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The timeline of human evolution outlines the major events in the evolutionary lineage of the modern human species, ''
Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture ...
'', throughout the
history of life The history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and fossil organisms evolved, from the earliest emergence of life to present day. Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago (abbreviated as ''Ga'', for ''gigaannum'') and evide ...
, beginning some 4 billion years ago down to recent evolution within ''H. sapiens'' during and since the Last Glacial Period. It includes brief explanations of the various
taxonomic rank In biological classification, taxonomic rank is the relative level of a group of organisms (a taxon) in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system consists of species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain. While ...
s in the human lineage. The timeline reflects the mainstream views in modern taxonomy, based on the principle of
phylogenetic nomenclature Phylogenetic nomenclature is a method of nomenclature for taxa in biology that uses phylogenetic definitions for taxon names as explained below. This contrasts with the traditional approach, in which taxon names are defined by a '' type'', which ...
; in cases of open questions with no clear consensus, the main competing possibilities are briefly outlined.


Overview of taxonomic ranks

A tabular overview of the
taxonomic rank In biological classification, taxonomic rank is the relative level of a group of organisms (a taxon) in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system consists of species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain. While ...
ing of ''
Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture ...
'' (with age estimates for each rank) is shown below.


Timeline


Unicellular life


Animalia


Chordata


Tetrapoda


Mammals


Primates


Hominidae


Homo


Homo sapiens


See also

* Evolution of human intelligence *
Graphical timeline of the universe This more than 20-billion-year timeline of our universe shows the best estimates of major events from the universe's beginning to anticipated future events. Zero on the scale is the present day. A large step on the scale is one billion years; a s ...
*
Human evolution Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of '' Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual developmen ...
* Recent human evolution *
List of human evolution fossils The following tables give an overview of notable finds of hominin fossils and remains relating to human evolution, beginning with the formation of the tribe Hominini (the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages) in the late Miocene, roug ...
* Natural history *
Human history Human history, also called world history, is the narrative of humanity's past. It is understood and studied through anthropology, archaeology, genetics, and linguistics. Since the invention of writing, human history has been studied thro ...
*
History of Earth The history of Earth concerns the development of planet Earth from its formation to the present day. Nearly all branches of natural science have contributed to understanding of the main events of Earth's past, characterized by constant geologi ...
*
Timeline of prehistory This timeline of prehistory covers the time from the first appearance of ''Homo sapiens'' in Africa 315,000 years ago to the invention of writing, over 4,000 years ago, with the earliest records going back to 3,200 BC. Prehistory covers the tim ...
* Timeline of the evolutionary history of life *
List of timelines This is a list of timelines currently on Wikipedia. Overview There are several types of timeline articles. *''Historical timelines'' show the significant historical events and developments for a specific topic, over the course of centuries or ...


References


External links


Palaeos



Berkeley Evolution

History of Animal Evolution

Tree of Life Web Project
– explore complete phylogenetic tree interactively
Human Timeline (Interactive)
– Smithsonian,
National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7. ...
(August 2016). {{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline Of Human Evolution
Human evolution Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of '' Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual developmen ...
Evolution-related timelines *