In the cosmic symphony that began with the resounding chords of the Big Bang, the seeds of life found their genesis. Approximately 13.8 billion years ago, the universe burst forth into existence, a colossal explosion that set the stage for the dance of galaxies, stars, and planets.
Among them, our own celestial abode, Earth, emerged 4.6 billion years ago as a result of cosmic accretion and celestial collisions. Within the primordial soup of this young planet, the alchemy of chemistry conspired to birth the first stirrings of life.
Though the details of this transformative process remain shrouded in the mists of time, our journey will navigate through the scientific understanding available as of 2023, peeling back the layers of Earth's infancy and exploring the miraculous transition from barren landscapes to the cradle of life itself.
Join us on a voyage that transcends epochs, unveiling the wondrous tapestry of existence woven from the fabric of the cosmos! 🚀🌏🧑🚀
Earth formed over 4.6 billion years ago out of a mixture of dust and gas around the young sun.
The giant-impact hypothesis suggests that the Moon was formed from the ejecta of a collision between the early Earth and a Mars-sized planet, around 4.5 billion years ago (about 20 to 100 million years after the Solar System coalesced). Talk about a seriously out-of-this-world birth story! 🌕✨
Earth was still hot as hell, but water floated in the atmosphere, existing in gas form.
Earth cooled down and was covered with water.
Single-celled organisms emerged.
Theory 1: Organic stuff came from lighting, volcanoes, and radiation from space. In this primordial soup, life emerged from random chance. Hmmm... I wonder what this soup tasted like. Probably spicy and bitter. 🌶️
God I hate cell biology but cells like our cells emerged.
Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, made oxygen through photosynthesis. Earth was becoming more habitable!
Too much oxygen, not enough carbon dioxide, Earth was frozen for a while and oxygen nearly disappeared. Thankfully, we still had volcanoes to provide warmth & food so the algae didn’t die out. Oxygen became permanent by 2.2 billion years ago.
Can you guess who was the earliest animal to ever exist?
Click on the cards to find out!
Soft bodied and goes with the flow
Has bony legs and moves slow
Grounded and doesn't ever go out
There was no grass or trees yet on land, but more animals emerged in the ocean. There was an explosion of animal diversity known as the Cambrian Explosion (542-488 MYA). Cool animals began to emerge.
During the Cambrian Explosion, a remarkable variety of complex multicellular organisms emerged, representing many major animal phyla that we recognize today. This period saw the development of various body plans, including the first appearance of organisms with hard skeletons or shells.
Oops again! Earth had a hiccup and caused the first ever mass extinction, the Ordovician Extinction. The terrestial plants were lowkey guilty.
During the Ordovician Extinction, a series of interconnected factors disrupted the balance of marine life. Climate fluctuations, changes in sea levels, and volcanic activity contributed to a decline in oceanic oxygen levels. These environmental stressors, combined with the evolution of new species and the movement of continents, triggered widespread extinctions, particularly affecting marine invertebrates.