This project allows users to get closer to a specific place and see how it evolved between the cryogenic period and today
Around 240 million years ago, the piece of land where the Eiffel Tower, one of Paris’ main attractions, is currently built, was part of the supercontinent known as Pangea. And was therefore on the same continent as Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. The geography then had nothing to do with today’s sea of buildings or even the distribution of land as we know it.
If this information does not yet allow you to imagine the geographical distribution of the prehistoric Earth, an interactive map can be both informative and fun. It was with this idea that Ian Webster, curator of the world’s largest digital dinosaur database, created Ancient Eartha tool that visualizes what your address looked like in the distant past.
On this interactive map, users can overlay current boundaries on geological formations of the past – and in this case, the past can be traced back as far as 750 million years. The results are amazing. Brazil, for example, does not yet have the vast Atlantic Ocean that borders its entire coastline, and is separated from Africa by only a few meters.
The fun part, though, is that in this map mode, users can enter a specific address, like their home street, or a broader region, like a city, state, or country. Then they can navigate through dates ranging from zero to 750 million years ago. Or choose to visit geological eras, such as the appearance of the first green algae or the extinction of the dinosaurs. Currently, the map offers 26 timeline options, stretching back from the present to the Cryogenic period, with intervals ranging from 15 to 150 million years.
The project is based on data from the PALEOMAP Project, which aimed to illustrate the development of tectonic plates in oceanic and continental basins, as well as the change in the distribution of land and sea over the last 1100 million years. Ancient Earth is in English, but can be easily used with the help of Google Page Translator. Moreover, the tool offers some great features, such as display options including globe rotation, lighting, cloud cover, and equatorial line. You can zoom in to better see the geographical boundaries and the selected periods are accompanied by a brief summary of the geological era to which they belong. In addition, the graphic project includes indications of possible dinosaurs living near the selected area and, clicking on the species, we are directed to a page with more information.