Life on Earth

The earliest forms of life on Earth were single-cell organisms, which arose from the ‘primordial soup’, (an organic compound rich solution of the early Oceans) of the early life of our planet. Over the course of 3 billion years, these earliest of life forms then gradually evolved into ever more complex organisms, such that fungi, protozoa, plants, sponges, corals, sea anemones, molluscs and crustaceans began to appear and then made their way across the surface of our planet.

Over the next 250 million years, fishes, rays, scorpions, lichens, insects, sharks, forests, ferns, amphibians and reptiles flourished throughout planet Earth.

In the period from 250 million years ago until 66 million years ago – Dinosaurs such as the Plateosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus appeared and became the dominant land animal on planet Earth. The first mammals appeared on planet Earth during this period, but lived in the dinosaurs’ shadow.

Then 66 million years ago, a cataclysmic event, thought to be the impact of a massive asteroid or comet, led to the sudden mass-extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on planet Earth. This wiped out the dinosaurs excepting birds – which evolved from the remnants of the flying dinosaurs. In the wake of this mass-extinction event, mammals flourished, diversified and became the dominant animal type on Earth. Of the different types of mammals that appeared on Earth during this period, our ancestors, the first true primates, arrived on our planet 60 million years ago.

Between 14 and 4 million years ago, the last common ancestor between ourselves and the chimpanzee lived on planet Earth. Around 2.5 million years ago, the first members of the Homo group of animals, our direct ancestors, existed on Earth. A number of different species of humans then lived on planet Earth before 250,000 years ago, our species, Homo Sapiens, arrived.