The Entire History of Earth as a Pixel Art Speedrun

The entire history of Earth in one run: 4.54 billion years, from a disk of dust to today, played as a retro pixel-art survival game with five mass-extinction boss fights. Every fact has a source (list below). Where scientists still disagree, the video says so. CHAPTERS 0:00 Start: the entire history of Earth in one run 0:36 World 1: How Earth formed and the Moon-making impact 2:09 World 2: Hadean Earth, zircons and the first life 4:17 World 3: Oldest rocks, first fossils, oxygen makers 6:21 World 4: The Great Oxidation Event and new minerals 8:01 World 5: The Boring Billion and multicellular life 9:16 World 6: Snowball Earth, when the planet froze over 10:18 World 7: The first animals and the Cambrian explosion 11:32 World 8: Life on land and two mass extinctions 13:18 World 9: Coal forests, Pangaea and the Great Dying 15:28 World 10: The age of dinosaurs, two more extinctions 17:22 World 11: From the heat spike to the ice ages 19:09 World 12: Humans reshape Earth, the Anthropocene 20:40 Final: Earth's history as a one-hour speedrun SOURCES Connelly 2012: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1226919 ICS 2026: https://stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/Chr... Kleine 2002: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00982 USGS 2007: https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age... Canup 2023: https://doi.org/10.2138/rmg.2023.89.02 Williams 2000: https://doi.org/10.1029/1999RG900016 Zahnle 2010: https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a... Hazen 2010: https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificame... Wilde 2001: https://doi.org/10.1038/35051550 Feulner 2012: https://doi.org/10.1029/2011RG000375 Walker 1981: https://doi.org/10.1029/JC086iC10p09776 Moody 2024: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02... Boehnke 2016: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1611535113 Djokic 2017: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15263 Hawkesworth 2020: https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.00326 Planavsky 2014: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2122 Poulton 2021: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03... IMA 2026: https://cnmnc.units.it/files/editor/I... Allen 2022: https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JE007186 Meshik 2005: https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificame... Mitchell 2024: https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG423C.1 Miao 2024: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adk3208 Meyers 2018: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1717689115 Hoffman 2017: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600983 UNESCO: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1497/ Bobrovskiy 2018: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7228 Yang 2018: https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2017-103 UNESCO: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1388/ ROM: https://burgess-shale.rom.on.ca/fossi... ROM: https://burgess-shale.rom.on.ca/fossi... Rubinstein 2010: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2... Bond 2020: https://doi.org/10.1130/G47377.1 Stanley 2016: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1613094113 Barnosky 2011: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09678 Zhu 2022: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05... Davies 2024: https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2023-204 Fields 2020: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2013774117 Engelman 2023: https://doi.org/10.3390/d15030318 Long 2025: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08... Mills 2023: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth... Nelsen 2016: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517943113 Scotese: http://www.scotese.com/moreinfo10.htm USGS: https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/his... UCMP: https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/synapsids/s... Burgess 2015: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500470 Sun 2012: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1224126 Sahney 2008: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2007.1370 Chen 2012: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1475 Dal Corso 2020: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba0099 Blackburn 2013: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1234204 Gomez 2015: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1509241112 de Winter 2020: https://doi.org/10.1029/2019PA003723 Alvarez 1980: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.208.4... Fischer-Goedde 2024: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk4868 During 2022: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04... McInerney 2011: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth... Zeebe 2016: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2681 DeConto 2003: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01290 Cerling 1997: https://doi.org/10.1038/38229 Garcia-Castellanos 2009: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08555 Hublin 2017: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22336 Lambeck 2014: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1411762111 NOAA GML: https://gml.noaa.gov/aggi/aggi.html Elhacham 2020: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-30... IUGS 2024: https://www.iugs.org/wp-content/uploa... Stephenson 2016: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2016.0404 Shahvandi 2024: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2406930121 Which topic should we speedrun next? Tell us in the comments. #earth #history #geology #pixelart #speedrun #sciencethe