MapTime is currently unavailable

Due to lack of funds, the MapTime site is currently down. If you are interested in supporting further hosting and development of this tool, please get in touch!

Organic Evolution Timepoints

A previous post outlined the rationale behind using (predominantly) the New Scientist evolution of life website but (a) not all the TimePoints from that site are in the default TimeLine and (b) not all of the TimePoints in the TimeLine are from that site. So, how did we choose what to put in?

Because we have not yet rolled out customised TimeLines, we wanted something that would be reasonably flexible. We have therefore erred on the side of having too many points, rather than too few. (As outlined in the “How to use MapTime” post, TimePoints can be hidden.) We also wanted a reasonable spread of points, although some important events clearly cluster more than others. Finally, because it is intended as an educational tool, there is a bit of a human bias in this timeline, particularly for the more recent events.

Although MapTime is not currently under active development, we would be happy to add additional TimePoints that would be of use. There are some others on the site, in addition to the Evolving Earth TimePoints and TimeLine.

The TimePoints

The Organic Evolution TimeLine has the following TimePoints. Note that the divergence of Great Apes from gibbons (ca. 20 Mya) was added today, as there was a bit of gap following the K/T Extinction 65 Mya.

1. 2012 AD, MapTime (Destination)
2. 1989 AD, Cold War ends
3. 1945 AD, Hiroshima
4. 1776 AD, American Independence
5. 5 kya, Writing
6. 5.5 kya, Bronze Age
7. 35 kya, Cave art
8. 72 kya, Clothing/jewellery
9. 195 kya, Homo sapiens appears
10. 1.6 mya, Use of fire
11. 1.8 mya, Out of Africa
12. 2.5 mya, Stone tools
13. 5.8 mya, Bipedal walking
14. 6 mya, Humans diverge fromcChimps
15. 20 mya, Great Apes diverge from gibbons
16. 65 mya, K/T Extinction
17. 70 mya, Grass
18. 130 mya, Flowers
19. 150 mya, Archaeopteryx (early birds)
20. 180 mya, Mammals
21. 200 mya, Warm bloodedness
22. 250 mya, Permian Extinction
23. 397 mya, Tetrapods
24. 400 mya, Insects and woody plants
25. 465 mya, Land Plants
26. 500 mya, Arthropod crawls onto land
27. 535 mya, Cambrian Explosion
28. 540 mya, Chordates
29. 630 mya, Bilateral Symmetry
30. 900 mya, Multicellularity
31. 2 bya, First Eukaryotic Cells
32. 2.15 bya, Photosynthesis
33. 2.3 bya, Snowball Earth
34. 2.4 bya, Oxygen Atmosphere
35. 3.5 bya, Single Celled Life
36. 4.54 bya, Formation of Earth (Start Location)

MapTime is back up

The MapTime website is be back up and has been for some time, I think. (We’re all too busy with our day jobs to keep a close eye on it at present.)

Maptime is down

Not sure what is going on but I am looking into the problem.

Why MapTime does not use a logarithmic scale

Go team!!!

[Cartoon from XKCD.]

New "Evolving Earth" TimePoints added

The MapTime server is back online after a small glitch with the server hosting our server.

A new "Evolving Earth" TimeLine will appear soon on the site, which is designed to accompany The evolving earth Year 3 module run by Ocean and Earth Science at the University of Southampton.

The TimeLine is not quite ready and will no doubt have a few tweaks but if you want to have a preview of the TimePoints in their current form, you can visit the TimePoints page and search for the keyword: evolving_earth or you can make the TimeLine here.

New features coming soon!

The MapTime server is down again. Sorry! (Hopefully it will be fixed shortly.) In the meantime, why not check out the OneZoom Tree of Life Explorer, which seems to be a nice tool for exploring evolution. It includes a time-based animation of the mammalian and amphibian trees. (More taxa will be added.)

The good news is that when the website is backup, it should have some new features including a second TimeLine. More on this soon. In the meantime, please get in touch if you have any questions or would like more information.