From Atoms to Human: This timeline tells the complete story from the Big Bang to modern civilization. The epic tale from space dust to inorganic molecules to the first DNA life all the way to modern civilization.
Human Evolution
Big Bang Expansion
13.8 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
First Atoms
13.7 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Population III Stars: Heavier Elements
13.6 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Population II Stars: Heavy Element Synthesis
13.59 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Galaxies are Born
13.4 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Birth of the Milky Way
About 13.39 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Population I Stars: Like our Sun
10 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Interstellar Clouds: Organic Molecules
10 Billion Years Ago
Verified: 10 to 7 Billion Years Ago
Birth of the Sun
4.6 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Earth is Born
4.5 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
First Atmosphere: Hydrogen & Helium
4.48 Billion Years Ago
4.49 to 4.6 Billion Years Ago
Inorganic Precursors to Organic Molecules
4.45 Billion Years Ago
Spedulative guess: 4.2 to 4.4 Billion Years Ago
Second Atmosphere: Carbon Dioxide & Nitrogen
4.3 Billion Years Ago
4.5 to 4 Billion Years Ago
First Oceans: Fresh Water
4.2 Billion Years Ago
4 to 4.4 Billion Years Ago
First Life: Self-Replicating Molecules
4.2 Billion years ago (+/- 200 million)
Self-replication emerges
Metabolic Pathways
4.1 Billion Years Ago (+/- 200 milion)
Self-sustaining chemical reactions
Chemical Evolution of Organic Molecules
4.1 Billion Years Ago
Spedulative guess: 4 to 4.4 Billion Years Ago
Formation of Prebiotic Microenvironments
4 Billion Years Ago
Spedulative guess: 3.9 to 4.1 Billion Years Ago
Cellular Membranes
3.9 Billion Years Ago
Spedulative guess: 3.8 to 4.1 Billion Years Ago
Assembly of Protocells
3.9 Billion years ago (+/- 100 million)
The engine gets wrapped in a bubble.
RNA World
3.85 Billion Years Ago (before LUCA)
Leading Hypothesis: Molecules drifted; Chemistry binds.
LUCA: Last Universal Common Ancestor
3.75 Billion years ago (+/- 100 million)
DNA, Ribosomes, and ATP
Prokaryotic Life
3.73 Billion Years Ago (after LUCA)
Membrane and metabolic diversity.
Touch: Life Learns to Feel Force
~3.72 Billion Years Ago (after prokaryotes)
Mechanical sensitivity to pressure and membrane stretch
Presentient Animals Emerge: The Ediacaran Prelude
635-600 Million Years Ago
Proto-brain; Pre-brain memory; Presentient.
Chemoreception: Taste and Smell Emerge
600 Mya
True Circulatory Systems: Blood Veins
545 Million Years Ago (after through-gut digestion: mouth/anus)
Circulatory fluid transport (veins)
Vision Emerges: The Pre-fish Chordates
540 Mya
Vision Emerges; Proto-Simple Brains; Pre-vertebrate Cord.
Simple Sentience Settles: Haikouichthys
520 Million BCE
Simple Brains; Proto-Short-Term Memory; Simple Sentience.
Long-Term Memory Evolves: Tiktaalik
375 Mya
Complex Brains; Long-Term Memory; Simple Sentience.
Land Hearing Emerges: Amphibians
370 Mya
Land Hearing Emerges; Yet Larger Brains.
Early Complex Sentience Emerges: Dimetrodon
295 Million BCE
Complex Brains; Long-Term Memory; Early Complex Sentience.
XX/XY Sex System Emerges: A Tale of Mammalian Evolution
240 Million Years Ago
Morganucodon: An Early Mammalian
203 Million BCE (+/- 3 million)
Differentiated teeth and true mammalian jaw
Early Play Evolves in Mammals
190 Million Years Ago (+/- 10 million years)
Parental care, brain plasticity, extended juvenile period
Complex Sentience Settles: Eomaia scansoria
circa 125 Million BCE
Complex Brains; Long-Term Memory; Complex Sentience; Likely Proto Self-aware.
Appendix
80 Million BCE
Higher Play Evolves in Social Mammals
80 Million Years Ago (+/- 10 million years)
Enlarged neocortex
Purgatorius — Earliest known proto-primate.
66 Million BCE
Grasping hand and flexible ankles
Opposable Thumb Emerges
60 Million Years Ago
Plesiadapis: First fruit-insect eaters.
56 Million BCE (+/- 2 million)
Enhanced color perception, Diet-driven brain growth
Early Self-Awareness: Miacis
50 Million BCE
Territory memory, where things are, hippocampus development
Ape Thumb Evolves
32 Million Years Ago (+/- 2 million)
Early Intelligence Emerges: Aegyptopithecus zeuxis
30 Million BCE
Complex Brains; Long-Term Memory; Complex Sentience; Semi Self-awareness settles in.
Baboons Branch Off: Old World Monkeys
27 Million Years Ago (+/- 2 million)
Large neocortex, Coalition politics emerge
Panamacebus transitus: Earliest Known Monkey in the Americas
circa 21 Million Years Ago
Genus Proconsul (Self-Awareness Settles)
20 Million Year Ago (+/- 2 Million Years)
Complex Brains; Long-Term Memory; Complex Sentience; Maybe Self-aware; Likely Simple EI.
Emergence of Blood Type Variability in Primates
circa 20 million years ago
Phenotype Variations
Great Apes: Medicine Emerges
18 Million Years Ago, ± 3 million years
Causal reasoning, Early prefrontal integration
Gibbons Branch Off: Genus Hylobates
17 Million Years Ago, ± 1 million
Long-distance pair bonding, Fine motor control
Emergence of the Great Apes (Great Apes LCA)
16.5 Million Years Ago (+/- 2 Million Years)
Tool potential begins, Neocortical expansion
Genus Kenyapithecus: EI Emerges
Lived 16 to 14 Million Years Ago
Prefrontal–limbic integration, Reading others, Modulating reaction
Laughter Emerges
14.5 Million Years Ago (+/- 2 million)
Limbic vocalization pathways, Breath control
Skin Color Diversity Across and within Primate Species
By 14 Million Years Ago
Phenotype Variations
Genus Dryopithecus: Cultural Transmission Emerges
Emerged 13 mya, extinct 9 to 7 mya
Cultural Transmission
Gorillas Branch Off: Genus Nakalipithecus
Emerged 10 mya, extinct 9.8 to 9 mya.
Ancestral Hominids (us, pre-split)
Transition from Trees to Savannah Begins
9 Million Years Ago
Enhanced spatial mapping and endurance planning
Chimpanzees Branch Off (CHLCA)
7.5 Million Years Ago
Advanced coalition politics and tool precursors
Genus: Sahelanthropus (Walking Upright)
7 Million BCE
Partial bipedal posture + visual reorientation
Genus: Orrorin
6 Million Years Ago (Maybe Us)
Femoral adaptation, Motor cortex recalibration
Genus: Ardipithecus
Lived 5.8 to 4.4 Million Years Ago (Maybe Us)
Reduced aggression, Reduced canine dimorphism
Echoes of Early Steps: The Laetoli Footprints
3.66 Million Years Ago
Hominin
Early Wood tools
3.4 Million Years Ago
cognitive sequencing + motor precision + future modeling
Early Stone Tools
3.3 Million BCE (Hominins)
Prefrontal Cortex Expansion, Internal 3D modeling
Collective Learning Emerges
3.3 Million Years Ago
Human Laughter Emerges
3 Million Years Ago
+/- 1 million years
Human Thumb Evolves
3 Million Years Ago (+/- 400,000 years)
Genus: Australopithecus
2.9 Million BCI
Hominin, Us, From 4.2 to 2 MYA
Homo habilis: Our Intelligence Settles.
2.3 Million BCE
First Proto-Containers
2 Million Years Ago
Homo erectus: A True Omnivore
1.9 Million BCE
Emergence of Early Hominin Shelters
1.8 Million Years Ago (+/- 500,000 years)
Oldest Modern Human-like Footprints
1.52 Million BCE
1.53 to 1.51 Million BCE
Less Body Hair Emerges in Homo erectus
1.2 Million BCE
Supported by DNA evidence.
Homo antecessor: Earlier Modern Looks
1.2 Million BCE
Rapid Brain Growth
800,000 BCE
800,000 to 200,000 BCE
Fire-Altered Stone Tools
790,000 BCE
Genus Homo
Hyoid Bone: Speach Emerges
700,000 BCE
Full Emotional Intelligence Emerges
700,000 Years Ago
Homo heidelbergensis
Circa 640,000 Years Ago
Homo heidelbergensis on Earth from about 640,000 to 200,000 BCE.
First Clothes: Proto-Clothing and the Advent of Garments
600,000 Years Age
Transcendental Intelligence Emerges
475,000 Years Ago
Neanderthal-Sapien LCA
440,000 Years Ago (+/- 40,000 years)
Homo neanderthalensis: Verified True Symbolic Thought
430,000 BCE
On Earth from 430,000 to 29,000 BCE
Terra Amata Site, France
circa 400,000 Years Ago
Nice, France
Oldest Surviving Spear
350,000 BCE
400,000 to 300,000 BCE
Homo naledi: A Likely Hybrid
335,000 BCE
Human, but probably not our human branch.
Homo Sapiens: Advanced Transcendental Intelligence
315,000 BCE
Neanderthal-Denisovan Split
300,000 BCE
500 to 30 Thousand BCE
Venus of Tan-Tan
300,000 BCE
Africa; 300,000 to 500,000 years ago
Hominin World Population: 2 Million (maybe)
300,000 BCE
Very speculative.
Homo rhodesiensis: A Hybrid Lesson
300,000 Years Ago
Survived from about 300,000 to 125,000 years ago.
Bhimbetka Petroglyphs, Cupules
Before 290,000 BCE
Hominins; 290,000 to 700,000 years ago
Adam: Haplogroup A
275,000 BCE
Extinction: Homo naledi
236,000 Years Ago
Extinction: Homo heidelbergensis
200,000 Years Ago
Eve: Haplogroup L
175,000 BCE
200,000 to 150,000 BCE
Modern Human Looks and Brains
150,000 BCE
200,000 to 150,000 BCE
Homo longi: Rewriting Human Migration Narratives
146,000 Years Ago
Extinction: Homo rhodesiensis
125,000 Years Ago
Many Early Out of Africa Migrations
120,000 BCE
130,000 to 100,000 BCE
Blombos Cave Engravings
75,000 BCE
“The” Human DNA
70,000 BCE
2,800 Generations Ago
Successful Out of Africa Migration
70,000 BCE
Starting by 70,000 BCE
Oldest Known Bracelet
70,000 BCE
2,880 Generations Ago
World Population: 1.5 Million
By 70,000 BCE
The Settlement of Australia
65,000 BCE
Homo sapiens or an earlier Homo species
Extinction: Homo luzonensis
65,000 BCE
Extinction: Homo Erectus
50,000 BCE
Extinction: Homo floresiensis
48,000 BCE
58,000 to 48,000 BCE
Phenotype Variation: Eye Shape and the Epicanthic Fold
circa 40,000 BCE
Extinction: Denisovans
40,000
Extinction: Neanderthals
38,000 BCE
Extinction range: 38,000 BCE to 22,000 BCE
Advanced Sewing Needles
28,000 BCE
28,000 to 21,000 BCE
Modern Skin Color Variety Emerges
By 25,000 Years Ago (+/- 10,000 years)
Phenotype Variation: Blue Eyes
8000 BCE
Genetic Mutation from the Neolithic Era
Mexico: Guilá Naquitz (Agrarian)
circa 8000 BCE
Americas Agrarian Society
Phenotype Variation: Lactose Tollerance
7500 BCE
Fuxi (伏羲)
Circa 8000-7000 BCE
Nüwa (女娲)
Circa 8000-7000 BCE
Cuneiform Writing
3400 BCE
3400 BCE to 100 CE (end of use for scholarly work)
The Yellow Emperor (Huangdi)
circa 2650 BCE (+/- 50 years)
Thales of Miletus (624 – 546 BCE)
Early or "First" Science
The Grandfather of Western Philosophy
Library of Ashurbanipal
Built circa 700 BCE, destroyed 612 BCE.
Socrates (469 – 399 BCE)
Socratic Questioning
Father of Western Ethics
Francis Bacon
born 1561
1561 to 1626
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
British Naturalist
Special Relativity
Jun 1905
General Relativity
Nov 1915
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
20 May 1965