How Far Back In Earth's History Could You Have Survived?
1,136,458
Published 2023-06-09
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Researched and Written by Leila Battison
Narrated and Edited by David Kelly
Thumbnail Art and Art by Ettore Mazza
Time Machine Art by Joseph Ioseliani
Additional Visuals by Manuel Rubio
If you like our videos, check out Leila's Youtube channel:
/ @somethingincredible
Music from Epidemic Sound and Artlist, stock footage from Videoblocks and Artgrid. Galaxy and space imagery from NASA and ESO.
Image Credits:
Cyanobacteria Asai H, Iwamori S, Kawai K, Ehira S, Ishihara J, Aihara K, Shoji S, Iwasaki H, CC BY 2.5 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Jeholornis Stomach contents Hu, Han & Wang, Yan & Mcdonald, Paul & Wroe, Stephen & O'Connor, Jingmai & Bjarnason, Alexander & Bevitt, Joseph & Yin, Xuwei & Xiaoting, Zheng & Zhou, Zhonghe & Benson, Roger. (2022). Earliest evidence for fruit consumption and potential seed dispersal by birds. eLife. 11. 10.7554/eLife.74751.
Jeholornis prima By Tiouraren (Y.-C. Tsai) - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92942014
Archaefructus_liaoningensis.jpg By Shizhao - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1288516
Tidal Flats By Kennethcgass, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Fractofusus By djpmapleferryman - www.flickr.com/photos/63319497@N00/3907146971/, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=127863124
Kimberella By James St. John - Kimberella quadrata (Ediacaran fossil) in sandstone (Ust-Pinega Formation, Ediacaran, Neoproterozoic; White Sea, Russia), CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84648596
Various Ediacaran Biota by Verisimilus at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5 , via Wikimedia Commons
00:00 Introduction
5:50 Hell on Earth: 4.5 - 2.5 BYA
17:59 Chasing Oxygen: 2.5 BYA to 750 MYA
37:06 Survive and Thrive: 750 MYA to present
All Comments (21)
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I'm only in the half, but I can't keep thinking how accidentally exposing the young Earth with modern microbes could've changed the entire history.
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Plot twist: the time traveller eventually returns to their own time only to discover they accidentally ate the ancestor of the whole human race, which no longer exists
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Clarification and Correction, at 38m50 seconds, the Native Alaskan woman was NOT entirely alone. A cat had been taken up with their expedition and the cat also survived, and returned safely back to civilisation in Southern Alaska, with her.
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I would think any time travel to the past would be suicidal. You don't know for certain if you will be safe when the machine stops, and you appear. It could be miles above the earth, or deep within, buried under tons of rock. If time travel to the past were feasible, wouldn't it be safer to be in orbit with the ability to land back on earth, thus avoiding any surface irregularities? It would be a shame to go back 4.5 billion years only to find yourself floating briefly in a lake of lava.
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I think an interesting point not normally talked about in time travel is if you are going back in time to that exact point, you would be floating at a random point in space however many years back.
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Technically speaking, the farthest back you can go and still survive is a pretty debatable subject because, if you go back far enough, your immune system will be aeons ahead of its time; and, thus, you likely won't have resistances against many of the current viral, bacterial, and other microbial threats of whatever period you go back to, with a good chunk being extinct in your time, and the rest being very, very different from their modern counterparts.
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Yet another beautifully written, narrated and illustrated episode. Thank you so much to all involved for this gem of a channel.
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No words can describe how magnificent this channel is. This and the universe channel are on another level. Bravo!
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Honestly I think a human probably could live in the carboniferous. If the inuit can survive on a diet of mostly arctic marine mammals, with little to no plant matter, I think the right balance of terrestrial arthropods, shellfish, fish, primitive amphibians, and the few edible plants would also suffice.
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Fabulous storytelling. 100 times better quality than commercial infotainment sold to us by the likes of Discovery or the History channel.
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We have been waiting for quite long for a new episode, but it was worth the time. What an excellent way to sum up the entire history of the Earth. I always love the beatifully narrated script accompained with the calm music and the gorgeous images. It makes me really want to be that time traveller who could step out to the ancient world: so familiar, yet so alien to us.
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The reason we can't see stars during the day is not the atmosphere, it's the brightness of the sun. With a thin atmosphere or a complete vacuum you would not see stars in the daytime sky. On the moon during the day for example the sky is just pitch black.
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Beautifully thought through and put together. A real treat. Props to all of those involved in the making of this. Thanks!
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this might be the best video to fall asleep too, I felt like I was myself in the traveller's seat as I was drifting to sleep. It's immersive, and as far as video of this genre on youtube are concerned this might be your masterpiece.
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One of your best episodes yet. Beautiful, simple, deeply informative, full of the joyous mystery of existence. Keep them coming!
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As a student of geology this was a phenomenal watch. This video is most definitely going to be played in many Geology classes from today till eons to come.
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Everyone using YT is quite fortunate in their ability to freely access content produced by the Kelly bros. The material they produce is passionate, objective, thoroughly-researched history--an absolutely vital component to the lifelong pursuit of educating oneself. I'll be listening with gratitude & admiration for what you guys do, as well as how you do it 🎧
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You have answered how far back a human could have survived. Time for the sequels: how far back could a group of humans have survived? PS, a few seeds from modern plants would likely extend the time frame by several million years.
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You may wish to review the data on Gymnosperms such as gingko(edible seed once orated, eaten in Asia), and pine nuts. Some of this family also have an edible sticky sap, among them spruce is used to make spruce beer ;) In addition, the time travelers at 300 million years bp were lucky to avoid predatory or territorial synapsids and amphibians :) The Cretaceous of course, had predatory dinosaurs as well :)
