Humans have walked the Earth for 190,000 years, a mere blip in Earth's 4.5-billion-year history. Learn more about the planet's tumultuous past.
More About the Prehistoric World
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Digging Up Sea Monsters
Follow the blog from the Spitsbergen Expedition as they unearth "sea monsters″ from the Upper Jurassic Period 150 million years ago.
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Prehistoric Time Line
National Geographic's interactive time line takes you on a 4.5-billion-year-old trip through Earth's history⎯from its Precambrian birth to the birth of Homo sapiens some 190,000 years ago.
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Pterosaurs—Lords of the Ancient Skies
The largest animals that ever flew, pterosaurs ruled the Mesozoic skies for 150 million years, flapping and soaring long before the first bird ruffled a single feather.
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Fossil Wars
In the international fossil trade, even priceless specimens have a price tag. Ancient bones can end up in a movie star's mansion as easily as in a museum.
Shop National Geographic
2012 Emerging Explorers
ScienceBlogs Picks
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Jane Goodall
Over the course of 50 years Jane has witnessed the lives of three generations of chimpanzees.
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Explorer Moment
Ed Viesturs shares an early morning view from Everest.
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File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/src/layout/models.py", line 843, in standard_render
return template.render(new_context)
File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/__init__.py", line 165, in render
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File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/__init__.py", line 784, in render
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File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/__init__.py", line 797, in render_node
return node.render(context)
File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/defaulttags.py", line 240, in render
return self.nodelist_true.render(context)
File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/__init__.py", line 784, in render
bits.append(self.render_node(node, context))
File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/__init__.py", line 797, in render_node
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File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/defaulttags.py", line 240, in render
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File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/__init__.py", line 784, in render
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File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/__init__.py", line 797, in render_node
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File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/defaulttags.py", line 154, in render
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File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/__init__.py", line 836, in render
return _render_value_in_context(output, context)
File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/template/__init__.py", line 816, in _render_value_in_context
value = force_unicode(value)
File "/nas/ngdm/wpf/parts/project-live/django/utils/encoding.py", line 93, in force_unicode
raise DjangoUnicodeDecodeError(s, *e.args)
DjangoUnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0x8a in position 1: unexpected code byte. You passed in 'f\x8a&' (
National Geographic Magazine
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Longevity Pictures
Our genes harbor many secrets to a long and healthy life. And now scientists are beginning to uncover them
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Element Hunters Pictures
All the elements found in nature—the different kinds of atoms—were found long ago. To bag a new one these days, and push the frontiers of matter, you have to create it first.
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Good Gas, Bad Gas
Burn natural gas and it warms your house. But let it leak, from fracked wells or the melting Arctic, and it warms the whole planet.
Genographic
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Jane Goodall
Over the course of 50 years Jane has witnessed the lives of three generations of chimpanzees.
-
Explorer Moment
Ed Viesturs shares an early morning view from Everest.
