis (named "Lucy" after
the Beatles' song, Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds)
found in Ethiopia, 1974; brain size was a little
larger than a chimpanzee (about 400 cc)- likely
a common ancestor of both modern humans and
the robust Australopithecines; shockwave links
to skull finds regarding human evolution (from
the American Museum of Natural History - when
skulls appear, click/hold/move your lesser used
mouse button to rotate the skulls and compare
them to modern humans):
http://www.amnh.org/enews/iskulls.html
~3 million ......
Australopithecus africanus (southern ape of
Africa), unearthed in the Transvaal in 1924;
brain size up to 400 cc - ancestral to Austral-
opithecus robustus:
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline/africanus/africanus-b.html
Recent discovery (in 1998) of a 1.22-meter-tall (four
feet) hominid (ape-man) north of Johannesburg,
South Africa:
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_231000/231442.stm
~2.5 million ....
Recent discovery - earliest find of technology
being used to eat meat and scrape marrow out of
bones; fossil find, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was
of skull and tooth fragments that may be those of
a completely new hominid - a "missing link" or
human-like species with long arms and long legs.
The scientists have called their new hominid
Australopithecus garhi, after the local word for
"surprise". From anatomical analyses and measure-
ments they argue Australopithecus garhi is quite
distinct from Australopithecus africanus and from
the other hominid species known to be alive around
the same time and may be a creature that immediately
preceded humans:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_326000/326037.stm
~2.2 million ....
Australopithecus robustus, a sideline of human
evolution with large build, apelike face, and
brain size of around 400 cc, not considered
ancestral to humans:
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline/robustus/robustus-a.html
Homo habilis ("Handy Man"), increase in brain
size, less massive jaws and brow ridges than its
predecessors, chipped stone tools, lived in semi-
permanent camps, had a food-gathering economy,
descended from either Australopithecus afarensis
or Australopithecus africanus; by this time,
several hominines existed side-by-side in East
Africa:
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline/robustus/robustus-a.html
~2 million ......
Homo erectus ("Upright Man"), found in Africa
(Tanzania, South Africa, and Algeria), Europe
(Germany, Spain, France, Greece, and Hungary),
and Asia (Java and China); further increase
in brain size from 900 to 1,200 cc, skeletal
structure similar to modern humans, specialized
tools included spears/projectiles/blades/scrapers/
choppers, created settlements as evidenced from
a site in southern France which included huts with
brushwood walls supported on a framework of poles
and anchored by stones, began spreading to Asia
and Europe soon after its origins.
Based on clues from fossils of primordial throats and
jaws at this time, physical capacity for speech may have
evolved at this time:
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/science/20000124/t000007551.html
~1.8 million ....
Populations of Homo erectus reach south and
southeast Asia.
~1.6 million ....
Earliest evidence of the use of fire, at Chesowanja,
Kenya and Swartkrans (South Africa).
~1 million ......
Proliferation of Homo erectus, including the spread
into many areas of Asia and Europe; beginning of
the modern (Pleistocene) Ice Age.
~800,000
Earliest evidence thus far of sea-faring, in Bali, by
Homo erectus:
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_64000/64943.stm
~640,000 ........
The last eruption in the Yellowstone Park area of America
occurred at this time, resulting in massive volcanic flood
basalt flows, covering a large area of the present-day
northwest United States … this is one of the largest
supervolcanoes in the world. Scientists have revealed
that it has been on a regular eruption cycle of 600,000
years, so it is long overdue:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/horizon/supervolcanoes.shtml
~500,000 ........
Homo heidelbergensis - DNA evidence shows this
to be the common ancestor of Neanderthals and
modern humans.
Indirect archeological evidence suggests humanity
acquired language at this time, per anthropologist
Leslie C. Aiello at the University of London:
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/science/20000124/t000007551.html
~400,000 ........
Axes and spears in use; Homo erectus or its
close relative spreads widely from Africa
through Asia, evolving into Archaic Homo
sapiens.
The surviving physical evidence suggests that the
transition from Homo erectus to Archaic Homo
sapiens, the earliest forms of our own species,
occurred approximately 300,000 to 400,000 years
ago; skulls of Archaic Homo sapiens - 1st appear-
ance of our species, resembling Homo erectus,
exemplified by discoveries in Greece and France:
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline/h-sapiens/h-sapiens-a.html
Recent findings indicate mitochondrial DNA research
might place the common ancestor of modern humans
approximate to this time period:
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid%5F294000/294808.stm
~300,000 ........
Possibly the oldest known human structure, a hut,
is found at Terra Amata, France.
~200,000 ........
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (Neanderthals),
discovered in Germany in 1856, later found
throughout the Mediterranean region of Europe
and in Asia (Israel); powerfully built, 30 percent
larger and heavier than modern humans, brain size
over 1,400 cc which is larger than modern humans,
the speech areas of the Neanderthal brain are not as
developed as modern humans and the forebrain is
smaller; major advance in toolmaking:
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline/neander/neander-a.html
~130,000 ........
Homo sapiens sapiens; 1st truly modern human,
found in Omo in East Africa, represents the earliest
known example of a modern human being; its skull
size and shape are completely modern:
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline/h-sapiens-sapiens/h-sapiens-sapiens-a.html
~120,000 .........
Anatomically modern humans living in Klasies River
Mouth (South Africa).
~115,000 .........
Anatomically modern humans living in Border Cave
(South Africa).
~100,000 ........
Early migration of Homo sapiens sapiens out of
Africa, to the eastern Mediterranean and Greece
(mitochondrial DNA evidence):
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/dailynews/ancienthuman_route991130.html
~90,000 .........
Anatomically modern humans living in Qafzeh,
Israel.
~87,000 .........
Acheulean culture as revealed in Shanidar Cave
(base) in Iraq.
~85,000 .........
Early knives.
~80,000 .........
Neanderthals dominate Europe; stone lamps
fueled by animal fat; bone tools used in the
Congo; earliest evidence of musical instruments.
~75,000 .........
Anatomically modern humans inhabit China and
southeast Asia.
~74,000 .........
The last supervolcano to erupt was Toba 74,000 years
ago in Sumatra. Ten thousands times bigger than Mt St
Helens, it created a global catastrophe dramatically affecting
life on Earth. Scientists know that another one is due - they
just don't know when…. or where.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/horizon/supervolcanoes.shtml
The evidence suggests that humans came within a cigarette
paper’s thickness of becoming extinct along about this
time:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DyeHard/dye990526.html
A new hypothesis about recent human evolution suggests
that humans came close to extinction because of a 'volcanic
winter' that occurred 71,000 years ago. Some scientists
estimate that there may have been as few as 15,000 humans
alive at one time. The 'volcanic winter' lasted about six years.
It was followed by 1,000 years of the coldest Ice Age on
record. It brought widespread famine and death to human
populations around the world. It also affected subsequent
human evolution:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_166000/166869.stm
~67,000 .........
Anatomically modern humans in Linjang, China.
~62,000 .........
Neanderthal Mousterian culture as revealed in
Shanidar Cave (layers D, C) in Iraq.
~50,000 .........
Homo sapiens sapiens migrate out of Africa into
Asia and Australia - abstract designs painted on
rocks in Australia - the Aborigines' way of life,
involving hunting and gathering and the use of
Stone-Age technologies, was well adapted to the
Australian environment and changed very little
until the advent of the Europeans.
Early modern human site, in Zasaragi, Japan.
~42,000 .........
Evidence of first humans to reach the Americas
due to the hunting of herds of mammoth, bison,
and mastodon across the wide bridge of iced over
land connecting Asia to North America until
the end of the last ice age, ~12,000 years ago.
--- end 2 of 3 ---
---
Dan Fake, Atheist #1468 + Freethinker #2b + Humanist #2b2
(Atheist+ who cares deeply about truth and freedom
and maxing out this one and only experience we all
know and share on this earth, at this time, in this life)
Mike Pierce
Dan Fake wrote in message
<18wu4.642$Ns2....@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>...
>History/Origins of Energy, Matter, Space, Time, and Life (2 of 3)
>*** From ~95 Million Years Ago to ~42,000 Years Ago ***
>
>Years Ago
>
>Event
>------------------------------------------
>
>~95 million ....
>
>Australia and Antarctica are still connected over
>the South Pole; Europe and India are islands, North
>America is mostly a shallow sea with most of its land
>area out in what occupies the current day Atlantic
>Ocean.
>
reduced for brevity...
Dan Fake
>How do theists react to the evidence you present here?
This is a regular post I make every month or two here lately so
the replies vary. Initially, there was some kickback and arguments
between fundamentalist christians and christians who were open
to the scientific explanations as being OK.
Lately, there seems to be a general acceptance by the theistic
community that the science and mountain of evidence in these
posts is so overwhelming, well, what can they say? Perhaps,
"but - but - but there IS a god" is about the best they can do
when confronted with the overwhelming evidence here that
there is no god and no religion that came anywhere close to
describing such a series of events to early human cultures in
any way resembling the reality of the geological, biological,
anthropological, astronomical, and historical record.
---
Dan Fake, Atheist #1468 + Freethinker #2b + Humanist #2b2
(Atheist+ who cares deeply about truth and freedom
and maxing out this one and only experience we all
know and share on this earth, at this time, in this life)
>
>Dan Fake wrote in message
><18wu4.642$Ns2....@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>...
>>History/Origins of Energy, Matter, Space, Time, and Life (2 of 3)
>>*** From ~95 Million Years Ago to ~42,000 Years Ago ***
>>
>>Years Ago
>>
>>Event
>>------------------------------------------
>>
>>~95 million ....
>>
>>Australia and Antarctica are still connected over
>>the South Pole; Europe and India are islands, North
>>America is mostly a shallow sea with most of its land
>>area out in what occupies the current day Atlantic
>>Ocean.
>>
>reduced for brevity...