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Here, amidst the churning molten heat of the Precambrian landscape, your journey through our planet's history begins. Click and drag to look around you in each of the following slides as you advance from lava to life, meeting extraordinary creatures along the way...
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Precambrian Earth
About 4.6 billion years ago, the Earth was a molten ball of lava where heavier elements, like iron, sunk to the middle of the Earth to create the dense inner core. Slowly, the surface of the Earth cooled and hardened to form its crust.
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Thousands of volcanoes spewed out new gases which created our early atmosphere. There was no life during this time period, which is known as Precambrian Supereon.
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Molten Lava
Molten lava flows like thick molasses. As it cools, it hardens and turns black.
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Cooled Lava
Slightly cooler lava that has begun solidifying into rocks. Rock has a very low thermal conductivity, this means as the surface cools, the inside can stay hot for a long time.
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Volcanoes
The early Earth was a very volcanic place. Violent eruptions were everywhere.
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Asteroids
Asteroids are constantly bombarding the Earth. Without a thick atmosphere to protect its surface, many asteroids would make their way through to the Earth and cause damage to the planet itself or its atmosphere.
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Late Precambrian Earth
The Precambrian Supereon is the longest supereon in Earth history by far, spanning 4 billion years. This supereon starts at the first formation of the Earth up until the Cambrian explosion, when all sorts of exciting multicellular life sprung upon the Earth.
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Hardened Crust
As the Earth cools, the lava-filled surface hardens to form a crust.
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Moon
The moon is formed during this time. Possibly caused by a massive collision between an asteroid and the Earth which resulted in the ejection of a massive amount of rock into space.
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Atmosphere
The early atmosphere is made of hydrogen sulfide, methane, and carbon dioxide. This mixture is not very suitable for life.
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Volcanoes
As the Earth’s crust solidifies, volcanic activity decreases.
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The Paleozoic Era
What follows the Precambrian Supereon is the Paleozoic era, which ran from about 542 million years ago to 251 million years ago, when all sorts of exciting life sprang upon the Earth. The six major continents developed during this time, however...
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...they were not in the same places that they are today.
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Plant-Life
Thanks to the abundance of water, plant life became widespread during the Paleozoic era.
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Water
Water was now abundant; at that time the ocean was as vast as it is today. Hard-shelled creatures evolved in the ocean and left behind fossil records of the era.
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Vascular Trees
Vascular trees were abundant, but were not as leafy as they are today. Vascular trees have special lignified tissues to carry water and nutrients throughout the plant.
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The Late Paleozoic Era
As plant life flourished during the Paleozoic Era, the oxygen content of the atmosphere increased. Fossil records from this era show the incredible evolution of sea animals becoming more complex and slowly moving onto the continents to become land animals.
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Plant Life
Plant life became widespread during the years of the Paleozoic era. Bacteria hadn’t evolved to break down plant life at this point, resulting in a huge accumulation of organic matter.
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Atmosphere
Oxygen was now abundant in the atmosphere thanks to photosynthesis by plants. Toward the end of the Paleozoic era, oxygen levels reached a historical high of 35%, compared to today’s 21%.
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Plant life
Trees were abundant, but they were not as leafy as they are today. Much of the vegetation that existed during this time turned into coal which we are using now as fuel.
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Jurassic Period
The Jurassic Period is one of the more well-known periods during the Mesozoic era. Jurassic Period spans 145 to 201 million years ago. Dinosaurs roamed the land during this period.
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T-Rex
Tyrannosaurus rexes have massive skulls and strong, heavy tails. They are carnivores that feed on other animals.
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Volcano
Volcanic eruptions and other plate tectonic activities continued to change the geography of the Earth.
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Pterodactyl
Pterodactyl is a flying reptile that is a close relative to the dinosaurs.
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Late Jurassic Period
The Late Jurassic Period came during the Mesozoic era. At that time, dinosaurs roamed the land until the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago.
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This massive extinction event, commonly believed to be caused by a large meteor impact, changed the evolutionary course of the planet.
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Climate
During this period, the climate was warm and plants flourished.
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Animal Life
Herbivores tended to be larger because this allowed them to reach vegetation at the top of the trees.
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Geological Timeline
The entire history of the Earth can be divided into 4 eons. These 4 eons are further divided into eras which is further divided into periods.
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If we compress the history of Earth into a single day, complex life has only existed for the last 3 hours, with humans only being around for the last second.
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Precambrian Supereon
The Precambrian Supereon, which is composed of multiple eons, spans 90% of the Earth’s history. However no life was present during most of this time, and the Earth was an inhospitable place.
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Paleozoic Era
Plant life, including vascular trees emerged.
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Mesozoic Era
More complex life emerged, including dinosaurs.
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Cenozoic Era
Life after the K-T extinction event, the mass extinction of the Dinosaurs.