Timeline

Note: This chart is extremely large , and best viewed with your screen set to it's widest resolution

Years Ago Epoch Period/Age Era

             
4.57x109   Noachian (Mars)   Formation of Earth Formation of Mars? Theoretical creation of the Moon by a glancing blow to the Earth from a mars-sized body
4.4×109       Oldest known mineral.    
4.2x109   Hesperian (Mars)     Creation of large basins, planetary volcanism. Creation of the Tharsis Uplift.  
4.0x109       Planetary bombardment phase in solar system peters out.  Planetary bombardment phase in solar system peters out.   
3.8x109         Mars atmosphere thicker and wetter. Possible oceans, lakes, etc.  
3.6×109     Eoarchean Simple single-celled life   Date of Lunar basalt rocks collected by Apollo 11
3.5x109         Liquid water still on surface sculpting landforms  
3.2×109     Paleoarchean      
3.0x109         Liquid water no longer sculpting landforms   
2.8×109     Mesoarchean      
2.5×109     Neoarchean      
2.3×109   Siderian        
2.05×109   Rhyacian        
2.0x109   Amazonion (Mars)     Mature crust & thin atmosphere.  
1.8×109   Orosirian   Transition to oxygen atmosphere    
1.6×109   Statherian Paleoproterozoic First complex single-celled life    
1.4×109   Calymmian        
1.2×109   Ectasian        
1.0x109   Stennian Mesoproterozoic Formation of Rodinia    
850 million   Tonian   First acritarch radiation    
630 million   Cryogenian   Possible snowball Earth period, Rodinia begins to break up    
542 million   Ediacaran Neoproterozoic First multi-celled animals    
488 million   Cambrian   Major diversification of life in the Cambrian explosion

Cambrian Extinction Event. Theorised to be caused by global cooling 

    
443 million   Ordovician   Invertebrates dominant; first land plants    
438 million       Late Ordovician Extinction Brachiopods and Trilobites die out. Theorised to be caused by glaciation of Gondwana, causing a lowering of sea levels and global cooling. 2nd worst extinction event.     
416 million   Silurian   First vascular land plants, first jawed fish    
367 million       The Late Devonian Extinction - primarily affects marine organisms. Most likely caused by lowering of sea levels and global cooling.    
359 million   Devonian   First amphibians, club mosses and horsetails appear, progymnosperms (first seed bearing plants) appear    
318 million       Large primitive trees, first land vertebrates    
299 million   Carboniferous1   Abundant insects, first reptiles, coal forests    
251 million   Permian Paleozoic Permian Extinction Event - 95% of life on Earth becomes extinct. Partial causes: Possile asteroid/comet impact, flood basalt eruptions in Siberian Traps, possible greenhouse event (Release of methane gas stored in stable ice structures (clathrates)), causing a loss of oxygen in seas (anoxia). Bedout Impact Crater (dia 200km) off NW Australia occurs at this time.    
225 million       Late Triassic Extinction Event    
208 million       Triassic-Jurassic Extinction Event    
200 million   Triassic   First dinosaurs, Egg-laying mammals, breakup of Pangea into Gondwana and Laurasia    
146 million   Jurassic   Marsupial mammals, first birds, first flowering plants    
65.5 million   Cretaceous Mesozoic Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) Extinction Event - popularly attributed to an impact by an asteroid causing a "nuclear winter" & collapse of the food chain. Some also theorise it was due to massive flood basalt eruption (Deccan Traps.)

Dinosaurs reach peak, become extinct. Primitive placental mammals

    
55.8 million Paleocene          
37.2 million Eocene     Appearance of first "modern" mammals    
23.0 million Oligocene          
12 to 17 million         Mars Meteorite ALH 84001 asserted to bear possible fossil bacteria blasted into space  
10 Million         Last episode of catastrophic flooding due to volcanism & sub-surface water on Mars at Cerberus Fossae   
5.33 million Miocene          
1.81 million Pliocene Tertiary   Appearance of Homo Erectus. Lived in hunter-gather groups. Evidence of the earliest use of fire. Origins in Africa, and migrated out to Europe, Asia.     
190000       Appearance of Homo Sapiens.  
130000       Appearance of Neanderthal Man.  
30000 - 22000       Neanderthal Man extinct. Modern genetic evidence shows evidence of interbreeding between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal. All modern humans from Eurasia have about 1% - 4% Nanderthal DNA in their genetic makeup. Evidence of small pockets of last Neanderthal culture found in Gibraltar  
13000         Mars Meteorite ALH 84001 lands in Antarctica  
11430 Pleistocene     Extinction of many large mammals like mammoths, saber-tooth tigers, mastodons (North America), possibly due to a combination of environmental change and overhunting by humans.

Evolution of fully modern humans

    
Present day Holocene Quaternary Cenozoic End of ice age and rise of modern civilization    

 

 

Sources: Wikipedia.com, University of California - California Space institute, Mars Library , University of North Carolina - Geography and Earth Sciences,

Updated 2010