AFRICANA TIMELINE to 1441ad

TIME

SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL EVENTS

MEANING

15,000,000,000 to

21,000,000,000

Formation and maturation of this universe based on elementary particles, quarks and electrons, hydrogen and helium nuclei formation, first atoms, photons, light, quasars, stars, proto-galaxies, early galactic formations.

All have a period of birth, a period of growth, a period of development, a period where it gains strength, reaches maturity, then grows old, runs its course, reaches its limits, declines, decays, dies out, and is reborn in another form of energy. This motion is constant and never ending, with one-dimensional time, and three-dimensional space constraints. Universes, galaxies, solar systems, stars and planets all had to live and die so that earth might fit itself and make itself suitable for life.

Essentially, all that has existed has deserved to perish---by its very birth its death is assured. The materials of these solar organisms such as stars, gas, energy particles, cosmic debris, planets, asteroids, comets, nebulae, black holes, etc. are bonded together by gravitational forces which form solar systems and clusters of galaxies. This gravitational soup is the webbing of the universe, which is continually expanding, moving, changing.

Universe

13,000,000,000

Formation of galaxies. Formation of galactic cluster, which includes the galaxy that Earth later, developed within.

5 billion years ago

Proto-star and solar system form as nebulae

Development of solar regions, inner solar system, outer solar system

Proto-planets, including earth begin to establish consistent orbital relationships with sun

Protostar contracts, intensifies in heat, transforms into mature star which develops by producing energy from the conversion of hydrogen to helium (nuclear fusion).

Star and Earth planet begin orbital stabilization for a few billion years at a mean distance of 92,955,807 miles (149,597,870km), orbit of Sun in 36. 25 days, and rotation on axis every 23hr 56mins. 

Galaxy

9,000,000,000

Formation of the sun, solar system, protoplanets, system of gravitation.

From the birth of the universe came the formation of our galaxy, what is called the Milky Way galaxy, which organized over 10 billion years ago. Afterwards our solar system formed within this galaxy, which is comprised of a sun, nine planets, moons, asteroids, and comets, which are all, held together by precisely balanced gravitational attraction and repulsion. With the Virgo Supercluster which houses our galaxy moving at 2,000,000 km/hr, the Milky Way galaxy rotating at 900,000 km/hr, the earth moving at a rate of 66,000 miles per hour (108,000 km/hr) around the sun, and spinning on its axis at a rate of 1000 miles per hour (1,660 km/hr), it is evident that the entire galaxy is in motion.

These complex bodies thus formed are the foundations for the stars and their satellites, the planets and their satellites, stellar systems and the meta-galaxies that encompass them, meta-galaxies make up universes, and so on into the outer reaches of space. Our galaxy materialized in the context of the same quantum fluctuation mechanism which led to the revolutionary, then evolutionary formation and expansion of the universe as a whole

Solar System

4,600,000,000

Formation and maturation of earth, moon and planets.

Magnetic field formed at some time in this period. Cooling and formation of the Earth, Moon and other planets out of hot minerals, metals, chemical compounds elements, and various gas particles.

Earth complete; still partially molten from radioactivity and heat. Iron sinks to form core. Extensive volcanic activity adds steam and carbon dioxide.

Magnetic fields begin to form and stabilize

Earth crust hardens 4. 0 billion years ago

First permanent crust formed

Of the Earth's 92 naturally occurring elements, 8 account for over 98% of the weight of the Earth's crust. These combine into the "rock forming" minerals.

Three major layers begin to form ultimately resulting in:

Crust: thin skin of hard rock 7-42miles thick

Mantle: dense, semi-molten rock 1,800 miles thick

Core: densest, hottest layer, 4340 miles in diameter, made of iron and nickel. Outer core is molten; inner core is solid and rotates internally in an opposite direction than the earth.

Earth, evolved based on its unique and suitable place in the solar system, and its mass formed within the same quantum fluctuation mechanism which produced the solar system, galaxy and universe as a whole. Its polar circumference is 24,859. 73, while its equatorial circumference is 24,901. 46 Its polar diameter is 7899. 99 miles. The tilt of earth's axis is approximately 66. 5 degrees. Earth revolutions and orbits equal 1,120 miles per minute, 67,000 miles per hour, 590 million miles a year around the sun. Its mean distance to the sun is 93,020,000 miles which means that if the sun were the size of a honeydew melon, the earth at the same scale would be the size of a pinhead and lie about one foot away. The mean distance of the earth to the moon is 238,857 miles.

The earth, which is 4. 6 billion years old, once existed in such a state that no human life form could have existed on it. From a period intense heat, to solar organization of elementary particles of various chemical compounds, to the sinking inward of the densest particles to form a core, to the continued sorting of particles which led to the primeval planet Earth, to the formation of earth's major layers (crust, mantle, and core) there has been much growth and development.

Because the earth had to go through numerous epochs of inorganic development before it fitted itself to sustain organic life, the first one billion years were spent forming an atmosphere, water, oceans and preparing the process of photosynthesis. Land formed.

Earth Composition

The total area of the earth is 196,940,400 square miles. The mass of the earth is 6,585,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons. Its volume is 259,875,300,000 cubic miles clasped by intense belts of trapped radiation. Its interior is hot, liquid rock, and iron. Its surface composition developed over time until today it is 70. 92 percent water (about 139,628,046 square miles) ; 29. 08 percent dry land (about 57,308,437 square miles) . Earth tillable soil is 6 percent, while its thickness of crust is between 6 to 40 miles, because continental crust is less dense but thicker than oceanic crust.

Earth has ten ecosystems, i. e. , mountain, desert, rain forest, savanna, steppe, broadleaf forest, tundra, prairie, needle leaf forest, and ice cap. These ecological systems are scattered across 13 landmasses. These regions continually change because of wind currents, changing weather patterns, migrations, etc. One-third of earth's land surface is dessert or semi-desert (not including the polar and sub polar "cold deserts") . The largest hot desert is the Sahara (3,500,000 square miles) The largest cold desert is Antarctica (about 5,000,000 square miles) . Earth has even continents in order of size: Asia (the largest at 16,988,000 square miles) Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia.

The largest island is the continent of Australia (2,967,909) . Earth's longest river is the African Nile, (4,145 miles) . There are four oceans, with the Pacific Ocean alone being larger in area than all the land in the world combined; 64, 186,300 square miles and 346,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons. Earth has 32 seas.  

Earth, and Solar system matures

3,900,000,000

First permanent crust formed. Primitive RNA life emerges. Simple bacteria deed off organic molecules. Rain of comets and meteorites lessen. Photosynthesis emerges as life sustaining process between organisms on Earth and the Sun's rays.

Emergence of Organic Life

3,600,000,000

Oldest sedimentary rocks. Evidence of DNA life on Earth

First stromatolites.

Atmosphere with some carbon dioxide. Atmosphere and seawater formed

The first small continents coalesced, first bacteria form, volcanoes erupt on volatile Earth surface. Oldest fossils left by one-celled microorganism.

First single cell life forms Stromatolites

3,500,000,000

Atmosphere and seawater formed

3,100,000,000

More developed algae and bacteria

Blue-Green Algae

3,000,000,000

Greenstone belts-strips of micro-continent

2,900,000,000

Massive stromatolites formed by photosynthesizing bluegreen algae

2,500,000,000

Build up free oxygen in atmosphere. First big iron oxide deposits, as life makes oxygen via photosynthesis. Formation of ancient cores of later major continents.

Earth dimensions begin to solidify

Inner core 746 mi.

Outer core 1367 mi.

Mantle 1800 mi.

Equatorial diameter 7926

Polar diameter 7900

Mass 6. 6 sextillion tons

Distance from Sun Min 91 million miles

Surface area 196 million square miles

Land Surface 57 million square miles

Ocean cover 70. 8%

Average Depth of Ocean 12,490ft.

Continental Crust 22 miles thick (average)

Oceanic crust 4 miles thick (average)

Period of revolution 23. 9345 hrs.

Year length 365. 256 days

Axial Inclination 23. 44 degrees

Extensive mountain building

2,300,000,000

First large-scale glaciations

2,200,000,000

Stromatolites common. Atmosphere contains free oxygen. For over 2 billion years, life on earth consisted of various forms of bacteria. Self-replicating molecules emerged next. Free oxygen accumulated 2. 3 billion years ago due to the emergence of photosynthesizing algae; complex cells with nuclei appeared 1. 5 billion years ago. Approximately, 1. 4 billion years ago more complex types of eukaryotic cells, the building blocks of all living things, began to emerge and develop.

Pre-cellular forms gave rise to single cellular forms that lead to multi-cellular forms. These forms lead to complex nucleus that contained the genetic material and code for a higher level. The origin of organic life on earth, therefore, cannot be treated as the appearance of the first organism; it can only be treated as the appearance of a number of organisms, which arose together under different conditions.

In time, the protective ozone layer formed along with the chemical processes necessary to form the oceans and the atmosphere, including the exosphere, thermosphere, stratosphere, and troposphere. Precellular activity, to cellar activity, to multicelluar forms led to changes in invertebrates that gave way to developments of vertebrates which ultimately led to the development of primates.  Inorganic life developed into organic life and then complex organic life, creating the conditions for hominid formations. 

Step by step, increasingly, complex organic compounds were formed. And finally came life (biological level) . Life was a law-governed outcome of the development of all chemical and geological processes on the Earth's surface, in its oceans, and atmosphere. ^[1] Simple cells began to synthesize with others, thus giving birth to ever more complex cells with the beginning of a well-defined nucleus, which held the cell's genetic material.

Amoebic-like in nature, bacteria, and jellyfish gave way to small shellfish, trilobites and seaweed's. The two cells could come together and from their merger produce offspring carrying both of the original genetic codes. At a certain stage in this process, sexual reproduction opened up opportunities for mutations to spread throughout the various populations. ^[2]

Protozoa

2,100,000,000

Rapid growth of continent by accretion of micro-continents

Possible formation of a super continent

Southern continents combine into Gondwanaland.

1,800,000,000

Diversification of species of prokaryote algae

(Cellular forms with no nucleus) .

1,400,000,000

Bacteria formed into colonies

First step towards multicellar organisms

Atmosphere rich in oxygen.

1,200,000,000

Development of eukaryote cells. These cells have nucleus containing

DNA, and the capacity for sexual reproduction.

Seaweed's

800,000,000

Evidence of sexual reproduction in eukaryote cells. Filamental and tubular algae. Appearance of fungi.

700,000,000-

600,000,000

Major glaciations, affecting every continent.

600,000,000

Appearance of diverse species of soft-bodied, multicelluar organisms

(Ediacarn Fauna)

The earliest fossil record begins 600 million years ago with the emergence of primitive fish with vertebrate. Their razor sharp teeth and predatory survival tactics were similar to modern sharks. Until 450 million years ago, life had not emerged either on dry land or the deep ocean beds.

By 400 million years ago, the Paleozoic age, plants and animals began to proliferate for the first time on dry land. Included were insects, ferns, land plants, moss, amphibians, and reptiles. Plant life spread rapidly from water to land in the process developing roots, stems, and leaves. Insects followed plant life as earthly colonizers of land.

The phylum to which human beings belong, called chordate, made significant progress 370 million years ago when fish, the most advanced chordates of that time emerged from the oceans and developed adaptations that made animal life existence on land possible.

Multicelled Animals

550,000,000

Laurentia and Baltica positioned in tropics Gondwanaland

Stretches from 50*N to the south pole Volcanic episodes in the Caledonian region.

Worldwide emergence of marine invertebrate groups with shells and skeletons. Trilobites, brachiopods, archeocyathids, echinoderms, mollusks all common

Anthropoids, Worms, Brachiopods Corals Mollusks, Jawless Fish

500,000,000

Baltica drifts closer to Laurentia separated by the first lapetus ocean.

480,000,000

First definite vertebrate-jawless fresh water fish

Freshwater plants assumed to be present.

Fossil record is clear

450,000,000

Taconic Orogeny in northeast Laurentia, caused by collision on offshore island are. Possible first land plants

Emergence of Land Plants

440,000,000

Abundance of Jaw-less-fish

First fish with jaws-freshwater acanthodians

Giant sea scorpions (eurypterids) emerge.

425,000,000

Caledonian Ornian Orogeny begins, as Baltica and Laurentia drift near to the African part of Gondwanaland. They are separated by an early version of Gondwanaland. They are separated by early version of the Tethys Sea.

Jawed Fish Lung Fish

370,000,000-

280,000

The first amphibians develop from fish and reach the land. Emergence of sea ferns, while true ferns cover some lowland area in dense forest. The first amphibians develop from fish and reach the land.

Emergence of sea ferns, while true ferns cover some lowland area in dense forest. New disturbances along the Gondwanaland / Laurentia boundary, in the final phase of the Caledonian Orogeny. Siberia is the only major block not connected with the Laurentia/Baltica/Gondwanaland landmass.

Laurentia and Gondwanaland remain associated, though separated by ocean as sea levels rise.

Widespread limestone formation. Development of huge lycopsid plants in swamp forests. Amphibians and reptiles diversify in humid tropical conditions, as do insects. Abundance of giant flying insects and cockroaches.

First true reptiles. Emergence of distinct floras associated with different climatic conditions.

Glossopteris flora dominates Gondwanaland

Renewed contact between Gondwanaland and Laurentia causes the start of the Appalachian Orogeny. Gondwanaland has continued to turn clockwise. Major glaciations begin to cover large parts of the southern continents in ice. The Hercynian Orogeny results from the collisions of northern Gondwanaland and northern Europe.

Development of huge lycopsid plants in swamp forests. Amphibians and reptiles diversity in humid tropical conditions, as do insects. Abundance of giant flying insects and cockroaches. Angaraland (Siberia and Kazakhstan) begins to collide with Baltica, creating the Urals.  Last part of supercontinent of Pangaea is in place. Pangaea stretches from 60*N to the South Pole.

As conditions became drier and hotter, reptiles thrive at the expense of amphibians. Development of warm-blooded reptiles (therapists) the precursors of the mammals.

Mass extinction of marine life. Groups made extinct include trilobites, rugose corals and crinoids. Other marine invertebrates severely affected. Fish are generally unaffected. Pangea moves north to straddle the Equator.

Many of the continents are now in warm, and climates, Asian micro-continents begin to move away from Australia and Gondwanaland. Ammonites survive the mass extinction at the end of the Paleozoic and thrive in the Mesozoic, development of thecondont reptiles which become dominant Dinosaurs develop from thecodont reptiles. First mammals emerge from warm blooded therapsid reptiles, Archaeopteryx, the earliest known bird (or feathered dinosaur), develops. Dinosaurs become dominant, reaching their largest size

Development and diversification of flying reptiles (pterosaurs) and aquatic reptiles (plesiosaurs) Birds develop and spread widely. Continued diversification of insects. Africa and South America begin to split from North America, opening up the Central Atlantic

Formations of the Rocky Mountains begin. Continuing dominance of land by dinosaurs. Mammals remain small. Reptiles diversity turtles, snakes, lizards are abundant. Emergence of flowering plants (angiosperms) . These dominate the land plant kingdom by the end of the Cretaceous.

Africa moves further south, opening a split with Europe, India splits from Africa and Antarctica and begins to move north. Australia splits from Antarctica as Gondwanaland starts to break up.

South America and Africa begin to split apart- the first time they have been separated since the Precambrian period.

The central Atlantic stabilizes and links to the still opening South Atlantic. Changes in Atlantic and Pacific sea floor spreading push central America and South America together. South America approaches North America, with a narrow ocean basin being squeezed between them. The Andean region becomes a subdution zone.

Mass extinction of marine and land life forms. Principal casualties re the dinosaurs and ammonites.

Reptile groups (other than dinosaurs) survive the mass extinction. Mammals and birds also survive and flourish. Emergence of early horse, elephant and bear groups of mammals. Composite family of plants emerges. Grasses emerge and diversify rapidly along with Leguminous and composite plants.

Uplift of the Rockies and formation of the west coast mountains completed.

Grazing animals and monkeys emerge. Mammal groups (whales, dolphins) return to the sea. Foraminifer grows and diversifies. The first apes emerge. Large mammals and birds spread over the Earth. Grasses cover large areas of land. Japanese islands split from Asia, opening up the Japan Sea. Northern North Atlantic opens between Greenland and northern Europe. Africa moves north to close the Tethys Sea and collide with Europe. The Alpine Orogeny continues for 15-20 million years.

India begins to collide with Asia in the Himalayan Orogeny.

By 30 million years ago, apes fossils dug up in Fayum, Egypt verify that more intelligent life forms were developing as the earth developed.  Ramipithicenes, and dryopithicenes came into being, lived, died, became extinct, and left their fossils as evidence to the movement toward primates which would ultimately result in hominids, or human-like beings.

By 13 million years ago, African proto-humans, similar to their ape cousins began to emerge in Africa at sites today called Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, and even as far as South Africa, shaking themselves free of the animal kingdom as a consequence of ever more intelligent labor. Apes never stopped being knuckle walkers; human men and women moved out from the African savannas, left the forest and trees, learned to walk upright, learned to stand on two feet, gradually adapted their pelvic region to an erect posture which freed their hands for using and making tools. In time, African primates became the starting point for the origin, formation, phenotypic differentiation, and resulting formation of societies for modern humans (social level) . ^[3]

Primates are the very threshold to modern human beings. Outpourings of basalt lava's in southern Siberia (Baikal Rifts) Central Europe (Rhine Graben) East Africa and Antarctica Rifts begin in East Africa-first stages in the creation of a new ocean. Separation of great apes and hominid apes. Radiation of hominid primates culminates in sivapithecus- an ape showing many characteristics of living apes and humans.

Emergence of Australopithecus, First hominids. Following (AA) is Homo Habilis (HH), Homo Erectus (HE), Homo Sapiens Neanderthaleniss (SN) and finally Homo Sapien Sapien. AA and HH never left Africa. He evolved with the ability to stand erect, thus making it possible for this stage to walk out of Africa. First Hominids, human ancestors first originated in central Africa, on the equator. Humanity was born and developed in Africa. It was this humanity that left Africa to populate the other continents of the world.  Antarctica isolated as South America moves away--the last pieces of Gondwanaland break apart. The Earth's climate cools dramatically. Nebraskan glaciation (North America) Donau glaciation (Europe) Homo Habilis, emerges in East Africa

Homo Erectus disperses from Africa as far as China and Java.

Aftonian interglacial period.

Karnsan glaciation (North America) Gunze glaciation (Europe) Yarmonth interglacial period