Roughly 600 million years ago, life was evolving in the sea as the first multi-cellular organisms began to emerge. About 240 million years ago, Earth was an enormous super-continent known as Pangea. Pangea was basically a mash-up of nearly all of Earth’s extant landmass and bore little resemblance to our planet today. Then, some 175 million years ago, magma pushed this landmass’s tectonic plates into different directions. Thus, slowly forming the continents that we know today. Now thanks to an incredible newly released interactive map called Ancient Earth, you can see how they moved. You can even pinpoint where your current location would have been on Pangea, or where it would have been 750 million years ago. That’s impressive!
The Creation
Ancient Earth was created by Ian Webster, who is the curator of the world’s largest digital dinosaur database called Dinosaur Pictures. Webster previously worked at Google on local search quality, while its tectonic and paleographic maps were created by Christopher Scotese of the Paleomap Project. For Ancient Earth, Webster drew on data from the Paleomap Project. The Paleomap Project is dedicated to visualizing how tectonic plates developed as well as how the land has evolved over the past 1,100 million years. Which means this globe is about as accurate as it can get, to tell you where your home was located when the first vertebrate appeared on Earth or when dinosaurs thrived.
Webster said:
I’m amazed that geologists collected enough data to actually plot my home 750 [million] years ago, so I thought you all would enjoy it too.
However, he does point out that the visualizations should be considered approximate despite the fact that plate tectonic models return such precise results.
How Does It Work?
The tool allows users to pick a specific moment in time by selecting from two pull-down menus. One menu will let you choose a date ranging from zero to 750 million years ago. The other will let you pick a specific milestone in history, such as the first multi-cellular organisms to the emergence of the earliest hominids’. Another field lets you add your current address or a more generalized region, such as a state or country. Click enter, then “whala!” a blinking dot will pinpoint where your location was at your requested time in history. The map currently offers 26 timeline options, traveling back from the present to the Cryogenian Period at intervals of 15 to 150 million years. Additionally, Ancient Earth includes navigational features, such as toggle display options related to globe rotation, lighting and cloud coverage.
You can also manually switch from one time period to another by using your keyboards left and right arrow keys. When you start at the beginning of the maps’ timeline you’ll see the planet evolve from just blobs of land to the massive super-continent of Pangea and finally to the seven continents we live in today.
Results
The results are very interesting. For example, during the Early Triassic Epoch, the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was located almost directly adjacent to Mauritania, yet to be separated from the African country by the grand waters of the Atlantic Ocean. 90 million years ago, Denver was situated on the edge of an ocean that eventually cut through modern-day North America. About 150 million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the planet, Paris was part of a landmass that looked nothing like Europe. Meanwhile, 750 million years ago, Midtown Manhattan was wedged at the center of a giant icy landmass. “Glaciers may have covered the entire planet during the [Cryogenian Period], the greatest ice age known on Earth,” the site explains on the side of the map. 500 million years ago, New York City is a tiny island in the southern hemisphere, while London, is still part of Pangea.
Check out their website, if your interested to see where your home was millions of years ago.
