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| 地球の歴史 袋詰めのみかん 宇宙の始まり、ビッグバンは、１３８億年まえ。 地球誕生は、４６億年まえ。 恐竜時代は２～３億年まえ、ということです。さらに、人類の先祖は、２５０万年まえに現れた、 と言っても、把握しにくいですね。 みかん一個を一億年とすれば、一袋１０個入りとして、１０億年。１５袋並べれば、１５０億年です。コンビニの棚一つ分位に収まります。最初の一袋で、ビッグバン。 １０袋過ぎて、袋の行列の手前から５袋目に、地球誕生。その一つてまえの４袋め、つまり４０億年まえに生命誕生。並んだ１５袋の一番近い袋の中で、手前からみかん一つ、二つ、三つが、恐竜と人類の世紀です。これなら、膨大な時空の距離感が掴み易くなります。 最後のみかんを剥いて、一房が一千万年。この一房をナイフで１０枚に切ると百万年です。それを、更に、爪のように薄く切ると、我々の直接の祖先が姿を現します。 大陸同士がドカンとぶつかって、その勢いで折れ曲がった皺がヒマラヤやアルプスとなったのは、４５００万年まえから２５００万年まえのこと。みかんの房で、三つ四つ分。 我々の仲間の先祖の話で言えば、テナガザルから２０００万年まえ、オランウタンとは１３００万年まえに分かれました。みかんの房で二つめです。 ゴリラと分かれ、チンパンジーと別れたのは、５００万年まえ。最後の一房の半分あたります。 ヒトの祖先は、その後の５００万年間の真ん中頃（２５０万年まえ頃）に、石器を使い始めました。 今の我々の祖先には、似たような仲間が、のべ２０種もいたらしい、似た様な仲間たちは、５０万年まえくらいに、はっきり別々になりました。 ネアンデルタール人は、この５０万年間のうち、４７万年間は、我々の祖先と同時並存していた。つまり、３万年前ころ彼等は絶滅し、我々だけ残ったことになります。 ちなみに、火の使用は、１２万５千年まえ。衣服使用は、７万年まえ。 その頃に、スマトラのトバ火山の大爆発が引き起こした気温低下（３度）がほんの何年間か続いて、地球の人口は壊滅的に減少し、一度は一万人以下となりました。 最初の金属精錬は、銅で、約一万年前。定着農耕文化もその頃から。 私が自分用に、地球の歴史を、視覚・図形的言語・文章にしたものです。 |
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| An illustrated history of the globe Clementine in bags According to a theory our universe was born with a big bang 13, 8 billion years ago. Our globe was born 4, 6 billion years ago. Dinosaur’s era was 200 ? 300 million years ago. Human beings appeared 2, 5 million years ago. 10 billion, 100 million, and 1 million years sound so huge amount that it is not so easy to comprehend. If we imagine that a clementine presents 100 million years then a bag with 10 clementine presents one billion years. A line of 15 clementine bags presents 15 billion years. 15 bags of clementine could be a line in one show case at a store. So we can see them just as when we buy a bag of clementine. Now the big bang happened in a first bag placed at the top row. In the 5th bag counted from the nearest bag to us, i.e. around 4, 6 billion years ago our globe was born. The group of molecules formed the life 4 billion years ago, i.e. in the 4th bag. The ages from the time of dinosaurs to our ages, “the Dino-human Era” is in the 2-3 pieces of clementine in a bag standing closest to us. When we pick one clementine and peel it there are sections. Let us say 10 sections in a clementine. Then a section means 10 million years. We cut a section with a sharp knife to 10 bits. One bit presents one million years. When we slice this bit to a thin piece as a nail, there we find our ancestors. Himalayas and Alps are the result of the collisions between drifting continents. The collisions made huge wrinkles. It happened 45 million to 25 million years ago, 3-5 sections of clementine. Concerning our own ancestors, orangutan branched out from gibbons’ family group 20 million years ago, gorilla and chimpanzee branched out from orangutans 13 million years ago. It took 7 million years. And finally our ancestors branched out from chimpanzees 5 million years ago, in clementine, the last half of a section. Gradually the genus formed into some 20 different species similar to us. In the middle of this 5 million years, 2 and a half million years ago, they started to use stone tools. Those genus became the clearly independent species. It was a half million years ago. I.e. the Neanderthals co-existed with us for 470 thousand years until they disappeared 30 thousand years ago. By the way, we started to use fire 120 thousand years ago. We began to wear clothes 70 thousand years ago. We started to use copper / bronze 10 thousand years ago. About 70 thousand years ago there was a big eruption of Toba Mountain in Sumatra that caused a decline of temperature (3 degrees Celsius). This 3 degrees declination continued for some years which nearly wiped out us from the globe. Our population became less than 10 thousand. |
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