For over 4 billion years, Life on Theia has managed to proliferate, and colonise almost every environment of their home planet. Divided into separate kingdoms, domains, genus', species ect, Theian life had evolved to mainly specialise in oceanic, or liquid water environments, which cover approximately 87% of the planet. Almost all complex life has descended from a common ancestor, one individual cell related to all species alive today, of those almost all being comprised of either eukaryotic animal or plant cells.
Basic Evolutionary Timeline[]
- 4 Billion Years Ago (Gya) - The basic chemical components for life react, creating the first RNA, then DNA, then the first bio-molecule.
- 3.8 Gya - The first simple celled life forms (Prokaryotes ) form from the first replicating bio-molecules.
- 3 Gya - The first cells to use photosynthesis; beginning of oxygenation of the atmosphere.
- 2.9 Gya - The Theian Oxygenation Event (TOC) occurs; 98% of all life goes extinct and the atmosphere fills with oxygen, forming the Ozone layer.
- 2.5 Gya - Eukaryotes appear as the first complex cellular life.
- 900 Million Years Ago (mya) - The first simple animals.
- 780 mya - The Florentine Explosion occurs, diversifying life and allowing for the evolution of more complex, multi-cellular life.
- 700 mya - The first animal-plants, Solimarium, evolve; moving animals that undertake in the process of photosynthesis.
- 500 mya - The first hard bodied animals; creatures that covered their bodies in chemical minerals such as calcium to harden their bodies to protect themselves from predators.
- 460 mya - Cartilage to occupy and then support evolving soft-bodied organisms begins to appear within them.
- 450 mya - The first soft bodied animals to colonise the land, Planavites , appear.
- 350 mya - Solimarium colonises the surface, allowing oxygen to be more easily dispersed throughout the atmosphere.
Timeline[]
Note - Dating in this universe is recorded from the perspective of our universe.
This timeline uses the following acronyms for dating; billion years ago (Gya), million years ago (mya), thousand years ago (kya). Anything forward of the current date will have a f on the end of the acronym instead of an a.
Incipentic Eon[]
4500 - 4000 Gya
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
4.61 Gya |
The Solar system itself is formed. A nebula which had found a centre of gravity expels countless amounts of gas and dust following a nuclear reaction which brings about the formation of the Sun, after which an accretion disk filled with this gas and dust forms around the new born star. |
| 4.54 Gya | After only 50 million years, a proto Theia is formed from the dust and elements that made up the accretion disk. This proto-Theia floats without a consistent orbit for millions of years. |
| 4.5 Gya | A small, but powerful object slams into the planet, causing it to lose its already non-stable orbit, and begin to fall towards the Sun. However, after thousands of years falling towards it, a young planet, Earth, intercepts Theia with its gravitational pull, and after a "slingshot effect" occured, Theia was thrown back away from its receding orbit. |
| 4.48 Gya | After 20 million years of floating throughout space between the orbits of Earth and Mars, Theia's overall orbit is stabilised, within, but close to the boundary of, the habitable zone. |
| 4.12 Gya | Cooling on the planet allows it to be covered in liquid water brought about by passing asterioids and comets that bath the planet in the life giving chemical. |
| 4.1 Gya |
Chemical reactions, caused by an influx of activity in thermal vents, partnered with the continuing impacts of asteroids and comets, bring a number of specific elements together for the formation of life; hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, nitrogen and carbon bound together. This causes an unexpected reaction to occur between the elements, as they begin to act unlike anything seen before within the Solar system; they begin to act like RNA. |
Primavian Eon[]
4000 - 2800 Gya
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
4 - 3.8 Gya |
Continuing heavy impacts by the last of the large, abundant asteroids hits its peak, resulting in the late heavy bombardment. This impacts continue the "chemical stirring" of the elements that form life, and result in the proliferation of basic, genetic holding RNA. |
| 3.9 Gya | RNA continues to evolve, as they begin to split into other bio-molecules, primarily, and most importantly, DNA, which had begun to hold the genetic information, instead of just transferring it as RNA began to do. This was further thousands of years later, with DNA strands continuing to "evolve" with their genetic information needing to be protected. This resulted in the earliest microscopic bio-molecule; a thin membrane covering the important DNA strands. |
| 3.8 Gya | Early cells continue to proliferate, evolving and adapting to become more rigid in the fast waters of the Primavian Theia. These early Prokaryotes, similar to those found on Earth, continued to protect the primitive cells. Eventually, only one lineage to life remained; and one of the members of the species would be the progenitor and ancestor of all life currently alive on Theia today. |
| 2.9 Gya | Carbon reducing bacteria appear; able to convert the Carbon in the ocean into a usable form of energy, at first, it does not dispel oxygen as a waste product. but when the years closed in on the end of the Primavian, they began to proliferate, and finally, produce oxygen as the waste product. |
Untillian Eon[]
2800 Gya - 780 mya
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
2.8 Gya |
Taking in Carbohydrates from the planets ocean, archaic photosynthesising bacteria begin to give off oxygen as a waste product. Over the next hundred million years, this oxygen begins to build up in the ocean, beginning the Theian Oxygen Catastrophe (TOC). |
| 2.7 Gya | The TOC reaches its height, with more and more archaic, anaerobic species going extinct every year whilst the oxygen builds up in the ocean, destroying perhaps the most important chemical for the anaerobic life; iron. Unable to replenish their sulphur supply due to the rusting of the iron, 98% of all life went extinct, with the only surviving anaerobic life surviving by fleeing to the deep sea thermal vents. Over the next few thousand years, the oceans will run red, filled with rusted iron. |
| 2.6 Gya | Whilst Theian life was recovering from the TOC, the oxygen in the ocean began to escape into the atmosphere, filling it with the life giving chemical. Reactions within the upper atmosphere began to occur, and the eventual result, over thousands of years, was the ozone layer; a layer composed of O³. This new layer helped block out dangerous amounts of UV radiation, and allowed life to colonize land. |
| 2.5 Gya | Beginning to repopulate the planets shallow oceans, oxygen breathing cellular life begins to evolve not just in its chemical structure, but also physical structure. Eukaryotes (living cells with a membrane encasing its nucleus) first appeared around this period. Their general structure, alongside the fact they can more easily adapt to changed, allowed for the eventual proliferation of multi-cellular life. |
| 2.3 Gya | One of the most important events that changed the course of Theian history was not one to start on Theia. In the asteroid belt, beyond the orbit of Mars, a major impact between the asteroids sent one of them out of its orbit, and towards the inner Solar System. This asteroid, named Lares, was eventually captured within Theia's orbit, and over the course of millions of years, stabilised. As a result, Theian oceans became magnetically tied to the satellite, slowed the rate of the planets rotation, and slowed the erratic movements of the axis; all of which would allowed life to eventually colonise the land without interference of the planets previous erratic seasons. |
| 1.8 Gya | For the first time in the history of Theian life, multicellular organism appear. Ever since the evolution and first appearance of eukaryotic cells, many species have been slowly "clustering" together, working and surviving in a symbiotic relationship with the other cells. This first "multicellular" life was far from being an animal, as the cells that made up the structure of the organism still operate independently from each other, however, it was the first step in what was to become true multicellular animals. |
| 1.5 Gya | Sexual reproduction first arises around 1500 mya, quickening the rate of the evolution of life on the planet. Originating from the rise and diversification of the first "multicellular organisms", sex allows genetic information to be passed on with more difference from the original code, thus allowing for mutations within the genes of cells, and the faster pace that evolution was going to take from then on. |
| 1.2 Gya | The first glaciation period begins, lasting for the next 100 million years in the longest ice age in the planets history, with ice sheets covering up to 60% of the globe, reaching down towards the tropics. A dramatic decline in the biodiversity takes place following a mass extinction of many organisms living towards the poles. However, following the heating of the planet due to an increase in volcanic activity around 1100 mya, true animals would be ready to truly diversify. |
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Theia | Theian History • Theian Timescale • Future of Theia • Theian Biomes | |||
| Earth | Terran History • Terran Timescale • Future of Earth • Terran Biomes | ||||
| Lares | Laretian History | ||||
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Theian Life | Theian Species • Theian Energy Sources • Evolution • Theian Biosphere • Extinctions | |||
| Terran Life | Terran Species • Terran Energy Sources • Evolution • Terran Biosphere • Extinctions | ||||
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Theian Geography | Continents • Plate Tectonics • Atmosphere • Structure | |||
| Terran Geography | Islands • Plate Tectonics • Atmosphere • Structure | ||||