Evolution of life, LUCA to humans

EVOLUTION OF LIFE SIMULATION

Between LUCA around 3,700 million years ago and the first eukaryotic cell around 2,000 million years ago lies a gap of 1,700 million years in which life barely changed shape. Then the Cambrian explosion near 538 million years ago erected nearly every modern animal phylum in a geological blink. That parade has been pruned five times, hardest at the end-Permian 252 million years ago, while the K–Pg event 66 million years ago erased the non-avian dinosaurs and cleared the floor for mammals.

▸ Building the biological timeline: ~4 billion years → now…

▸ Locating LUCA — the common ancestor of all life

▸ Loading 12 groups of organisms (bacteria → humans)

▸ Marking the 5 mass extinctions (Ordovician → K–Pg)

▸ Starting the parade of life…

▸ Ready — Online. ✅

Biodiversity

📊 Living groups over time

Time—

Diversity—

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Notes

The first 3 billion years held only microbes; complex animals exploded only in the last ~538 million years. Each mass extinction prunes branches but opens room for new groups to rise — K–Pg erased the dinosaurs, opening the age of mammals & humans.

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Drag the scrub bar below the scene (or ▶/⏸) to travel through 4 billion years · click a "Scenario" to jump to an era · click an organism group / concept for details

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Biodiversity over time — rising, with DROPS at the 5 mass extinctions living groups