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Timeline of evolution
This timeline of the evolution of life outlines the major events in the development of life on the planet Earth. Dates given are estimates based on scientific evidence.
In biology, evolution is the process by which populations of organisms acquire and pass on novel traits from generation to generation. Its occurrence over large stretches of time explains the origin of new species and ultimately the vast diversity of the biological world. Contemporary species are related to each other through common descent, products of evolution and speciation over billions of years. The basic timeline is a 4600 million year old Earth with: 4000 my (million years) of simple cells; 3000 my of photosynthesis; 2000 my of complex cells; 1000 my of multicellular life; 600 my of simple animals; 500 my of fish and proto-amphibians; 475 my of land plants; 400 my of insects and seeds; 360 my of amphibians; 300 my of reptiles; 200 my of mammals; 150 my of birds; 100 my of flowers; and 65 my since the non-avian dinosaurs died out.
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Plants & Animals News
August 29, 2026
Aug. 29, 2026 Dogs and humans may have more in common when it comes to aging than scientists realized. Researchers with the Dog Aging Project found that patterns of small molecules in dogs’ blood were linked to longer or shorter lifespans in remarkably similar ...
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Aug. 26, 2026 DNA from a nearly 190-year-old museum specimen has helped scientists confirm a distinct Himalayan pangolin species hiding in plain sight in Nepal and northern India. The discovery could give conservationists a powerful new way to trace illegally ...
Aug. 25, 2026 Scientists have created a highly efficient catalyst that breaks down stubborn lignin from plant waste into useful chemicals under relatively mild conditions. By revealing exactly how the catalyst works at the atomic level, the discovery could help ...
Aug. 24, 2026 Backyard bird feeders could become unexpected hotspots for H5N1 as Australia’s bird flu outbreak spreads, bringing species together in ways that rarely occur naturally. Experts say stopping feeding is safest, while smaller amounts of food, no ...
Aug. 23, 2026 An abandoned farm field became a flourishing wildflower meadow within little more than a decade, with plant diversity doubling and thousands of orchids appearing naturally. The discovery suggests that simply giving nature time to recover could be a ...
Aug. 23, 2026 Researchers have used AI to uncover the DNA signature of a key genetic “switch” involved in turning genes on. After analyzing about 500,000 DNA sequences, the model identified the initiator in roughly 60% of human genes. The breakthrough could ...
Aug. 21, 2026 Honeybee queens exposed to pesticides can shift some of the contamination into their eggs, revealing a previously unknown survival strategy. The process may protect the queen while putting developing offspring, and potentially the entire colony, at ...
Aug. 19, 2026 Silver nanoparticles can precisely slice DNA and create longer “sticky ends,” helping genetic fragments join up to five times more efficiently than conventional methods. The breakthrough could ...
Aug. 17, 2026 Nature invented biodegradable plastic long before humans did—and animals may have been feeding on it for hundreds of millions of years. Researchers discovered that dozens of animal species possess ...
Aug. 9, 2026 Deep underground, bacteria may be capable of doing something remarkable: trapping toxic uranium before it spreads. When researchers fed microbes in uranium-contaminated mine water with glycerol, about 95% of the dissolved uranium disappeared within ...
Aug. 6, 2026 A landmark study of nearly 4,000 babies found that acetaminophen and ibuprofen were equally safe during infancy. Neither medicine was linked to eczema or bronchiolitis, and no serious side effects ...
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Aug. 28, 2026 Some chimpanzees in West Africa repeatedly throw rocks at particular trees, creating piles of stones that can remain in use for more than a decade. ...
Aug. 28, 2026 Scientists tracking thousands of animals found that our physical presence can reshape where wildlife moves and lives, sometimes as strongly as roads, cities, and other human development. Because ...
Aug. 27, 2026 Ancient teeth and human DNA are revealing a surprising history of insect eating. Modern humans in northern Eurasia appear to have eaten insects only occasionally, while Neanderthals may have consumed ...
Aug. 27, 2026 Ancient fossils suggest insects conquered land through a long amphibious phase rather than making an abrupt jump from water to dry ground. A newly identified 324-million-year-old species still ...
Aug. 25, 2026 A sweeping analysis of thousands of animal genomes suggests that chromosomes do not evolve randomly but instead follow a limited number of irreversible “evolutionary highways.” These one-way ...
Aug. 25, 2026 NASA scientists found that microbes brought by astronauts could survive in cold, shadowed niches around the Moon’s South Pole, potentially complicating future searches for pristine lunar chemistry. ...
Aug. 23, 2026 Scientists discovered a small, yellowish mountain horned dragon in Thailand and named it Acanthosaura syrax after a dragon from House of the Dragon. Found only in a narrow band of high-elevation ...
Aug. 22, 2026 Greenland sharks may live for 400 years without suffering the kind of retinal decline normally associated with aging. Researchers found healthy eye tissue and active proteins specially adapted for ...
Aug. 20, 2026 Scientists have identified exceptionally rare soft tissue preserved in a 450-million-year-old crinoid fossil, more than 200 million years older than ...
Aug. 20, 2026 The human family tree may be due for a major rewrite. Researchers argue that Australopithecus and Paranthropus should be folded into the genus Homo because new fossils have blurred many of the traits ...