What did Earth look like X million years ago?
Hi HN, I built this. It's been posted several times before, so I can answer some common questions:
How does this work? I adapted GPlates [1], an academic project that creates desktop software for geologists to investigate plate tectonic data.
Is the geocoding accurate? Even though plate tectonic models return precise results, you should consider the plots approximate within ~100km. In my tests I found that model results can vary significantly. I chose this model because it is widely cited and covers the greatest length of time.
How should I interpret the maps/colors? The graphics that wrap the globe are provided by Dr. Christopher Scotese, a geologist who runs the PALEOMAP project. You can learn more about the project and the creation of the rasters here [2]. You might also notice some old national borders. I just work with what I can get!
Why can't it look up my location? Your location probably didn't exist at the time, geologically speaking. Try switching to closer to present day (e.g. 66 Mya)
Where are all the dinosaurs? Despite the title of this post, the visualization isn't really meant to show an exhaustive list of dinosaurs or fossils (the list doesn't even show on mobile). If you want to dig into data on fossils near you, check out the Paleobiology Database Navigator [3].
[2] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-q0WIa7ofISFHyBe4UxvN8DIPs8...
One of the neat bits from this is going to 340 Mya and look at where the Appalachian mountain range runs.
You can hike part of the Appalachian trail in Spain https://www.geologiadesegovia.info/the-international-appalac... and Ireland https://iatulsterireland.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Appalachian_Trai...
Dang, wish this title was updated to be less misleading. I spent way too long looking for functionality that didn't exist. The author (not same person as poster) posted in the comments:
> Where are all the dinosaurs? Despite the title of this post, the visualization isn't really meant to show an exhaustive list of dinosaurs or fossils (the list doesn't even show on mobile).
That said, this is a really cool visualization of how the water fill and plates evolved over time. Love it!
I never realized until seeing this 3D globe that literally an entire side of the earth only had water.
I've seen drawings of Pangaea before but never in a 3-dimensional sphere.
Just interesting to see and entire 1/2 of the earth with nothing but ocean.
I wonder how common this is on other planets.
Only 600 millions years ago my Central European city was a beach front to the mega-Ocean. Would be sweet to see it but the lack of infrastructure could get annoying.
Very fun project.
Reading through the descriptions of each time period, it suddenly struck me that I had no idea Earth had so many mass extinctions. It's a bit mind-blowing that the one that put an end to the dinosaurs was not even the worst (by percentage of species killed off).
I also somehow hadn't appreciated that multi-cellular animals existed before multi-cellular plants.
For living in "Dinosaurland", the list of dinosaurs that lived near me is pretty low
Are there sci-fi stories with the premise that a character wakes up transported to a different planet except it’s later revealed that it’s actually Earth in a distant time?
If I change the date in the top right, does it change the list of dinosaurs or just change the map?
It would be nice to show small pictures of the dinosaurs instead of just links to the main page of each dinosaur (that has a few pictures).
I like how this has former Yugoslavia (including Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia) borders :)
Belgrade only got rid of the water when dinosaurs were already extinct according to this.
Not seeing any dinosaur info on mobile. Using Android and FF browser
If you are using a computersaurus with a 4:3 screen like me, you will have to zoom in to get the list of fossils.
I can't help but take depictions of dinosaurs like https://dinosaurpictures.org/Streptospondylus-pictures at face value, until I catch myself and remember they may be quite wrong considering we are limited to fossils: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/science-m... (tl;dr https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/natashaumer/dinosaur-an...).
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See here for the dinosaurs by region [1]
Could not resolve location for "Barcelona, Catalonia, ES"
:(
It'd be nice if it followed land and not just location.
I'm sure it's more complicated then I think, but this model is kinda silly
nothing is showing up for me. luckily i already know the answer: bryozoans, bryozoans, and more bryozoans
I think it's interesting that at 260 million years ago, Europe and the eastern US seem to be at relatively the same distance as today (maybe a little closer), but you have most of Africa wedged in the middle of them.
This is great in theory but in practice we just don't have enough fossils for it to be truly interesting. It's more like "Which dinosaurs lived seven hundred miles away from your hometown?"
There have never been dinosaurs in my town. We've always maintained a big board in both local and regional languages that said "DINOSAURS KEEP OUT".
Lame, no worky. Maybe cuz I’m browsing on a phone instead of computer? I get no list, the only thing that changes with time period is a general description.
I always think the waves on Pangea's coast must have been huge. All that wind blowing and no continents to stop the waves from forming.
I just had fun putting a pin into my hometown and discovering that it was at the equator at some point (300 mio years ago)!
Fish, apparently.
Path trace of continental drift for chosen point, across some time window?
If they were still around we would get to see Buffalo fried Fruitadens wings.
Cretaceous FTW. Looks like I’ll need to keep working on my time machine.
There must have been a lot in Los Angeles, given the oil derricks. All that liquid T-Rex goodness. No idea where this hunk of land was 60+ million years ago.
They all ran Xfree86
watch Prehistoric Planet - Season 1 to find out
Pat Buchanan.
Anyone else love Dino Dana?
We've still got AT&T and an IBM in my hometown, there's probably even a few PHP web-shops there too!
It it doesn't answer the question, "Which dinosaurs lived in my hometown?"
Seriously, I clicked on the link thinking I'd be able to get a list of the dinosaurs that are believed to have lived in my hometown. As cool as this link is, it doesn't answer "Which dinosaurs lived in my hometown?"
equivalent to spam in its current iteration