All of the earliest chordate fossils have been found in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna, and include two species that are regarded as fish, which implies they are vertebrates.

According to genetic studies, divergence of primates from other mammals began and the earliest fossils appear in the Paleocene, around.

The earliest fossils that have been proposed as members of the hominin lineage are Sahelanthropus tchadensis dating from, and Orrorin tugenensis dating from and Ardipithecus kadabba dating to.

The earliest transitional fossils between H. ergaster / erectus and Archaic H. sapiens are from Africa such as Homo rhodesiensis, but seemingly transitional forms are also found at Dmanisi, Georgia.

The earliest fossils of anatomically modern humans are from the Middle Paleolithic, about 200, 000 years ago such as the Omo remains of Ethiopia, later fossils from Skhul in Israel and Southern Europe begin around 90, 000 years ago.

The earliest fossils that have been argued to belong to the human lineage are Sahelanthropus tchadensis ( 7 Ma ) and Orrorin tugenensis ( 6 Ma ), followed by Ardipithecus ( 5. 5 – 4. 4 Ma ), with species Ar.

The earliest record of hominids living in Europe has been found in the Spanish cave of Atapuerca ; fossils found there date to roughly 1. 2 million years ago.

The earliest lauraceous fossils are from to the early Cretaceous.

This makes it almost contemporary to the earliest eutherian fossils, which have been found in the same area.

The earliest fossils of multicellular life are found in the Ediacaran, including the earliest animals.

The earliest fossils attributed to the Polaes dates to the late Cretaceous period about 65. 5 million years ago, though some studies ( e. g., Bremer, 2002 ) suggest the origin of the of the group may extend to nearly 115 million years ago, likely in South America.

The earliest known fossils include pollen and fruits.

While earliest known fossils of anatomically modern humans date from around 195, 000 years ago, the matrilinear most recent common ancestor shared by all living humans ( dubbed Mitochondrial Eve ), is dated to about 120-150 thousand years ago.

Snakes are thought to have evolved from either burrowing or aquatic lizards during the mid-Cretaceous period, and the earliest known fossils date to around 112 Ma ago.

The earliest known salamander fossils have been found in geological deposits of China and Kazakhstan, which have been dated to the middle Jurassic period, up to 164 million ( plus or minus 4 million ) years ago.

Darwin expected species to change slowly, but not at the same rate – some organisms such as Lingula were unchanged since the earliest fossils.

The earliest fossils of true tigers are known from Java, and are between 1. 6 and 1. 8 million years old.

This last estimate may conflict with the fossil record depending on whether the genus Kayentachelys, whose fossils date to around, is the earliest known member of Cryptodira or lies outside the least inclusive clade containing Cryptodira and Pleurodira.

The earliest known hippopotamus fossils, belonging to the genus Kenyapotamus in Africa, date to around.

They are among the earliest and most abundant of the small shelly fossils with mineralized skeletons, and therefore feature in the debate about why such skeletons first appeared in the Late Ediacaran.

The earliest known fossils of the great white shark are about 16 million years old.

The earliest evidence of herbivory by tetrapod organisms is seen in fossils of jawbones where dental occlusion ( process by which teeth from the upper jaw come in contact with those in the lower jaw ) is present.

The earliest known butterfly fossils date to the mid Eocene epoch, between 40 – 50 million years ago.

The earliest records in the Akkadian language date to the time of Sargon.

The earliest " year names ", whereby each year of a king's reign was named after a significant event performed by that king, date from the reign of Sargon the Great.

While the earliest artifacts date to the Middle Neolithic era, there have been documented habitations in Attica from the Early Neolithic ( 6th millennium BC ).

While there are many competing claims for the earliest powered, heavier-than-air flight, the most widely-accepted date is December 17, 1903 by the Wright brothers.

A small indicator about the earliest possible date may be in which mentions the Province of Cilicia.

According to Richard I. Pervo, " Townsend's methodologically adventurous but ultimately cautious essay is another valuable lesson in the danger of establishing the date of Acts – or any work – by arguing for the earliest possible time of origin.

The earliest known date for a simple glue is 200, 000 BC and for a compound glue 70, 000 BC.

Accounting is thousands of years old ; the earliest accounting records, which date back more than 7, 000 years, were found in Mesopotamia ( Assyrians ).

The earliest accounting records were found amongst the ruins of ancient Babylon, Assyria and Sumeria, which date back more than 7, 000 years.

The earlier date, 293, is sometimes assigned and apparently supported by the authority of a " Coptic Fragment " ( published by Dr. O. von Lemm among the Mémoires de l ' académie impériale des sciences de S. Péterbourg, 1888 ) and corroborated by the maturity revealed in his two earliest treatises Contra Gentes ( Against the Heathens ) and De Incarnatione ( On the Incarnation ), which were admittedly written about the year 318 before Arianism had begun to make itself felt, as those writings do not show an awareness of Arianism.

The earliest tours date back to 1888, when a 21-man squad visited Australia and New Zealand.

The earliest tin-alloy bronzes date to the late 4th millennium BC in Susa ( Iran ) and some ancient sites in China, Luristan ( Iran ) and Mesopotamia ( Iraq ).

The earliest bronze archeological finds in Indonesia date from 1 – 2 BCE, including flat plates probably suspended and struck by a wooden or bone mallet.

The last events in Chronicles take place in the reign of Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BCE ; this sets an earliest possible date for the book.

Determining the composition of the Memorial depends on the dates of Nehemiah's mission: It is commonly accepted that " Artaxerxes " was Artaxerxes I ( there were two later kings of the same name ), and that Nehemiah's first period in Jerusalem was therefore 445-433 BC ; allowing for his return to Susa and second journey to Jerusalem, the end of the 5th century BC is therefore the earliest possible date for the Memorial.

Those who favour the later date appeal to the earliest external testimony, that of the Christian father Irenaeus ( c. 150-202 ), who wrote that he received his information from people who knew John personally.

The earlier date, first proposed in modern times by John Robinson in a closely argued chapter of " Redating the New Testament " ( 1976 ), relies on the book's internal evidence, given that no external testimony exists earlier than that of Irenaeus, noted above, and the earliest extant manuscript evidence of Revelation ( P98 ) is likewise dated no earlier than the late 2nd century.

( The latter prohibition took effect 1 January 1808, the earliest date on which Congress had the power to do so under Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution.

The earliest reasonably reliable date for the crossbow in the Greek world is from the 5th century BC.

The sweet chocolate residue found in jars from the site of Puerto Escondido in Honduras from around 1100 BC is the earliest found evidence of the use of cacao to date.

The earliest genealogical records of the descendants of Cináed mac Ailpín may date from the end of the tenth century, but their value lies more in their context, and the information they provide about the interests of those for whom they were compiled, than in the unreliable claims they contain.

The earliest genealogical records of the descendants of Kenneth MacAlpin may date from the end of the 10th century, but their value lies more in their context, and the information they provide about the interests of those for whom they were compiled, than in the unreliable claims they contain.

The earliest allusion to pandeism found to date is in 1787, in translator Gottfried Große ’ s interpretation of Pliny the Elder ’ s Natural History:

The earliest known Eskimo cultures ( pre-Dorset ) date to 5, 000 years ago.

The earliest references to the Euphrates come from cuneiform texts found in Shuruppak and pre-Sargonic Nippur in southern Iraq and date to the mid-3rd millennium BCE.