CLOCK
To evolve from apes 7 hrs
Homo Sapiens so far 10mins
Human history 30secs
1000 years 3secs
I year 3msec
Fossils
In the Cambrian explosion, diverse early animals appear. Ammonites are an early Crustacean that have modern counterpart in the Nautilus. Trilobites are an early Arthropod that have modern counterpart in the Horseshoe Crab.
The Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies show that many diverse body types that evolved, and subsequently lost out to the successful Arthropod and Crustaceon body forms.
Cambrian explosion fossils 450-250 Mya
Jurassic Dinosaur World 200-66 Mya
Megafauna Mammal World 55-0.02 Mya
Eocene fossils 50-30 Mya from Petrified Forest CA
Homo skulls from the Cradle of Humanity in South Africa
Fossil formation
To be found, fossils must be buried in or very soon after death. Falling in water, buried under rock fall, volcanic debris, avalanche, falling in tar pit.
This needs to be in some low lying location so the body can then be covered by rising water and layers of sand or mud.
The sandstone then must be exposed by either falling water levels, or uplift. The uplift cannot be preceded by subduction and metamorphosis of the rock. This rules out volcanic regions.
Finally a new cycle of erosion byrivers or ocean is needed to expose the layers containing the fossils.
Classic regions include;
Burgess Shale at 12,000 ft in Canadian rockies, under water during the Cambrian explosion, then exposed by massive tilt uplift and glacial valley erosion.
Jurassic Coast in Dorset, local tilt uplift followed by glacial polish leaving edges of the layer forming rolling hills, with cliffs exposed by sea erosion.
Dakota Badlands that were flooded during the ice free Jurassic period, sea receded, and then water erosion.
La Brea Tar pits in LA, famous for mammal megafauna
Melting polar ice exposing wooly mammoths.
Micro-life web images
Animals are multicelled groupings with ability to move.
Chanoflagellites are proto-animals with ability to digest sugars for energy.
Plant cells with green inclusions that absorb light for energy and a cellulose skeleton, evolved from merging eukaryotes and photo-bacteria.
Brown algae or seaweed, forming macroalgae mats at oceans edge.
Diatoms - silicate (quartz) exo-skeleton. After decomposition, forms siliceous sludge that leads to microcrystalline quartz inclusions known as "Flint".
Cocoliths - calcite exo skeleton of single celled photo-plankton. After decomposition, forms chalk cliffs in the "White Cliffs of Dover".
Eukaryotes, for example Bikont single celled proto-plants and animals, with a nucleus containing DNA for inheritance.
Bacteria the most basic living structures using RNA for inheritance.
