Life: with an estimated 3.8 billion years of existence in evolution on Earth, it's an
odd thing indeed.
So, how did we get here?
And what would the Earth's 4.5 billion year timeline look like, compressed into a normal
day of 24 hours?
The story begins early in the morning, around 4am, with the rise of the first simple, single-cell
organisms.
However, these organisms are destined to spend quite some time alone.
At 1pm, a simple cell engulfs another, creating a symbiotic relationship and the first eukaryotic
cells, or cells with internal organs.
At 6:30pm, these cells begin to form colonies, and thus, the first multi-cellular life develops.
But it isn't until 8:30pm that sea plants appear and 20 minutes later, we suddenly see
animal life erupt in an explosion of inventiveness.
Jellyfish, the first invertebrates, trilobytes, incredible diversification begins to take
place.
And just before 10pm, plants begin to sppear on land, followed by land mammals.
By 10:24, the Earth is covered in carniforous forests, and the first winged insects appear.
Many reptiles dominate the land with less than an hour left, but a mass extinction event
allows dinosaurs to storm the scene and remain until 11:41pm, when they too suddenly vanish.
And so begins the Age of Mammals.
In the last few minutes, apes split from the old world monkeys.
And with only 1 minute and 17 seconds left before midnight, humans emerge.
All of the recorded human history fits within a few seconds, an individual life lasting
barely an instant, all a combination of 3.8 billion years of life.
This AsapSCIENCEvideo was made possible by the support of audible.com.
With their help, we're able to continue making fun science videos.
And they want to give you a free audiobook.
Audible is the internet's leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable
titles across all different types of literature including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals.
Just go to audible.com/asap to get a free audiobook of your choice.
Today's episode was inspired by the book 'A Short History of Nearly Everything', in which
Bill Bryson explores the neatest bits of science, my personal recommendation.
Again, just head over to audible.com/asap to download it for free, or another audiobook
of your choice.
And subscribe for more weekly science videos!