500 million years of life compressed into a browser tab. Watch Pangea split apart, an asteroid reshape the biosphere in seconds, and evolution branch into the tree of life.
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Evolutionary timelines, extinction models, and ancient life visualised
Paleontology simulations model the long-timescale processes of biological evolution, mass extinction, and fossil preservation. Phylogenetic tree simulations apply coalescent theory to generate random cladograms and compare them to molecular-clock estimates, showing how genetic divergence times are calibrated against the fossil record. Extinction-dynamics simulators model species richness trajectories under different kill-curve parameterisations, reproducing the Big Five mass extinctions.
Fossil preservation models simulate how burial rate, sediment chemistry, and tissue mineralisation affect the probability that an organism becomes a fossil and is eventually discovered. Evolutionary arms-race simulations pit predator and prey populations against each other under co-evolutionary selection pressure, producing Red Queen dynamics where neither lineage advances absolutely. These tools connect palaeobiology to evolutionary theory and the geologic time scale.
Each simulation in this category is built with accuracy and interactivity in mind. The underlying mathematical models are the same ones used in academic research and professional engineering — just made accessible through a web browser. Changing parameters in real time and observing the results is one of the most effective ways to build intuition for complex scientific and engineering concepts.
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