| -13,700,000,000 |
|
Beginning of the universe: "Big Bang" |
| -4,600,000,000 |
|
Age of Sun and Earth |
| -3,800,000,000 |
|
Earliest single-celled life appears on Earth |
| -1,000,000,000 |
|
First multi-cellular plants (algae) appear |
| -540,000,000 |
|
Start of Cambrian Period, life proliferates in the sea |
| -450,000,000 |
|
Vegetation colonizes land, and Arthropods first land animals |
| -350,000,000 |
|
Formation of Pangaea supercontinent |
| -300,000,000 |
|
First amphibians and reptiles |
| -230,000,000 |
|
First dinosaurs and early mammals appear |
| -200,000,000 |
|
Continents begin to split into present configuration |
| -150,000,000 |
|
Archaeopteryx earliest known bird |
| -70,000,000 |
|
First primates and other modern mammals appear |
| -65,000,000 |
|
Dinosaurs die out |
| -15,000,000 |
|
Great apes speciate from other apes and monkeys |
| -4,000,000 |
|
Bipedal ape-like hominids first appear in Africa |
| -2,500,000 |
|
Australipithecus and Homo Habilis start to make tools |
| -1,500,000 |
|
Homo Erectus and Homo Ergaster control fire |
| -200,000 |
|
Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Sapiens appear |
| -40,000 |
|
"Great Leap Forward" in human cognitive development |
| -25,000 |
|
Cro-Magnon Man reaches Europe - earliest Paleolithic art |
| -25,000 |
|
Neanderthals die out and Homo Sapiens dominates |
| -15,000 |
|
First Asian migrants cross Bering Straits to North America |
| -11,000 |
|
End of last "ice age" and start of current interglacial period |
| -8,000 |
|
Extinction of mastodons and other megafauna |
| -6,000 |
|
New Stone Age (Neolithic) in Europe - settled agriculture |
| -3,000 |
|
Bronze Age in Europe |
| -1,800 |
|
Main circle built at Stonehenge, Britain |
| -1,000 |
|
Iron Age in Europe |
