The Cosmic Calendar
Earth's 4.5 Billion Year Story in One Year
Imagine all of Earth's history compressed into a single year. The planet forms on January 1st, and every second represents about 143 years of real time. Life doesn't appear until spring, complex cells wait until fall, and all of recorded human history happens in the final seconds of December 31st.
If Earth's history was one year...
Right now is December 31st, 11:59:59.9 PM
Agriculture began 2 seconds ago, civilization 1 second ago
Hadean (4.5-4.0 BYA)
Archean (4.0-2.5 BYA)
Proterozoic (2.5-0.54 BYA)
Paleozoic (541-252 MYA)
Mesozoic (252-66 MYA)
Cenozoic (66-2.6 MYA)
Quaternary (2.6 MYA-Present)