Esri's Dance of the Continents allows you to travel 600 million years back in time to view the Earth during the Cambrian period – when complex multicellular life first began to flourish. From there, you can scroll forward to watch the slow, rhythmic movement of tectonic plates as they shift to form the world we know today.
As you move through the timeline, you’ll see the supercontinent Pangaea assemble around 300 million years ago as massive landmasses collided. Continue scrolling to watch it fracture and drift apart until the familiar shapes of modern continents emerge.
Throughout the journey, the sidebar provides a live narrative of life on Earth – from the first organisms in the sea to the rise of terrestrial giants. This context transforms the map into a vivid, interactive tour of both the geological and biological evolution on planet Earth.
GPlates offers a similar animated globe, illustrating Earth's evolution over millions of years. This visualization tracks the shifting of tectonic plates from 240 million years ago to the present day.
What Did the World Look Like also provides a window into our planet’s past, featuring interactive 3D globes that span the entire history of life. Navigation is seamless via two primary menus: the center-top menu allows you to jump to a specific age, while the top-right menu lets you filter the view by geologic periods or significant evolutionary milestones.
