This timeline of the evolution of life outlines the major events in the development of life on the planet Earth.

Dates given are estimates based on scientific evidence.

In biology, evolution is the process by which populations of organisms acquire and pass on novel traits from generation to generation.

Its occurrence over large stretches of time explains the origin of new species and ultimately the vast diversity of the biological world.

Contemporary species are related to each other through common descent, products of evolution and speciation over billions of years.

The basic timeline is a 4600 million year old Earth with: 4000 my (million years) of simple cells; 3000 my of photosynthesis; 2000 my of complex cells; 1000 my of multicellular life; 600 my of simple animals; 500 my of fish and proto-amphibians; 475 my of land plants; 400 my of insects and seeds; 360 my of amphibians; 300 my of reptiles; 200 my of mammals; 150 my of birds; 100 my of flowers; and 65 my since the non-avian dinosaurs died out..

For more information about the topic Timeline of evolution, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Speciation — Speciation refers to the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise. There are three main ideas concerning the emergence of new ...  > read more

Precambrian — The Precambrian is an informal name for the eons of the geologic timescale that came before the current Phanerozoic eon. It spans from the formation ...  > read more

Timeline of human evolution — The timeline of human evolution outlines the major events in the development of humans species and the evolution of human's ancestors. It begins with ...  > read more

Genetic drift — Genetic drift is the term used in population genetics to refer to the statistical drift over time of gene frequencies in a population due to random ...  > read more

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