128,000 BC
Neanderthals used necklaces and bracelets for ornamental purposes long before modern Homo sapiens did, and tens of thousands of years before modern Homo sapiens reached the European continent. The discovery was made in 2015 in Krapina, Croatia, by archaeologists Davorka Radovčić, Ankica Oros Sršen, Jakov
128,000 BC
First evidence that Neanderthals used necklaces and bracelets, for ornamental purposes, long before modern Homo sapiens did, and tens of thousands of years before modern Homo sapiens reached the European continent.
160,000 BC
Present-day Tibet (China). A Denisovan man dies, and his remains end up in a cave at 3,000 meters above sea level. 1,600 centuries later, the remains of his jaw and some teeth are found and analyzed. First of all, it is incredible that this species,
162,000 BC
South Africa, Thanks to evidence brought to light in 2007 by archaeologist Curtis Marean, we know of the presence of marine invertebrates in the diet (such as mussels) of Homo Sapiens in South Africa 164,000 years ago.
500,000 BC
Homo erectus also used fire in their caves for cooking. Charred animal bones have been found.
780,000 BC
Last reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field; previously there had been a magnetic reversal (North to South) approximately every 200,000 years
1,000,000 BC
In a cave in South Africa, some hominids used fire. Traces of high temperatures (400-700°C) were found on artifacts, bones, and teeth about a million years later, in 2012.
1,000,000 BC
Australopithecus, which coexisted with the Homo species for a million years, is becoming extinct.
1,400,000 BC
Olduwai Gorge, Africa. Someone carefully chipping a stone, probably to be mounted on an axe and used as a weapon. It was later discovered, surprisingly, that the area of our brain we use when chipping an object overlaps significantly with the one we use when
1,850,000 BC
Dmanisi, Georgia, near the border with Armenia. First appearance of Homo erectus, who would later spread to East Asia. Homo erectus would remain a species on this planet for almost 2 million years. A record that Homo sapiens (born only 70,000 years ago) will be
2,000,000 BC
Tens of square kilometers of the Earth’s crust explode in Yellowstone; the ash produced is enough to cover Italy with a layer of ash 6 meters thick.
3,000,000 BC
The Canis etruscus, the ancestral wolf, arrived in Europe from Asia, but did not prosper, as a species, until the ice ages.
4,000,000 BC
Several species of canids move from North America to Europe and this time they do not become extinct, as had happened a couple of million years earlier.
5,330,000 BC
The end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis, caused by the closure of the Mediterranean and an overwhelming greenhouse effect causing it to slowly evaporate: a channel opens between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, south of Gibraltar, in present-day Morocco. The Mediterranean Sea fills in just
6,000,000 BC
‘Last common mother of humans and chimpanzees’. This real-life hominid has at least two daughters: one becomes the ancestor of all humans, the other of all chimpanzees.
7,000,000 BC
group of monkeys leave the African tropical forest and move to the savannah: they are the ancestors of hominids
7,175,000 BC
Thirty million years ago, one of the first hominid species, Nsungwepithecus, developed in Europe. In Africa (Tanzania), the first hominid species (Rukwapithecus, which would give rise to orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans) developed only five million years later. Hominids in Africa failed to compete with
14,500,000 BC
An asteroid with a diameter of 1km, accompanied by a satellite of 150m diameter, crashes in Bavaria, Germany, causing the craters Nordlinger Ries (25km) and Steinheim Basin (4km)
17 – 18 million years BC
Antelopes evolved in Europe (Austria and Spain) before spreading to Africa.
20 million years BC
The first camel species evolved in North America; 16 million years later, they migrated to Asia across the Bering Strait and became extinct in North America.
40,000,000 BC
The gene for delta and beta globin, two of the eight human globins, is formed.