135 Feet of Evolution
By Anthony | April 12th, 2006 | 11:09 pmThis is mind-boggling: andabien.com has posted an evolutionary timeline on a 135-foot wide webpage. Click on the link and start scrolling to the right (you may have to scroll down a little bit first to see the timeline, depending on your monitor resolution). Each pixel equals 30,000 years. This really puts the lengths of time involved into some perspective, and it’s humbling, to say the least.
(Hat tip to Pharyngula)
April 14th, 2006 at 9:44 am
A brief history of time
This is a very cool representation of the insignificant amount of time humans have existed on earth. Via PotatoStew
April 14th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Yes, we haven’t been here long at all, but we certainly have done more damage than any other living things in our infinitesimal time here on Mother Earth. I hope she can forgive us once we manage to kill ourselves off. Mr. Stew it was an interesting illustration. Thank you.
April 14th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
The presentation of this timeline reminds me of Carl Sagan’s Cosmic Calendar. Where all of recorded history is condensed into a single “year”. The Big Bang is the first nano-second of the first minute of the first day, of the first month, etc. Life on earth starts on September 25th of the Cosmic Calendar. Everything humans have done in recorded history takes place in the last few seconds of the year. Really puts things in perspective for you.
You can learn more about the Cosmic Calendar here.
April 15th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Brenda: You’re welcome – glad you enjoyed it.
Stew’s Friend: Thanks for the link (I edited it by the way, because it was a bit long for the page layout – hope you don’t mind). That’s definitely a cool one in the same mind-boggling way.
Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, click through to the evolution timeline, and look at the links he has posted at the bottom. The solar system diagram he links to is the same sort of thing, showing the vast distances (and differences in size) between the planets.
April 16th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Stew, no problem editing the link, you know me and my “no talent” CSS/HTML skill 🙂
As for the solar system link, I looked at it and its a neat idea, but the presentation of it in this context is lacking. Scrolling from the sun to any planet is problematic… I scrolled right past every planet without even seeing them due to the huge number of pixels you jump just by moving the scroll bar a tiny bit. I had to use the anchor links to “jump” from planet to planet, and that kinda defeats the purpose doesn’t it? If you are looking for a cool representation of a solar system model, then check this one out, it rocks!