History atlas

A billion years. One line out of many.

Follow our own lineage through deep time: the eras in the game, the disasters our ancestors came through, and the turning points between them.

  • In the game an era you play
  • Deep history the story around it

The line shown is one reconstructed lineage within a branching tree of life, not a ladder.

  1. About 4.2 billion years agoLUCA, the last universal common ancestorDeep history
  2. Perhaps a billion years agoBetween the GrainsIn the game
  3. Between the single cell and the first animalsBecoming a bodyDeep history
  4. About 555 million years agoThe Garden of EdiacaraIn the game
  5. About 518 million years agoBackboneIn the game
  6. About 444 million years agoThe end-Ordovician extinctionDeep history
  7. About 375 million years agoThe Water’s EdgeIn the game
  8. About 374 and 359 million years agoThe Late Devonian crisesDeep history
  9. Around 355 million years ago, perhaps earlierLife away from waterDeep history
  10. About 252 million years agoThe end-Permian extinctionDeep history
  11. About 201 million years agoThe end-Triassic extinctionDeep history
  12. About 67 million years agoBeneath GiantsIn the game
  13. About 66 million years agoThe end-Cretaceous extinctionDeep history
  14. Within a few hundred thousand years after the impactThe first primatesDeep history
  15. About 10 million years agoThe CanopyIn the game
  16. About 3.6 million years agoWalking uprightDeep history
  17. About 100,000 years agoThe EmberIn the game