Question

If the history of the earth represented one year how many days would human evolution occupy?

Answer 1

Hominids diverged from apes in the last `14.5` hours of the year representing the age of the Earth.

Anatomically modern humans in the last `23` minutes of the year.

Explanation:

• The age of the Earth is about `4.54` billion years.

So if we represent the history of the Earth by one year, then `1` day represents:

`(4.54 xx 10^9) / 365.25 ~~ 12.5` million years.

• Hominids separated from apes about `7.5` million years ago.

So the time of the evolutionary divergence of hominids would be represented by:

`7.5 / 12.5 = 0.6` days `~~ 14.5` hours

• Anatomically modern humans date from about `200000` years ago.

That would be represented by:

`(2 xx 10^5) / (12.5 xx 10^6) = 0.016` days `~~ 23` minutes.

So anatomically modern humans have been around for the last `23` minutes of the year representing the age of the Earth.