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The Signposts Perspectives A possible history of the mysterious frozen Antarctic and sunken Kerguelen continents 544 million BC through today Earth's tilt straightens; plants, then animals, invade dry land; repeated mass extinctions; giant insects; Kerguelen and Antarctica appear; Kerguelen sinks; Ice Age Sponser this page

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The Signposts Perspectives: Antarctica and Kerguelen 544 million BC through the present table of contents

Approximately 544,000,000 BC: Perhaps the last of three global glaciations extending even to the Earth's equator is realized
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Approximately 534,000,000 BC: A sudden mass imbalance within the Earth may set off rapid geologic changes worldwide now (with significant climatic consequences afterwards)
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Approximately 500,000,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include starfish, corals, and clam-like shellfish
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Approximately 490,000,000 BC: The Earth may have slowly reduced its previous tilt of 70 degrees from the vertical to some 20 or 30 degrees now
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Approximately 450,000,000+ BC: After many false starts (species which failed to make the transition) finally one form of plant life manages to survive the change from water to dry land. I.e., the very first successful species of land plant now makes its debut
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Approximately 439,000,000 BC: The Ordovician mass extinction occurs, wherein...
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Approximately 425,000,000 BC: Portions of the continents are growing closer again
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Approximately 395,000,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include sharks, amphibians, spiders, and ferns
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Approximately 367,000,000 BC: The Devonian mass extinction takes place, and is apparently near the magnitude of the Ordovician event 72 million years before...
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Approximately 364,000,000 BC: Something of a global extinction event takes place now...
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Approximately 350,000,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include insects, reptiles, mosses, and land snails
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Approximately 340,000,000 BC: A wiener-length, lizard-like creature has firmly established itself in a semi-aquatic environment...
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Approximately 360,000,000 BC- 250,000,000 BC: A cosmic impact in Australia now may be the cause of the worst extinction event(s) ever suffered by Earth
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Approximately 300,000,000 BC: The super continent Pangea takes shape; Vascular land plants like trees may have spread over the continents sufficiently by now to cause a worldwide increase in oxygen; Gigantic insects may roam the world
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Approximately 345,000,000 BC- 225,000,000 BC: The Carboniferous and Permian periods see lots of Gondwana (southern Pangea) ice-covered. Animal life is minimal in the region now
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Approximately 247,000,000 BC: Something of a global extinction event takes place now...
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Approximately 252,000,000+ BC: At least some portions of the super continent Pangaea suffer an Ice Age
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Approximately 252,000,000 BC- 2,000,000 BC: The Earth enjoys a lengthy warm and wet period mostly devoid of ice sheets and glaciers
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Approximately 250,000,000 BC- 245,000,000 BC: The Permian mass extinction...
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Approximately 250,000,000 BC: Antarctica (like the other continents) is part of the super continent Pangaea
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Approximately 240,000,000 BC: Much of Gondwana is freed from its previous icy conditions, and animal life repopulates the region
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Approximately 235,000,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include turtles, frogs, dinosaurs, and mammals
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Approximately 220,000,000 BC- 208,000,000 BC: The Triassic mass extinction
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Approximately 200,000,000 BC: An enormous line of volcanic eruptions breaks the back of the super continent Pangaea now
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Approximately 200,000,000 BC: Insect evolution seems to be winding down-- most insect species designs appear to have already been perfected
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Approximately 180,000,000 BC: Laurasia and Gondwanaland themselves begin to splinter into halves, helping widen the Atlantic Ocean
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Approximately 150,000,000 BC: The southern super continent Gondwanaland forms as North America and Eurasia move in other directions
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Approximately 150,000,000 BC: Laurasia breaks from Pangaea
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Approximately 150,000,000 BC: Anything which exists today on the sea floors of the Earth will be erased forever long before the time of 21st century humanity
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Approximately 150,000,000 BC -100,000,000 BC: The super continent Pangaea is breaking apart to form all the separate continents with which 20th century humanity will be familiar
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Approximately 145,000,000+ BC: Small Velociraptor-like dinosaurs are mutating into the earliest bird-like forms
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Approximately 150,000,000 BC- 50,000,000 BC: Gondwanaland splinters into all the southern continents of Earth, including the southernmost Antarctica
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Approximately 140,000,000 BC: Gondwana begins breaking up; 20th century-style Crocodiles have appeared
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Approximately 125,000,000 BC: 20th century type Gingko trees have appeared
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Approximately 144,000,000 BC- 66,000,000 BC: The largest living creature which will ever fly Earth's skies before the 21st century does so now
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Approximately 110,000,000 BC: A continent one third the size of 1999 AD Australia has appeared in the southern hemisphere
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Approximately 96,000,000 BC: Australia and Antarctica split apart
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Approximately 90,000,000 BC- 85,000,000 BC: New Zealand and the super continent Gondwana go their separate ways
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Approximately 84,000,000+ BC: Something rocks our world
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Approximately 80,000,000 BC- 75,000,000 BC: Antarctica may be sufficiently close or connected to South America to allow dinosaur migrations between the continents
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Approximately 76,000,000 BC: Australia and New Zealand split apart
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Approximately 70,000,000 BC- 45,000,000 BC: Antarctica begins the period somewhat dry, but gradually becomes warmer and wetter; similar conditions or better may encompass Kerguelen
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Approximately 66,500,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include rodents, primates, horses, and sycamores
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Approximately 66,500,000 BC- 20,000,000 BC: Kerguelen boasts forests similar to those which will be seen in circa 2000 AD South America
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Approximately 65,000,000 BC: The Cretaceous mass extinction comes about, famous later for the decimation of the dinosaurs, but more importantly responsible for the end of about 76% of all life on Earth
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Approximately 57,800,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include elephants, whales, camels, bats, penguins, weasels, cats, and dogs
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Approximately 55,500,000 BC: Huge amounts of methane are added to the atmosphere, setting off a period of extensive global warming
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Approximately 55,000,000 BC: Color vision first appears in prosimians and other species (which eventually will begat primates)
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Approximately 50,000,000 BC: Ants begin agricultural pursuits (cultivating fungi)
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Approximately 50,000,000 BC: Antarctica is moving into the south polar position with which 20th century humanity will be familiar; Kerguelen must needs follow on its heels
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Approximately 45,000,000 BC: Some of the earliest emerging primates (predecessors to humanity) are astonishingly tiny creatures
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Approximately 40,000,000 BC: New Zealand begins growing in land area again, due to volcanism and plate tectonics
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Approximately 40,000,000 BC: Glaciers may be gradually covering Antarctica's Lake Vostok now
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Approximately 36,600,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include monkeys, pigs, deer, and saber-toothed cats
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Approximately 34,000,000 BC- 33,000,000 BC: Antarctica's massive ice sheets begin to form
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Approximately 30,000,000 BC: The dolphins of this time are smarter than the current representatives of humanity; Antarctica is mostly ice covered now
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Approximately 25,000,000 BC: Massive volcanic eruptions may be occuring in the region of Antarctica's Ross Sea-- perhaps even affecting global climate; Kerguelen climate is surely changed somewhat by the event
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Approximately 23,500,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include dolphins, apes, bears, seals, giraffes, hyenas, and grasses
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Approximately 22,000,000 BC: A veritable explosion in the numbers of primitive ape species inhabiting Earth takes place
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Approximately 20,000,000 BC: A continent one third the size of 1999 AD Australia sinks beneath the seas in the southern Indian Ocean
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Approximately 15,000,000 BC: Suddenly most competing ape lines go extinct, leaving only a handful of survivors
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Approximately 14,000,000 BC: Antarctica enjoys a warm, ice-free period?
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Approximately 13,000,000 BC: A 'mini-extinction' event may be afflicting life on Earth
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Approximately 5,200,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include australopithecines, Homo habilis, armadillos, giant sloths, and mammoths
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Approximately 3,000,000 BC to 2,000,000 BC: A mysterious time of transformative evolution for the creature that someday will call itself "human"
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Approximately 2,300,000 BC: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: A Stone Age "tool factory" is in operation in Kenya, and a possible 0.5+ km asteroid impact in the deep southeast Pacific Ocean may increase atmospheric water vapor sufficiently to eventually bring about the next Ice Age
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Approximately 2,000,000 BC- 6000 BC: The Pleistocene Epoch, or Ice Age runs its course
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Approximately 1,600,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include Homo erectus, neanderthals, modern humans, giant beavers, giant bison, and many other species of hoofed mammals
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Approximately 700,000 BC: A rare super meteor storm may be raging over the region of Australia and southeast Asia now...
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Approximately 420,000 BC- 400,000 BC: Antarctica is forming new ice which will last continuously until at least 2000 AD
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Approximately 400,000 BC: The Earth warms up considerably and stays that way for at least 30,000 years
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Approximately 128,000 BC - 108,000 BC: The Earth enjoys a warm but stormy interglacial span (the Eemian period)
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MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR: 118,000 BC to 8,000 BC: the last Ice Age; a third of Earth's surface is sheathed in ice for much of this period-- and world geography undergoes drastic changes
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98,000 BC: A tsunami beginning with a height of possibly a quarter-mile strikes portions of coastal Australia and New Zealand (as well as miscellaneous other isles and possibly Antarctica)
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98,000 BC- 9,500 BC: Global sea levels are consistently lower now than they will be in the 20th century
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69,000 BC: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: A massive volcanic eruption now intensifies the current Ice Age via a 'nuclear winter' type effect
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Approximately 174,000 BC - 53,000 BC: Human beings begin populating Australia
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Approximately 40,000 BC- 6000 BC: Antarctica is covered by ice
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Approximately 18,000 BC- 12,000 BC: Earth is bombarded five times by heavier than usual cosmic dust concentrations from space
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15,000 BC to 3,000 BC: The Great Global Erasure of Much Evidence of Ancient Civilizations: World sea levels rise at least 325 feet over 12,000 years, erasing virtually all traces of any previous civilizations and technology use along many low lying continental and island coastlines, while glacial melt transforms many fertile inland valleys into new rivers and lakes; as if this wasn't enough, volcanic activity increases dramatically as well, ruining with fire and lava many works which may have escaped the flood waters
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Approximately 12,000 BC- 6000 BC: The great ice sheets covering North America and Europe melt away
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Approximately 8,000 BC: A long term melting of the Antarctic ice sheets is commencing
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Approximately 7,911 BC-7,090 BC: During this period there are perhaps seven substantial volcanic eruptions in various spots around the globe
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Approximately 6,000 BC - 1 AD: Sometime during this period the Earth, along with the rest of the Solar System, enters a vast cloud of interstellar gas
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Approximately 4,000 BC -3,000 BC: Rising global sea levels finally stabilize at heights roughly equivalent to that of the late 1990s AD
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Approximately 2,354 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
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Approximately 2,200 BC: A global climate shift takes place now
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Approximately 1,628 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
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Approximately 1,159 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
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Approximately 128,000 BC- 1,000 BC: World sea levels may be highly unstable throughout this entire period
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Approximately 208 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
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Approximately 536 AD- 541 AD: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
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Approximately 1,006 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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Approximately 1,054 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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Approximately 1,181 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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Approximately 1,299 AD: Mysteriously, humanity seems not to notice a new object in the skies as bright as the full Moon at this time
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Approximately 1,320 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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Approximately 1,334 AD - 1,351 AD: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) kills a third the population of europe (as well as others throughout Asia and northern Africa)
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Approximately 1,572 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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Approximately 1,604 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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1,908 AD: The Tunguska explosions occur in Siberia
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1,930 AD: Another Tunguska-like event takes place; this time rocking Brazil near the border of Peru
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1994 AD: Catastrophism in action: Humanity watches in awe as comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashes piece-meal into Jupiter, incurring a string of explosions on the gas giant each larger than that possible by launching Earth's entire nuclear arsenal all at once
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1999 AD: 95+% of Antarctica is ice covered in 1999
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1999 AD: Humanity is realizing that the undersea Kerguelen plateau was once a dryland continent....while they are also nearing the levels of wealth and technology necessary to explore the undersea mass...
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2000 AD: By now humanity has explored something less than 2% of the deep oceans-- and less than 10% of the oceans overall
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250,000,000 BC through the Present: A regular 26 to 34 million year cycle of catastrophe for the Solar System may be in effect
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The above article(s) come from and make references to a collection copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 by J.R. Mooneyham (except where otherwise noted in the text). Text here explicitly authored by J.R. Mooneyham may be freely copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes in paper and electronic form without charge if this copyright paragraph and link to jmooneyham.com or jrmooneyham.com are included.

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