Well again this is going to be a bit of a pot-boiler although I have had a good idea for next time around - which is going to take a little bit of research! But I need questions from you - what conundrum do YOU want addressed?
This is the first ANDYSEZ post ACKMA Insights - the CD-ROM produced by Peter Bell and Robyn McBeath from CaveWorks at Margaret River - and released at the Mount Gambier Conference. Initially I thought the price a bit steep - but when you get thirty ANDYSEZs, all the conference proceedings and a selection of papers from the Journal it is a real bargain - two bucks an ANDYSEZ! - theft (from ACKMA!). If you look at the purchase price of all of that Peter Costello would be after you to adjust the budget surplus? Look for the scanned stalagmite - it looked good as a photocopy but with a bit of UV light it looks truly fantastic. Which reminds me - back in the early ANDYSEZ days I was going to talk about light - but I can't find the little text that had some wonderful stuff to help us. So it will have to wait.
Last time I talked about the age of our Earth - I thought I would provide a dry list of milestones this time. Many, perhaps most, derived from Hughes (1995) but others from a variety of other scattered sources - including the Canberra Times. Many are open to disputation. Here goes (ages in Ma - millions of years before present):
| 13000 | Age of the Universe - although there has been recent discussion of a much older age than this - but the exact figure is probably of little relevance to ACKMA! | 1000 | First sexual reproduction - you were waiting for this, weren't you! | |
| 4700 | Solar nebula forms | 950 | First evidence of ice ages | |
| 4600 | Earth complete | 770 | Ice ages | |
| 4450 | Extensive volcanic activity adds steam and carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Comets adding water | 670 | First true animals | |
| 4400 | Water condenses to form the oceans | 650 |
Mountain building and formation of Gondwana |
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| 4276 | Oldest rock material known - reworked from older rocks | 620 | First common worms with tube-like body and primitive nervous system | |
| 4000 | First life appears - simple bacteria feeding on organic molecules | 570 | Start of the Cambrian; massive diversification of life forms | |
| 3962 | Oldest un-reworked rocks - from Greenland | 550 | Major marine extinctions | |
| 3800 | Photosynthesis established | 510 | Start of the Ordovician; first vertebrates | |
| 3500 | Stromatolites appear | 460 | Europe collides with North America (or the other way round? And it hasn't stopped!) | |
| 3000 | Moon solidifies | 440 | Start of the Silurian; more ice ages and mass extinctions | |
| 2800 | Formation of the cores of ancient continents | 430 | Start of long warm period; formation of coral reefs and major limestone deposits | |
| 2300 | Land grouped together into the first supercontinent | 425 | First life on land; first jawed fish | |
| 2100 | The first single celled animals and fungi appear | 410 | Devonian commences | |
| 1800 | Free oxygen appears in the Earth's atmosphere | 400 | First lungfish | |
| 1750 | Oxygen kills many bacteria - those that survive adapt to using oxygen or live in oxygen-free (anaerobic) environments | 395 | First arthropods on land - millipedes, mites, spiders, scorpions and springtails | |
| 1300 | First complex multicellular organism - a seaweed | 370 | More mass extinctions, especially in the sea. Coral reefs devastated. First amphibians and first forests | |
| 355 | Start of Carboniferous - climate cools | |||
| (page break in original: seeking volunteers to rearrange the table) | ||||
| 350 | Euro-America collides with Gondwana - cultural imperialism! Huge amounts of carbon dioxide converted to limestone - hooray! | 37 | End of Eocene - temperatures tumble and many marine extinctions but new birds and mammals have appeared slightly earlier | |
| 340 | First reptiles | 24 | Grass becomes widespread and grazing animals emerge | |
| 330 | First winged insects | 21 | Apes split off from monkeys | |
| 300 | Start of Permian - climate cools further | 16 | Global cooling resumes. Widespread herds of grazing mammals | |
| 290 | Ice ages - south polar ice sheet over much of Gondwana including present day Australia | 15 | Many extinctions. Sea level falls. Climate oscillates | |
| 275 | First marine reptiles | 14 | East Antarctic ice sheet forms | |
| 255 | Mammal-like reptiles become dominant reptiles on land | 10 | Maximum activity in formation of the Alps as Italy pushes into Europe - not for the last time! | |
| 245 | Triassic begins. Major extinctions with over 50% of animal families lost | 6.6 | West Antarctic ice sheet forms. Sea levels drop 40 m | |
| 235 | First dinosaurs, flowers and frog-like amphibians | 6.3 | Mediterranean Sea dries out! | |
| 225 | First giant herbivorous dinosaurs and winged reptiles | 5.3 | Mediterranean reformed via huge waterfall between Gibraltar and Africa | |
| 220 | Supercontinent Pangaea complete | 5 | Uplift of Himalayas. Apes and "ape-men" divide | |
| 216 | First mammals | 3.5 | North and South America join up | |
| 210 | Pangaea begins to breakup | 3.25 | Most recent series of ice ages commences | |
| 205 | Start of Jurassic - warm seas and abundant life | 2.4 | First stone tools. Ice age intensifies | |
| 170 | Peak formation of oil | 1.9 | Homo erectus emerges | |
| 150 | Archaeopteryx flies. But there are earlier bird-like dinosaurs | 1.6 | Humans start to use fire | |
| 140 | Eurasia and North America breaking away from the southern continent | 1 | Peak of large mammals. Great volcanic activity | |
| 135 | Start of Cretaceous. Many new dinosaurs | 0.73 | Asteroid impact near Australia. Many extinctions and the most recent magnetic reversal | |
| 0.6 | Homo sapiens emerges | |||
| 125 | First modern flowering plants. First marsupial animals which migrate to Australia and Antarctica before the spilt from Africa | 0.073 | Huge volcano erupts in Indonesia, climate cools further | |
| 114 | First placental mammals | 0.04 | Modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens) emerges - from a cave? | |
| 100 | India breaks away from Antarctica | 0.034 | Neanderthals are extinct - perhaps? | |
| 95 | First primate ancestors | 0.018 | Peak of last ice age | |
| 90 | Warm, productive seas. Deposition of chalk in Europe and oil in the Middle East | 0.014 | Thaw starts | |
| 85 | South America breaks away from Africa | 0.010 | Brief refreeze | |
| 75 | Tryannosaurus is dominant carnivore. First primates | 0.0006 | Aboriginal people arrive in Australia | |
| 65 | Mass extinctions especially of dinosaurs. Start of the Tertiary | 0.00034 | Tutankhamun reigns in Egypt | |
| 62 | Fall in sea levels completes emergence of North America | 0.000007 | Celery Reckons emerges | |
| 60 | North America breaks from Europe - not for the last time! | 0.000006 | Flipper emerges | |
| 55 | First grasses suitable for grazing. New mammals emerge - whales, elephants and big cats | 0.000005 | Andysez emerges | |
| 50 | Australia breaks from Antarctica leaving the latter over the South Pole | 0.000004 | Age of Aquarius | |
| 45 | India collides with Eurasia and the Himalayas start to form | 0.0000012 | Age of ACKMA commences | |