Earth Timeline: by Faraj Allah Idrees Faraj Allah Supervised by Mr. Bawer

Earth timeline
By Faraj Allah Idrees Faraj Allah

Supervised by Mr. Bawer
Introduction
4,567,000,000 years ago, Earth was covered in molten lava. Earth was
completely unrecognizable. In its earliest stage of formation, it was
inhabitable as it clumped from a cloud of dust.
Since about 1,000,000,000 years ago, Earth had its first signs of life.
Single-celled organisms consumed the sun’s energy. As a waste product,
this cyanobacteria eventually filled the oceans and atmosphere with
oxygen.
Next, an oxygenated atmosphere paved the way for more complex life
forms to exist. At about 100,000,000 years ago, dinosaurs roamed the
Earth until their abrupt extinction.
Finally, 10,000,000 years ago was the age of mammals. And these
mammals are our direct ancestors. It was only 100,000 years ago when
homo sapiens truly evolved.
In this Earth timeline, we lay out all the pieces on the floor. What
sequence of events have unfolded for Earth to support life and for it to
evolve?
Figure (1): History of earth

HADEAN EON (4.6 – 4.0 billion years ago) The
Sculpting of Earth
The Big Bang created all matter in the universe. This includes the sun,
planets and our solar system. At the center, the sun swept in smaller
elements like hydrogen and helium. Farther away, heavier elements
formed planets. Based on the core accretion model, gravity was the driver
coalescing Earth from a cloud of dust.
In this early stage of Earth’s creation, the heaviest material like iron sank
to the core. Lighter material remained on top to form a crust. Because the
solid inner core heats the outer liquid layer, it produces convection
currents. This geodynamo is Earth’s magnetic field. Without it, Earth
would be blasted by harmful rays from the sun.
In the late Hadean Eon, the Earth was still in its late bombardment stage.
Earth was hit by asteroids, comets and foreign objects left, right and
center. We know it wasn’t only Earth because because we can see these
impacts other places in our solar system. Some scientists believe that
water originated from the bombardment of comets at this time. In
addition, there’s reason to believe that these collisions could have
sparked the chemical building blocks for life – DNA.
One of the most important events for Earth was the formation of our
moon. The giant impact hypothesis describes it as an object the size of
Mars heading towards Earth at tremendous speed. After delivering a
glancing blow to Earth, gravity pulls this object into orbit where it has
remained ever since.
Figure (2): Sculpting Earth from Inside Out

ARCHEAN EON (4.0 – 2.5 billion years ago) Earth
Cooling and Primitive Life
The moon significantly impacted climate, oceans and life on Earth.

Because the moon’s orbit drags Earth, it slowed Earth’s rotation
significantly from 6 hour days to 24 hours. By having the moon in orbit, it
also stabilized the Earth from wobbling. But most importantly, the
collision of the moon tilted Earth on its axis. And because the Earth is
tilted on its axis, Earth now had seasons.
Eventually, the climate on Earth became more stable. Instead of a molten
state, the Earth started to cool down. Water vapor condensed to form
oceans. And the Earth cooled down enough to create continents.
“Vaalbara” became Earth’s first supercontinent.
As the Earth cooled down, a new form of life began to prosper. When
oxygen was absent in the atmosphere, cyanobacteria could convert
sunlight to energy. In shallow water, they metabolized their own food. As
a waste product, cyanobacteria released oxygen into the oceans.
When oxygen mixed with iron in the oceans, rusted iron collected on the
seafloor. The banded iron formation continued until there was no more
iron in the oceans to rust. Oxygen had nowhere to go but into the
atmosphere. That’s why this event is the Great Oxygenation Event.
PROTEROZOIC EON (2500 – 541 million years
ago) An Oxygenated Atmosphere
Earth now had an oxygenated atmosphere for new life to flourish on

Earth. But it wasn’t cyanobacteria flourishing. Because oxygen was toxic
for cyanobacteria, they poisoned all anaerobic life on Earth including
themselves. Imagine a dominant species polluting the planet until
extinction. The oxygen byproduct from cyanobacteria created an oxygen
crisis on Earth.
At this time, methane was more abundant in the atmosphere. One thing
that methane did very well was trap heat in the atmosphere. It’s one of
the most efficient greenhouse gases there are. So when oxygen combined
with methane, it produced carbon dioxide. All of a sudden, the
greenhouse effect wasn’t as strong. As a result, the whole planet froze. It
was “Snowball Earth” for the next 300,000,000 years.
Another important consequence of an oxygen-filled atmosphere was the
emergence of aerobic eukaryotes.Before oxygenation, life was anaerobic.
Eventually, aerobic respiration organisms emerged because of the
enriched atmosphere. This increased the complexity of life. For example,
multi-cellular organisms became apparent in this eon. But the abundance
of CO2 held eukaryotes from diversifying.
As oxygen filled the atmosphere, Earth’s ozone layer thickened. Before
the presence of an ozone layer, life was restricted to shallow water.
Because water shielded harmful radiation, that’s where life existed.
Eventually, a thicker ozone layer (O3) enabled life to diversify on land.
PALEOZOIC ERA (541 – 245 million years ago)
The Cambrian Explosion and Fossil Records
The Cambrian explosion was the largest diversification of life in Earth’s

history. Everything before this era was precambrian. We couldn’t identify
life because we didn’t have fossilized animals. This is when hard-shelled
invertebrates originated in the oceans. The Cambrian explosion started
with the Age of Invertebrates. And life got more diverse from there.
Next came the Age of Fish when thousands of fish species arose. Then, the
first vertebrate land animal made its leap ashore. Amphibians took a
breath of fresh air and colonized the empty continent of Gondwana. This
was the start of the Age of Amphibians. We share similar characteristics as
our vertebrate ancestors. For example, humans have spines, jaws and
mouths originating from fish.
In the Paleozoic Era, lush rainforests flourished on land. But due to an
abrupt shift in global warming, a major marine and terrestrial extinction
event began. This event was the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse. Plants
and swamps were buried, compacted and cooked into underground coal
deposits. It left behind vast deserts for reptiles to eventually dominate the
continental interior.
The Paleozoic Era ended with the largest extinction in Earth’s history. The
Permian-Triassic Extinction vanquished 96% of all marine species. About
70% of terrestrial vertebrate species were wiped out. Opinions vary about
the Permian-Triassic Extinction cause. But the consensus is that it was
from a major asteroid impact event.
MESOZOIC ERA (245 – 66 million years ago) The
Age of Reptiles and Dinosaurs
When Earth’s climate became hotter and drier, rainforests collapsed

triggering the Age of Reptiles. Reptiles are different from amphibians
because they lay their hard-shelled eggs on land. They essentially adapted
to the land by cutting all ties with the ocean. Because reptiles evolved to
dryland conditions, they gained a unique ecological advantage.
As conditions changed, dinosaurs (also known as terrible lizards) began to
evolve. These reptile-like mammals had scaly skin and hatched eggs like
reptiles. Some dinosaurs adapted as herbivores and some as carnivores.
For the next 160 million years, dinosaurs were the dominant land
vertebrates on Earth.
The Age of Conifers in the Mesozoic Era provided the spread of seeded
plants. Conifers store vast amounts of carbon. As a result, oxygen content
in the atmosphere jumped to 35% compared to 21% today. In addition,
they provided habitat, shelter and a source of food for specific animal
species to survive.
Also notable is that Pangea existed as one supercontinent in this era.
Dinosaurs lived on one supercontinent. Plate tectonics were the
mechanism that eventually tore continents apart. Don’t forget that
dinosaurs existed for 160 million years. So continental drift gradually
rifted dinosaurs apart. We know this because we can find the same fossils
on separate continents.
CENOZOIC ERA (66 million years ago – Now) The
Age of Mammals and Homo Sapiens
Ultimately, the start of the Cenozoic Era was the demise of dinosaurs.
After a 6-mile wide asteroid hit Earth, a dust cloud blocked the sun. This
caused temperatures to plummet which was the heart of the damage
from the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Because of the
worldwide climate disruption, it was responsible for the extinction of the
dinosaurs.
Mammals existed long before the Cenozoic Era. But they kept a low
profile because dinosaurs dominated the land. After the extinction of the
dinosaurs, this marked the Age of Mammals. When dinosaurs roamed the
Earth, mammals remained small and fury. And because dinosaurs went
extinct, mammals emerged as the largest land animals at this time.
Apes remained in trees for their primary food source. Eventually, grass
began to spread in places like the African Savannah and there were fewer
trees. This forced apes to walk to new food sources. With their heads
above the grass to see predators, apes evolved by walking on two legs. It
also helped to have their hands available when they were traveling.
Hominids were the early proto-humans. They were known for sharpening
objects with silicon rocks. They began to master the use of their hands
and fingers. In the stone age, early humans had fire under control. This
enabled them to cook their food giving them more calories. Modern
humans learned to make more complex sounds and share information in
groups So humans have only been around for about 0.004% of the age of
the Earth.
Geologic time is vast
It’s almost unimaginable the story of Earth. It spans over 4.5 billion years.
Scientists are still fitting all the pieces to the puzzle.
Since its creation, oceans, continents and life as we know it have
remarkably transformed. Life has evolved and adapted.
This article assembles some of the key events. From evolution to
extinction, these are event that have unfolded as part of Earth timeline
Though opinions vary, we’ve leaped through 4.5 billion years of Earth’s
history and provided a general guideline.

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Earth timeline

By Faraj Allah Idrees Faraj Allah

Figure (1): History of earth

Figure (2): Sculpting Earth from Inside Out

The moon significantly impacted climate, oceans and life on Earth.

Earth now had an oxygenated atmosphere for new life to flourish on

The Cambrian explosion was the largest diversification of life in Earth’s

When Earth’s climate became hotter and drier, rainforests collapsed

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