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[2] [3] Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 10 million to 14 million, [4] with about 1.2 million or 14% documented, the rest not yet described. [5] However, a 2016 report estimates an additional 1 trillion microbial species, with only 0.001% described. [6]
The history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and extinct organisms evolved, from the earliest emergence of life to the present day. Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago (abbreviated as Ga, for gigaannum) and evidence suggests that life emerged prior to 3.7 Ga. [1] [2] [3] The similarities among all known present-day species indicate that they have diverged through the ...
c. 2.58 Ma – start of the Pleistocene epoch, the Stone Age and the current Quaternary Period; emergence of the genus Homo. Smilodon, the best known of the sabre-toothed cats, appears. c. 2.4 Ma – The Amazon River takes its present shape in South America. c. 2.0–1.5 Ma – The basin of the Congo River acquires its present shape.
The earliest known life forms on Earth may be as old as 4.1 billion years (or Ga) according to biologically fractionated graphite inside a single zircon grain in the Jack Hills range of Australia. [2] The earliest evidence of life found in a stratigraphic unit, not just a single mineral grain, is the 3.7 Ga metasedimentary rocks containing ...
August 6, 2024 at 9:00 AM. ... and provide a template for how life could start on planets beyond our own. “How did life begin?” is one of the most profound scientific questions ever pondered ...
20–15 Subfamily: Homininae: Humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas (the African apes) [1] 14–12 Tribe: Hominini: Includes both Homo and Pan (chimpanzees), but not Gorilla. 10–8 Subtribe: Hominina: Genus Homo and close human relatives and ancestors after splitting from Pan—the hominins: 8–4 [2] (Genus) Ardipithecus s.l. 6-4 (Genus ...
Today, scientists agree that all current life descends from earlier life, which has become progressively more complex and diverse through Charles Darwin's mechanism of evolution by natural selection. Darwin wrote to J.D. Hooker on 29 March 1863 stating that "It is mere rubbish, thinking at present of the origin of life; one might as well think ...
The extinction event wiped out three-quarters of all life on Earth more than 200 million years ago ... 2024 at 5:00 PM ... Extinction event that wiped out three-quarters of marine and terrestrial ...