A TIMELINE FOR
THE PLANET click for Home Page
THE AGE OF HOMINIDS
Life of Universe life of Planet age of Mammals age of humans
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Birth To put things in perspective -- age of hominids is in red (very nearly zero on
this scale)----------↓ of
planet 4 (kMy) 3
2
1
now
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Y’rs ago (millions) |
Events |
Climate |
‘Epoch’ |
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cool |
Miocene |
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5? |
(or possibly
earlier) Hominids appear more |
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Period |
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4.3 |
gradual |
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Pliocene |
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period |
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4 |
Med refills (suddenly) more |
descent |
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(5.0-1.6 My) |
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into |
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3.5 |
Greenhouse conditions
(no details available) |
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ice age |
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3.3 |
(to 2.4) planet cools, E. Africa dries |
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3 |
start of recent
ice ages |
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rapid |
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glacial |
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2.5 |
first Oldowan
tools more
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cycles |
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2.4 |
first Homos (H. habilis) more |
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getting |
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gradually |
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2 |
Warm period? (or 2.4) |
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1.9 |
first Homos leave Africa |
colder |
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1.8 |
Homos reach China & Java |
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1.6 |
(date
uncertain) first signs of
fire (& cooking?) |
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1.5 |
mighty hunter arrives
(H. erectus) more |
Inter- |
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1.4 |
First Acheulian
tools more artefacts found in
Europe |
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glacial |
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rapid |
Pleistocene |
|
1 |
dawn of language?? more |
glacial |
Period |
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|
cycles |
(1.6My – 10ky) |
|
0.8 |
|
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|
|
0.7 |
Magnetic field reversal |
inter- |
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|
0.6 |
H. heidelbergensis appears (the spear throwers) more |
glacial |
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0.5 |
Acheulian tools
used outside Africa. northern Europe colonised |
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|
0.4 |
the butchers of
Boxgrove more
|
rapid |
|
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0.3 |
first huts first use of pigments 0.25 first
stone spear points |
glacial |
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0.2? |
Modern humans appear (in Africa) & Neanderthals
(in Europe) |
cycles |
Age of |
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|
Moderns reach Europe & Asia |
ICE |
modern [exp] |
|
0 |
Moderns &
Neanderthals develop ‘advanced’ culture |
|
humans |
© C B Pease, Sept 07