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18 Billion B.C. - Big Bang! - Creation of our Universe (date is controversial).

The term "Big Bang" is used to describe both the general expansion of the universe, and the event that started things off. In the 1940's, there were many competing theories about the nature of the universe. The term "Big Bang" was coined by British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, ironically, as a snide putdown of his competitors, only to have the term find it's way into the general consciousness, as the description of the correct theory.



The Big Bang was not like an explosion. It is tempting to think of the Big Bang as being somehow analogous to the explosion of an artillery shell. This is not the case. It is the fabric of space itself that is expanding, and the galaxies are just carried along. It is this expansion, as logic dictates, that implies that the universe had a beginning in time. If you could run a film of the universal expansion backwards, you would see that as you move backwards in time, the universe gets smaller and smaller. Eventually, the universe would be shrunk down to a single geometrical point.

Matter and Antimatter form by pair creation. There is more matter than antimatter.

Later...

Great mass of gasses form into spheres caused by gravitation; mass begins to take form.

4.6 Billion B.C. - The Earth and solar system form around the sun, from the heavy elements of earlier stellar explosions.

Later...

Gravity of planet slowly attracts small local spacial bodies in space, causing meteor bombardment into the blazing planet.

4.5 Billion B.C. - Early Precambrian (Archean) - Crust formed on molten Earth; early crystalline rock formations.

4 Billion B.C. - After most of the heaviest material (crust) had sunk to the center, forming the mantle, a spacial body (asteroid) one-sixth the size of the planet struck the Earth, and splattered a lot of material in the upper layers of the planet out into orbit; forming the moon from the splash ejecta.

Later....

Crust began to cool. Volcanic centers ran along fractures in it's active surface. The Earth acquired its atmosphere through outgassing of volcanoes. Most common gasses in early poisonous atmosphere: Methane, Ammonia, Carbon Dioxide, water vapor- no Oxygen or Nitrogen.

When temperatures dropped below the boiling point of water, water condensed, forming the Earth's first oceans.

Later....

Lava flows mold the continents, violent electrical storms and mixing form the first complex molecules in the oceans. Some of these molecules are able to replicate themselves spontaneously. These later become genes and DNA.

3.8 Billion B.C. - Oldest known rock formations.

3.6 Billion B.C. - Life forms as replication becomes more sophisticated.

The first amino acids form in water, creating: protein, bacteria, and algae. First Protozoans (single-cell organisms). Through photosynthesis, the first Oxygen is created from Carbon dioxide, and the first Nitrogen from Ammonia.

Oldest known fossils (algae).

2.5 Billion B.C. - Late Precambrian (Algonkian) - Metamorphosed sedimentary rocks, lava flows, Granite.

2 Billion B.C. - Large amounts of Oxygen in atmosphere: "The Great Turnover"

750 Million B.C. - The coldest Ice Age in Earth's history begins.

650 Million B.C. - Multicelled life in oceans.

600 Million B.C. - Paleozoic Era - Entire Earth covered in water, atmosphere still filled with toxic solar radiation.

590 Million B.C. - First plants and animals: seaweed, corals, sponges, invertebrates: jellyfish.



580 Million B.C. - The first landmass above water erupts. (See: "Pangea".)

570 Million B.C. - Cambrian Period - Abundant record of marine life: trilobites, brachiopods (shelled animals), orthoceras (ancestor to squid, octopus).

500 Million B.C. - Ordovician Period - First Vertebrates; primitive armored fish without jaws first appear.



435 Million B.C. - Silurian Period - First giant fish with jaws. "Dinichthys" grew up to 40 feet long, the most feared predator of the time.

430 Million B.C. - First plants move to land. Corals built giant reefs in far northern seas. Shelled cephalopods abundant; trilobites begin decline.



409 Million B.C. - First fish move to land: "Eusthenopterons" (date is controversial).

400 Million B.C. - First bony fish. First amphibians: "Ichthyostega".

395 Million B.C. - Devonian Period - Land plants evolved rapidly, large trees first appeared. Brachiopods reached maximum development. Many species of fish flourish.

380 Million B.C. - First primitive sharks and large armored fish.

350 Million B.C. - First insects.

345 Mlllion B.C. - Carboniferous Period - Land plants became diversified, including many ancient kinds of trees; crinoids achieved greatest development. Modern sharks.

320 Million B.C. - First reptiles. Tall, swampy (coal-forming) forests; especially in northern hemisphere. Giant dragonflies (30-inch wingspan), 8-inch cockroaches. Mountains grew along east coast of N. America and central Europe.

280 Million B.C. - Permian Period - Great expansion of reptiles. Great glaciers in southern hemisphere. Trees of coal forests declined; ferns abundant, conifers present. First cycads and ammonities appeared. Trilobites become extinct.

248 Million B.C. - Mass extinction globally - over 80% of existing species on Earth died out at the end of the Permian.