The
Great Story Timeline
There is also an excellent community-generated timeline on Wikipedia.
For a playful and experiential way to learn the Life Story aspect of the full 14 billion year Great Story, visit our webpage on "The River of Life Ritual".
Note:
This Great Story timeline is entirely for community use. Enjoy it, modify
it, update it, share it, teach it, ritualize it, play with it, create from
it however and wherever you wish. Do let us know suggestions for improvements,
and tell us about fun or poignant ways that the timeline and Great Story Beads
enter your life and the lives of others. Please especially keep us abreast
of ways that it is taken into educational or worshipful settings.
Far
more than merely a resource, this timeline of cosmic/Earth/life/human history
is actually one of the most concise tellings of The Great Story in existence.
It is the epic of evolution (or at least one version of it) in 250 meaningful,
science-based snapshots. Those who have read all three segments of this timeline
straight through, as a sacred story, have consistently reported that doing
so was an enlightening, inspiring, and fascinating educational experience.
We trust that it will be so for you too.
Contact us
at 
I.
Great Radiance phase
(Use small transparent beads for spacers.)
- THE GREAT
MYSTERY
wholly beyond human language and understanding. That ULTIMATE REALITY
which brings all things into existence, sustains all things, is revealed in
all things, and draws all things unto Itself.
- ALL OF HUMANITY'S
VARIOUS NAMES, IMAGES, AND METAPHORS FOR ULTIMATE REALITY: GOD / GODDESS /
GREAT SPIRIT / CREATOR / LORD / THE ALMIGHTY / YAHWEH / ALLAH / THE IMPLICATE
ORDER / UNMOVED MOVER / ORIGINATING POWER / SOURCE / GROUND OF BEING / BUDDHA
NATURE / BRAHMAN / INDRA'S NET / HIGHER POWER / THE TAO / THE UNIVERSE / KOSMOS
/ THE ONE / THE GREAT SELF / ETC.
Each metaphor
for ULTIMACY becomes its own lens through which Reality is experienced. Thus,
while each image or name can be understood as pointing to an essential aspect
of Reality as a whole, it would not be accurate to say that these are simply
different names for the same thing. Just as each and every life form reveals
something unique about the nature of ULTIMATE CREATIVITY, so too does each
name or metaphor for THE WHOLENESS OF REALITY distinguish something
unique and important about its nature.
- 13 bya THE
GREAT RADIANCE / BIG BANG / PRIMORDIAL FLARING FORTH. This
includes the phases of Cosmic Fluctuation (10 to the minus 43 seconds after
BB), Inflation (10 to the minus 37 seconds after BB), and Expansion (10 to
the minus 32 seconds after BB).
- EMERGENCE
OF THE FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES (From 10 to the minus 32 to 10 to the minus
10 seconds after BB): Gravity, Electromagnetism, Strong Nuclear Force, Weak
Nuclear Force.
- PARTICLE
AND ANTIPARTICLE ANNIHILATION
(1 second after BB): All the antiparticles in the universe annihilate almost
all the particles, creating a cosmos made up of matter and photons. By this
time, the temperature had fallen to about 10 billion degrees Celsius, and
the density of the universe was about 100,000 times that of the Earth. One
teaspoon of matter would have weighed about 1.5 tons.
- DEUTERIUM
AND HELIUM NUCLEI PRODUCTION
(1 minute after BB): protons and neutrons emerge and form the nuclei of simplest
chemical elements: heavy hydrogen (deuterium), helium, and traces of lithium.
- RECOMBINATION
/ FIRST ATOMS
(300,000 years after BB): Electrons combine with hydrogen and helium nuclei,
producing the first neutral atoms.
top
II.
Galactic phase
(Use small gold beads for spacers.)
- 12 bya PROTOGALACTIC
CLOUDS of hydrogen form; the Universe differentiates into vast clumps
of gaseous matter.
- 11 bya GALAXIES
emerge — producing the large-scale structures of the Universe.
- 11 bya
Gravity draws hydrogen into dense spheres of gas, sprinkled throughout each
galaxy. At a threshold pressure, nuclear fusion begins: this is the birth
of STARS. Let there be Light!
- 11 bya to
present GALAXIES INTERACT: some collide and are engulfed; others pass
through one another, usually with tremendous gravitational impact to both.
- 10 bya
to present SUPERNOVAS forge COMPLEX ELEMENTS (atoms heavier than helium;
i.e., carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, calcium, iron, gold, etc.). These elements
are born in the fiery bellies of stars at least 8 times more massive than
our sun. The created elements enrich the galaxies when the stars explode as
supernovas.
- 5 bya A
SHOCK WAVE from a nearby supernova or gravitational density wave energizes
the enriched gas cloud that will become our swirling solar system.
- 5 bya the SUN
ignites.
top
III.
Hadean Eon of early Earth
(Use
small red beads for spacers.)
- 4.6 bya EARTH
and other planets form by aggregating space debris in their orbital paths.
- 4.5 bya
the MOON is carved out of Earth by a huge impact; its orbit around
Earth gradually becomes more distant through time.
- 4.1 bya
the Great Bombardment ends; RAIN falls upon a cooling Earth for first
time.
- OCEANS
form.
top
IV.
Archaean Eon of early life
(Use small copper beads for spacers)
- 3.8 bya
the first LIFE (Archaea) evolves in a very hot environment, possibly
at great depth within Earth's crust or at hydrothermal fissures in the floor
of the deep oceans.
- 3.2 bya
water-based PHOTOSYNTHESIS is invented by blue-green cyanobacteria
to cope with a shortage of hydrogen atoms, previously scavenged from volcanic
gases: pure hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide. The energy in sunlight is used
to break apart water (H2O) molecules, thus opening up a virtually unlimited
supply of hydrogen atoms. Biomass increases as a result.
- 2.8 bya
marine iron rusts into RED BEDS from oxygen released during photosynthesis.
When geology can no longer soak up oxygen, the OXYGEN CRISIS threatens
microbial life, but it is also an opportunity because (1) an ultraviolet-absorbing
OZONE SHIELD is formed in the upper atmosphere, and (2) bacterial precursors
of mitochondria evolve a way to use gaseous oxygen for a high-energy-yielding
form of RESPIRATION — without which, self-aware consciousness
might never have evolved.
- NITROGEN
FIXATION: Life copes with a nitrogen shortage by learning how to break
the triple bond of nitrogen (N2) molecules that make up the bulk of the atmosphere,
and to affix nitrogen atoms onto hydrogen atoms for fertilizer; biomass increases
yet again.
- Closed-cycle
metabolisms of GAIA are now fully in place. Life mediates crucial links
in the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, thereby maintaining
an endless re-supply of Earth's finite reserves of elements vital for life.
top
V.
Proterozoic Eon
(Use
small orange or yellow beads as spacers.)
- 2 bya EUKARYA
arise via symbiogenesis (in response to Oxygen Crisis and possibly a shortage
of phosphorus?); life becomes nested, one center of creativity within another,
as oxygen-using mitochondria and photosynthesizing plastids cooperate with
the larger host cells.
- 1.5 bya MEIOTIC
SEX emerges in eukarya, which is the first step in what will eventually
evolve into a mode of reproduction that entails egg and sperm.
- 1.2 bya
the geological activity of MARS freezes up, thus foreclosing full geophysical
cycling of chemical elements that could be vital to life.
- 1 bya
single-celled creatures invent PREDATION by developing flexible amoeba-like
pseudopods that can surround a "prey" and secrete enzymes into that enclosed
space (vacuole).
- 565-543 mya
the GARDEN OF EDIACARA is the time when the first multicellular life
forms in the sea evolve differentiated body forms. Multicellularity is an
innovation in which the offspring of dividing cells stay in bonded association
with one another, resulting in synergies of community. These synergies include
(1) the ability of individual cells to specialize in different tasks, and
(2) the presence of new pattern and structure at the group level that brings
forth emergent properties (as in the possibilities of a fin or an eye). The
first multicellular creatures are soft-bodied ediacarans, which may be neither
animals nor algae but something unique. Thus the microcosm expands into a
mesocosm, with fossils (some as long as 3 feet) that a human eye can easily
see.
- EXTINCTION.
All the ediacarans go extinct, possibly because of the evolution of hard parts
by animal predators that ate the ediacarans. Predation intensifies and is
now part of the mesocosm. The peaceable garden is ended.
- Phanerozoic
Eon begins, which includes the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic Eras.
top
VI.
Paleozoic Era begins
(Use
small blue beads as spacers, with different hues of blue for each of the
six geological periods within the Paleozoic).
540-500
mya CAMBRIAN Explosion
- First true animals,
including jellyfish and SPONGES.
- Intensification
of life interactions as multicellular predators invent hard parts for teeth
and drills and claws, prompting prey (mollusks, trilobites) to invent SHELLS
for protection.
- SIGHT
is invented, and is most sophisticated in the compound eyes of trilobite arthropods,
the lenses of which are transparent crystals of calcite: Earth begins to see.
Sight will be invented afresh well more than a dozen times by different lineages
of life.
top
500-440 mya ORDOVICIAN
- The APPALACHIAN
MOUNTAINS begin to rise, as Laurentia (the continental core that will
eventually become North America) collides with the supercontinent of Gondwanaland
(which will eventually break apart into South America, Africa, Antarctica,
and Australia).
- Earliest tabulate
and rugose "corals" begin building REEFS, along with older reef-builders
such as sponges and calcareous algae. Graptolites (hemichordates) are abundant.
- CLAMS
begin to burrow, presumably to escape predators.
- The first SEA
URCHINS evolve.
- 440
mya END OF ORDOVICIAN EXTINCTION. This is the first of six major mass
extinctions that suddenly and globally appear in the fossil record (in this
case, marine rocks). All forms of planktonic graptolites go extinct, never
to re-evolve. Many families of trilobites and brachiopods (clamlike creatures
distinct from mollusks) go extinct.
top
440-410
mya SILURIAN
- JAWED FISHES
appear (before then, there were only jawless fishes, such as lampreys).
- EURYPTERIDS
(giant sea scorpions) are top carnivores, in their glory; they are the biggest
arthropods of all time.
- A freshwater
green alga and aquatic fungus pool their talents (symbiosis), merging into
the first LAND PLANTS. Life thus embarks on the adventure of weather
and gravity. The continents grow green with low-lying ancestors of today's
mosses and liverworts (nonvascular plants that go dormant in dry conditions).
top
410-360
mya DEVONIAN
- On land, mites,
springtails, and ancestral SPIDERS are preserved in the Rhynie chert
of Scotland, which formed from a silica-rich warm spring on land.
- Bivalve mollusks
and SNAILS expand their range from the marine realm of their origin
into freshwater habitats for the first time.
- VASCULAR
PLANTS
evolve: ferns, horsetails, lycopods (club mosses) — all still have living
descendants. The vessels in vascular plants allow water to be moved upward
against gravity, so plants can finally grow above the height of mosses; now
they can more successfully release reproductive spores for wind dispersal.
A water-retaining casing (cuticle), punctuated by stomate pores, allows vascular
plants to retain water while exchanging carbon dioxide and oxygen gases with
the air.
- TETRAPODS
("four-footed" vertebrates) originate, as the first amphibians come onto land. In 2006 an amazing transitional form, a 9-foot-long carnivore that looked like a cross between a fish and a crocodile named Tiktaalik, was discovered in the Canadian Arctic. It lived 375 million years ago.
- In the sea arise
the distant ancestors of modern SHARKS; from now on, sharks tend to
be the top carnivores of the sea.
- 367 mya LATE
DEVONIAN EXTINCTION. This is the second major mass extinction recorded
in marine sedimentary rocks. Many brachiopod, cephalopod (nautiloid), gastropod
(snails), trilobite, tabulate coral, and fish groups die out. Interestingly,
there is a huge difference in survival between animals that use silica in
their bodies and those that use calcium carbonate: the reef-building carbonate
sponges (stromatoporoids) suffer huge losses in diversity, but the siliceous
sponges are unharmed. Single-cell foraminifera that build "shells" of silica
all survive the extinction, but half of the kinds that protect themselves
with calcareous shells go extinct. Note: Only carbonate shells dissolve in
acidic waters.
top
360-290
mya CARBONIFEROUS
- The peak of
the "sea lily forests" in oceans; these CRINOIDS are echinoderms —
like starfish on stems. This is also the heyday of the BRACHIOPODS, which
look like clams but are not even mollusks. Both crinoids and brachiopods are
filter feeders, filtering floating food out of flowing water.
- Land plants
discovered in the Devonian that by retaining the cells of previous generations
and reinforcing these with lignin (WOOD), they can rise to new heights.
But now TREES are abundant, having evolved independently in several
different lineages (lycopods, horsetails, tree ferns), as plants compete for
sunlight by overtopping their neighbors. Horsetails obtain their glory in
the genus Calamites, which can grow to a height of 60 feet. Propagating
clonally by rhizomes, clonal forests of Calamites may have been the
biggest "individual" life form that ever evolved on Earth.
- The kind of
fungi that can decompose wood have not yet evolved, so massive coal fields
result. The OXYGEN level in the atmosphere is much higher than today
(owing to undecomposed coal?). This allows terrestrial arthropods to grow
to the biggest sizes of all time, as a distinct system of "tracheid" vessels
for air circulation (separate from the blood system) prohibits large size
in all arthropods forevermore. Carboniferous dragonflies have wingspans like
that of modern-day seagulls. Millipedes grow to perhaps six feet long.
- Earth learns
to fly, as insects evolve FLIGHT.
- Earth learns to hear, as the ancestors of modern frogs (Temnospondyl amphibians, about 330 million years ago) evolved the first vertebrate ears capable of HEARING sound waves transmitted through the air, important for mating calls.
- Reptiles appear
with the first land-worthy eggs that can survive out of water; this is the
AMNIOTIC EGG, whose shell and membrane allow for gas exchange without
water loss (like the cuticle and stomate innovation of vascular plants). Reptiles
also invent the PENIS — but not yet a distinct vagina, as reptiles
(and, later, birds) retain a cloaca that combines the three functions of reproduction,
metabolic waste excretion, and fecal elimination. Reptiles are thus freed
to copulate outside of water.
top
290-245
mya PERMIAN
- PANGAEA
forms, a single supercontinent.
- The vast landmass,
with central sections far removed from marine moisture, produces deserts in
the interior reaches of Pangaea, depositing RED (highly oxidized) sediments
that contain fossils. Many ferns gradually go extinct in the early Permian,
as landscapes become more arid (ferns absolutely require a surface film of
water for sexual reproduction.) Horsetails begin their decline — becoming
in modern times a single genus of "living fossil": Equisetum, with just fifteen
species worldwide.
- 245 mya END
OF PERMIAN EXTINCTION. This marks the end of the Paleozoic Era. This third
major mass extinction is the most devastating extinction Earth has ever endured,
affecting both marine and land life. More than 50% of animal families go extinct,
meaning that 95% of species can be inferred to have gone extinct. Nearly 75%
of all amphibian and reptile families go extinct on land. In the land plant
realm, all of the tree forms of horsetails and club mosses vanish, never to
re-evolve. In the sea, one half of all marine families (80% of all genera
in the sea) die out. All blastoids (stalked echinoderms similar to crinoids),
eurypterids, trilobites, stromatoporoids, and rugose and tabulate corals go
entirely extinct, never to reappear. Dying out, as well, but not fully extinct
are: 98% of all crinoid families, 78% of all articulate brachiopod families,
76% of bryozoan families, 71% of cephalopods, 50% of planktonic foraminfera.
Recently discovered evidence indicates that the extinction was caused by an
asteroid impact.
top
VII.
Mesozoic Era (Age of Dinosaurs)
begins.
(Use small purple beads as spacers, with different hues of purple
for each
of the three geological periods.)
245-210
mya TRIASSIC
- Pangaea is still
a supercontinent and thus an arid continental interior continues to deposit
sediments as "TRIASSIC RED BEDS."
- 225 mya is
a MINI MASS EXTINCTION (not one of the 5 majors)
- At the end of
Triassic, PANGAEA BREAKUP begins, opening up an archaic east-west waterway
called the Tethys Sea. First to split off is Laurasia to the north,
which consists of the bedrock foundations of what will one day become North
America (the Laurentian Shield) and Eurasia. To the south, across the Tethys
Sea, is the supercontinent of Gondwanaland (South America, Africa,
Antarctica, Australia, India). Eventually, as the continents draw apart, Earth
will bring forth six times more biodiversity (which thrives on isolation)
than when all land was together as Pangaea.
- SHARK TEETH
become abundant in the fossil record, because sharks evolve a dental strategy
of replaceable teeth. Shark skeletons are still rarely preserved, however,
as the skeletons are made of cartilage, not bone.
- 210 mya END
OF TRIASSIC EXTINCTION. This is the fourth major mass extinction. Because
it is the third time Earth has been hit hard by extinctions in just 35 million
years, biodiversity is severely stressed.
top
210-145
mya JURASSIC
- The ATLANTIC
OCEAN is forming, as the supercontinent of Laurasia now starts to break
apart. Gondwanaland is still intact and evolving a distinctive flora.
- Proliferation
of wind-dispersed POLLEN: Except for the plants that evolved in the
early Paleozoic (mosses, ferns, horsetails), land plants now have long-distance
sex without depending on water to disperse sperm. Pollen grains that land
on receptive female parts grow sophisticated "pollen tubes" to deliver swimming
sperm to the ovule.
- GYMNOSPERMS
— cycads, ginkgos, and ancient CONIFER TREES (such as redwoods,
but not yet the pines) originate: all are seed plants that produce pollen.
Great gymnosperm forests of the Mesozoic tower over the remnant lineages of
lycopods and horsetails that lurk on the forest floor — lineages which
had once been the forests of the Paleozoic.
- DINOSAURS,
which originated in the Triassic, become the largest land animals of all time,
in the form of the great herbivorous sauropods (e.g. Brachiosaurus,
Seismosaurus, Diplodocus), which reach their zenith in size
and diversity during the Jurassic.
- LARGE MARINE
REPTILES (the snake-necked plesiosaurs and dolphinlike ichthyosaurs) arise,
as do the flying PTEROSAURS.
- The first BIRDS
(Archaeopteryx) with feathers and teeth, originate.
- The first FROGS
evolve from amphibian ancestors.
- MAMMALS are almost as ancient as dinosaurs. Although most were probably smaller than a squirrel and probably nocturnal, the fossil of 1 meter-long badger-like predatory mammal has been dated to 170 million years ago, and that of a beaver-like mammal about the size of a platypus is 164 million years old. The latter has evidence of hair and of sweat glands (that could have provided milk).
top
145-65
mya CRETACEOUS
- Early MAMMALS
continue to diversify, but most still get no bigger than squirrel-size in the presence of the powerful dinosaurs. Modern lineages of mammal replace the cloaca of early mammals (such as the living duck-billed platypus) in females with three separate orifices, including a VAGINA. About 125 million years ago, the FIRST GLIDING MAMMAL evolves.
- This is a time
of glorious increase in the complexity of life on both land and at sea. Marine
PREDATION AND PROTECTION escalates in an evolutionary arms race: the
shells of mollusks grow thicker and some develop spininess, while clams live
in deeper burrows. SCALLOPS invent a fast, clapping form of movement,
like swimming castanets.
- Earth is in
a GREENHOUSE climate, with no polar ice.
- MORE DINOSAURS:
T. rex, Triceratops, duckbills, and raptors are on land; plesiosaurs
and mosasaurs grow gigantic in the seas.
- The biggest
flying life form of all time, the pterosaur QUETZALCOATLUS, spreads
its wings over 45 feet (15 meters)!
- Earth bursts
into SONG, with birds, insects, and crested dinosaurs making noises,
largely as a means of sexual seduction.
- Flowering plants
become important parts of the flora, but remain as low, herbaceous plants
or vines, until the very late Cretaceous (70 mya) when the tree form evolves
in several different lineages (magnolia family, sycamores). Earth adorns herself
magnificently and invites the sky creatures into a mutualistic symbiosis with
plants. FLOWERS AND INSECTS CO-EVOLVE in an attractive dance of pollination
(flower nectar) and a protective dance of chemical warfare (invention of alkaloids
and aromatic oils, as in basil) to repel insect herbivores.
- MADAGASCAR,
which had been "drifting" away from Africa on a continental plate, becomes
isolated when India breaks free from its eastern shore and continues the northeastern
journey alone. Fortunately, Madagascar broke away after LEMURS evolved, but before monkeys evolved. Lemurs, once ranging widely from Africa to Asia and North America, would go extinct whenever and wherever monkeys show up; thus they would certainly be extinct today were it not for the island habitat of Madagascar.
- AMMONITES
(cephalopods related to the chambered nautilus and squid) flourish, with their
intricately joined segments of coiling shell, just before they go extinct.
- 65
mya END OF CRETACEOUS EXTINCTION marks the K/T (Cretaceous/Tertiary)
boundary: the end of the Mesozoic Era. This is the fifth major mass extinction,
affecting both land and sea creatures. It brought an end to all dinosaurs,
pterosaurs, marine reptiles, ammonites, and many lineages of foraminifera.
(Plants, which could wait out the holocaust as seed or spore, generally did
not suffer a mass extinction at this time.) A buried crater 100 miles wide
marks the spot where a mountain-size asteroid slammed into Earth at an estimated
50,000 miles per hour along Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, releasing an amount
of energy equivalent to 100 million megatons of TNT, which is 1,000 times
more powerful than all humanity's currently existing nuclear weapons combined.
The impact produced at least six tidal waves, some of which were more than
300 feet high, a magnitude 12 earthquake (which is a million times more powerful
than a magnitude 6 earthquake), a deluge of sulfuric acid rain, and a huge
cloud of dust that blocked the light from the Sun for months and contributed
to the extinction of nearly every land animal whose adult form weighed more
than 50 pounds. The impact also triggered a global firestorm that incinerated
a quarter of the living biomass, releasing an enormous amount of carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere that increased the average global temperature by 20šF
for a million years.
Timeline
2 — 65,000,000 to 13,000 Years Ago
Timeline
3 — 12,000 Years Ago to Present