Archive for Month: October 2017
First Animals
The sudden, but relatively late appearance of animals in the rock record has both fascinated and puzzled scientists for years. Simple bacteria emerged as early as 4000 million years ago, soon after Earth had become habitable, but complex animals appeared only around 600 million years ago and burst onto the […]
Life on Earth an Inevitability? It seems so
Several recent papers present evidence that life was established early on, soon after Earth’s fiery and cataclysmic assembly had ended and its surface had cooled down into a watery world capable of sustaining life. Such an early start implies that life, rather than being unique to Earth may be, if […]
The First Australians – Lessons from Madjedbebe
Australia is home to some of our species’ most ancient roots outside of Africa. Dated archaeological sites suggest that our species, Homo sapiens was the first to arrive by around 50 thousand years ago (50 ka) and that we had become widespread throughout the continent by 45 ka (Hamm and others, 2016).
