Pre-Historic Latin America

 

 

I. Archeozoic Age

            4.6 billion years ago: age of moon and meteorites

            4.4 billion years ago: oldest igneous rocks

            3.8 billion years ago: oldest sedimentary rocks

            3.6 billion years ago: first anaerobic bacteria

            3.2 billion years ago: photosynthesis

            2.7 billion years ago: continents begin to differentiate

II. Proterozoic Age

            800 million years ago: plate tectonics begin

            600 million years ago: all continents still joined; jellyfish exist

            590 million years ago: continental rits begin to open

            575 million years ago: invertebrates develop shells

III. Paleozoic Age

            465 million years ago: glaciation in Africa and Australia; first fish

            390 million years ago: first amphibians appear

            345 million years ago: first reptiles appear

            305 million years ago: worldwide glaciations; first sharks and tree ferns

            235 million years ago: extinction of 95% of living species; maximum cold spell

IV. Mesozoic Age

            220 million years ago: first dinosaurs appear

            190 million years ago: Gulf of México and North Atlantic rifts open; primitive mammals

            155 million years ago: North and South hemispheres separate into rifts

            130 million years ago: South Atlantic rifts opens; snails, sea urchins, birds

              75 million years ago: deciduous trees and primates

V. Cenozoic Age

              65 million years ago: extinction of dinosaurs and 75% of living species

              50 million years ago: East Africa rift opens; pines, birds, anthropoids

              38 million years ago: Antartic glaciation; temporary landbridges exposed worldwide; first carnivores enter Africa; anthropoids divide into hominoids and cercopithecoids (later: baboons, etc.)

              15 million years ago: emigration of hominoids to Eurasia

              10 million years ago: worldwide expansion of grasslands

                5 million years ago: Antartic glaciation; Mediterranean briefly evaporates

                4.6 million years ago: homo habilis

                3.0 million years ago: modern uplift of Alps

                2.75 million years ago: humankind's earliest stone tools

                1.50 million years ago: homo erectus in Africa, India, Near East; hand axes

                   500,000 years ago: homo sapiens neanderthalensis: Africa, Europe, Near East, Asia

                     40,000 years ago: modern homo sapiens; new tools, hunting weapons

VI. Paleolithic Age

            100,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE: human beings enter North America and South America