"

If you imagine the 4,500-bilion-odd years of Earth’s history compressed into a normal earthly day, then life begins very early, about 4 A.M., with the rise of the first simple, single-celled organisms, but then advances no further for the next sixteen hours. Not until almost 8:30 in the evening, with the day five-sixths over, has Earth anything to show the universe but a restless skin of microbes. Then, finally, the first sea plants appear, followed twenty minutes later by the first jellyfish and the enigmatic Ediacaran fauna first seen by Reginald Sprigg in Australia. At 9:04 P.M. trilobites swim onto the scene, followed more or less immediately by the shapely creatures of the Burgess Shale. Just before 10 P.M. plants begin to pop up on the land. Soon after, with less than two hours left in the day, the first land creatures follow.

Thanks to ten minutes or so of balmy weather, by 10:24 the Earth is covered in the great carboniferous forests whose residues give us all our coal, and the first winged insects are evident. Dinosaurs plod onto the scene just before 11 P.M. and hold sway for about three-quarters of an hour. At twenty-one minutes to midnight they vanish and the age of mammals begins. Humans emerge one minute and seventeen seconds before midnight. The whole of our recorded history, on this scale, would be no more than a few seconds, a single human lifetime barely an instant. Throughout this greatly speeded-up day continents slide about and bang together at a clip that seems positively reckless. Mountains rise and melt away, ocean basins come and go, ice sheets advance and withdraw. And throughout the whole, about three times every minute, somewhere on the planet there is a flash-bulb pop of light marking the impact of a Manson-sized meteor or one even larger. It’s a wonder that anything at all can survive in such a pummeled and unsettled environment. In fact, not many things do for long.

"

-Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (via shedsumlight)
331 notes | Reblog
11 months ago
Posted on June 2nd at 6:52 AM
Reblogged from: kadalkavithaigal
Originally posted by: shedsumlight
  1. ohwellseemeinhell reblogged this from openbookstore
  2. problemsolver reblogged this from elbuhocongafas
  3. bookpants reblogged this from bloggertokntu
  4. bloggertokntu reblogged this from catherineyvonne
  5. valcatt reblogged this from violent-amethyst
  6. violent-amethyst reblogged this from theinexorabletruth
  7. theinexorabletruth reblogged this from panserbj0rne
  8. thesigmaenigma reblogged this from panserbj0rne
  9. panserbj0rne reblogged this from supervirgin
  10. supervirgin reblogged this from catherineyvonne
  11. catherineyvonne reblogged this from superiorvintage
  12. superiorvintage reblogged this from krispayne
  13. maplelithe reblogged this from shedsumlight
  14. cleverwaysoflearning reblogged this from shedsumlight
  15. yanlicatessdale reblogged this from shedsumlight
  16. ginnungegap reblogged this from jo-k-bee
  17. jo-k-bee reblogged this from shedsumlight
  18. little-lionheart reblogged this from shedsumlight
  19. lapsesofjudgment reblogged this from thecultofhermes
  20. les-immortels reblogged this from r-omanceisboring
  21. j-dill reblogged this from s-t-o-k-e
  22. thecultofhermes reblogged this from mywordsareamatterofpride
  23. s-t-o-k-e reblogged this from spentgladiator
  24. kaulikitty reblogged this from charliesdragon
  25. charliesdragon reblogged this from angelo-saxon
  26. angelo-saxon reblogged this from shedsumlight
  27. fieldnotesfromabroad reblogged this from openbookstore
  28. pigeonloki reblogged this from openbookstore
  29. looketh-atmyface reblogged this from openbookstore
  30. openbookstore reblogged this from sarahbethlibrarian
  31. ordosamarr reblogged this from realfakescientist
  32. sittingwiththedaisies reblogged this from seensense