INTRODUCTION
I collected information from different sources to create a timeline of the Yucatan peninsula, trying to be as precise as possible.
What is interesting to see is that the Quaternary ice age started before man’s appearance and only the northern hemisphere was frozen. During the ice age the temperature changed several times, it was not always freezing cold! Both prehistoric animals and people already liked to visit the Caribbean to enjoy the sun!
The caves, as empty spaces in the limestone platform, started to appear probably underwater, before the complete emersion of the peninsula. The decorations in the caves, the stalactites that we can admire today, they are less than one million years old, as well as Homo Sapiens!
The ice age might not be over after all…. we might just be experiencing another interglacial period, characterized by global warming.
TIMELINE OF THE YUCATAN PENINSULA
During late Cretaceous all continents were drifting in the actual position, Panama straight and Yucatan peninsula did not emerge yet…
65 Million years ago
- Chicxulub Asteroid impacts in the Gulf of Mexico, in Yucatan at more than 1000mt underwater
- Impact and gravitational abnormality deform seabed preparing the ground for future collapses
- Dinosaurs go gradually extinct
35-18 Million years ago
- Between Oligocene and Miocene Earth cools down and warm up twice, causing two mass extinctions
- Yucatan shallow reef emerges and gets submerged according to sea-level changes during the glacial periods
- Approximately 18 million years ago Yucatan gradually emerges one last time
2.58 Million years ago
- Quaternary Ice Age begins, Earth north hemisphere is ice-covered during glacial periods
- Panama isthmus recently emerges, allowing species to spread into the two Americas, escaping from the cold
- The most recent prehistoric megafauna appears at the beginning of the last glaciation in Yucatan
- 1,000,000 years ago in Africa Australopithecus appears and starts to explore and continues to evolve
700,000-12,000 years ago
- Earth continues to cool down and to warm up during glacial and interglacial periods
- Sea level in the Yucatan peninsula continues to rise and drop according to global temperature changes
- Yucatan and Florida solution caves and decorations take shape according to sea level changes
- 500,000 years ago Homo Sapiens appears on Earth
- Civilizations slowly develop and man cross the Bering strait during a glacial period, colonizing North America
- 20,000 years ago sea level starts rising up from -120m until -30m 10,000 years ago, flooding the caves
12,000-10,000 years ago
- Earth is warming up and Ice is melted almost everywhere except at the poles and mountains
- Man descent from North America to Mexico, Central and South America
- Prehistoric megafauna is extinct because of climate changes and human hunt
- 10,000 years ago until today sea level continues to rise up from -30m to the actual 0m
2,000 years ago until today
- 2,000 years ago the Mayan civilization is born
- 700 years ago the Spanish colonization begins
- 50 years ago cave diving explorations start