This requires the latest version of Flash Player. Click here to download.
Humans have walked the Earth for 190,000 years, a mere blip in Earth's 4.5-billion-year history. A lot has happened in that time. Earth formed and oxygen levels rose in the foundational years of the Precambrian. The productive Paleozoic era gave rise to hard-shelled organisms, vertebrates, amphibians, and reptiles. Dinosaurs ruled the Earth in the mighty Mesozoic. And 64 million years after dinosaurs went extinct, modern humans emerged in the Cenozoic era. The planet has seen an incredible series of changes—discover them for yourself.
Shop National Geographic
2011 Emerging Explorers
ScienceBlogs Picks
Advertisement
National Geographic Channel
-
Rocket City Rednecks
Wednesdays at 9P and 9:30P
Meet a group of backwoods Alabama geniuses who tackle problems with hillbilly ingenuity.
-
Mad Scientists
Wednesdays at 10P and 10:30P
Travel across America with host John Bowler as he seeks out the weirdest inventions.
-
National Geographic Investigates
Fridays at 8P, 9P, and 10P et/pt
Get up close with some of the world's most fascinating underground communities, from gangs to cults to organized crime families.
National Geographic Magazine
-
Panama's Big Dig Pictures
Who were the golden chiefs of Panama? Photographer David Coventry investigates the ancient cemetery that is yielding extraordinary gold artifacts.
-
Twins Pictures
They have the same piercing eyes. The same color hair. One may be shy, while the other loves meeting new people. Twins could reveal how genes and the environment interact to make us who we are.
-
Afar Depression Pictures
In Africa's Afar depression, pastoral tribes and salt traders survive amid a surreal landscape of fissures, faults, and a boiling lake of lava.
Genographic
