LECA: Likely Sexual Reproduction
LECA is the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor. LECA reproduced sexually pushing the mixing of DNA back before 1.75 billion years ago.
LECA: Likely Sexual Reproduction Read More »
All
Master Timeline
First True Fungi: Chytrids (and living fossils)
About 600 million years ago, chytrids live in moist and watery environments. They are living fossils in the sense they reproduce with sperm-like cells that can swim to a new area.
First True Fungi: Chytrids (and living fossils) Read More »
Animal Ancestors Split Off: Cadherin Cell Glue (Holozoa)
About 750 million years ago, our animal ancestors were part of a group called the Holozoa. They evolved specialized velcro-like cell glue called Cadherins.
Animal Ancestors Split Off: Cadherin Cell Glue (Holozoa) Read More »
Opisthokonts: True Posterior Flagellum
About 1.15 billion years ago, our animial-fungi ancestor evolve a true posterior flagellum. Single-celled animal sperm has a lineage back to this ancestor.
Opisthokonts: True Posterior Flagellum Read More »
Fungi Ancestors Split Off: (aquatic Holomycota)
About 950 million years ago, fungi ancestors evolve into multiple early-diverging lineages with flagellated spores: chytrid-like forms.
Fungi Ancestors Split Off: (aquatic Holomycota) Read More »
Unikonts: Single-Motor flagella Reform
About 1.3 billion years ago, our animal-fungi ancestor stopped using two pulling flagella and narrowed it down to a single motor.
Unikonts: Single-Motor flagella Reform Read More »
Bikonts: Plant Ancestors Split Off Again (Front-Pull Pioneers)
About 1.55 billion years ago, bikonts evolved two flagella to pull themselves forward. These tiny rowboats led to all plants and is not an animal-fungi ancestor.
Bikonts: Plant Ancestors Split Off Again (Front-Pull Pioneers) Read More »
Conifers branch off
Conifers branched about 300 million years ago with their seed-bearing cones (woody or modified), enabling them to thrive on dry land.
Conifers branch off Read More »
Redwood Lineage Emerges
The modern coast redwood species is about 25 million years old, but its lineage reaches back roughly 100 million years into the age of dinosaurs.
Redwood Lineage Emerges Read More »
The Senegal Bichir: A Living Fossil
The Senegal bichir represents an early branch of ray-finned fish, preserving traits that trace back nearly 380 million years.
The Senegal Bichir: A Living Fossil Read More »
Ginkgo biloba — A Living Fossil in My Backyard
A lineage can survive for hundreds of millions of years while remaining morphologically recognizable. Living fossil is poetic, but scientifically the ginkgo represents a relict lineage and a morphologically conservative lineage.
Ginkgo biloba — A Living Fossil in My Backyard Read More »
Stem Selachians: Modern Sharks LCA
The shark body plan stabilized early. By 300 million years ago, the streamlined, hydrodynamic silhouette that defines sharks today was already established.
Stem Selachians: Modern Sharks LCA Read More »
Alfred Korzybski
Humans do not respond directly to reality. We respond to our representations of it.
First Land Herbivore: Tyrannoroter heberti
By 307 million years ago, land herbivory had already begun in early reptiles known as microsaurs.
First Land Herbivore: Tyrannoroter heberti Read More »
Max Weber (1864–1920)
His core idea is that authority depends on perceived legitimacy, not moral agreement.
Max Weber (1864–1920) Read More »
Max Planck
Planck discovered limits by following the math honestly—even when it contradicted intuition.
Nicolas Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus lived quietly, worked carefully, and changed the universe without ever seeing the revolution he began.
Nicolas Copernicus Read More »
Platypus–Ape Common Ancestor
Not yet a “full” mammal, the last common ancestor between us and the platypus lived around 225 million years ago.
Platypus–Ape Common Ancestor Read More »
Proto-Play
In the shadowed forests of the Late Carboniferous, long before mammals, birds, or even dinosaurs, a few small, lizard-like amniotes began to do something remarkable — they started to move not just for need, but for pleasure. Between the still instincts of amphibians and the lively games of future mammals, something new flickered: proto-play. These
First True Dinosaur: Eoraptor lunensis.
One of the earliest known true dinosaurs in the Dinosauria order is Eoraptor lunensis. From this predatory bird-like precursor, the birds and dinosaurs emerged. This direct-line ancestor evolved into theropods, birds, sauropods and ornithischians. Eoraptor emerged during the Late Triassic period, approximately 231.4 million years ago, in what is now Argentina. It is considered one
First True Dinosaur: Eoraptor lunensis. Read More »