Primeval timeline

"Primeval" is an ongoing science fiction television series created by Adrian Hodges, who wrote the majority of the scripts, and Tim Haines of Impossible Pictures. It was produced by Haines and Cameron McAllister.

It should be noted that in order to place these varied events into chronological order, and to get the best sense of the Primeval Teams activities, there is some speculation as to probable times and orders of events which where never dated in the show, as well as mention of several events which, while happening to characters in the series happen out of chronological order. Eg. the Permian anomaly. The first visit was by Helen Cutter in episode one but the next visit was really in episode 6 and the third was also in episode one.

Also given that the universe is altering due to the anomalies and as a result events could be in a state of flux with the location of buildings changing from their real life locations and people never existing. Secondly it should also be noted that this timeline is written in ignorance of the timeline change of series Two. Sufficient to say, there will be much needed addition and correction to this timeline with the release of Series Two.

Archean

These dates are represent the Geologic time scale i.e. million years ago, or "Ma". They start at the oldest and go through to the youngest.

*4600 Ma – The formation of the approximately homogeneous solid earth by planetesimal accretion occurs.
*3800 Ma – The Earths crust solidifies and the world’s oldest rocks are formed at this time. The condensation of the atmospheric water also forms the world’s oceans.
*3600 Ma – Connor Temple theorises that this was when the Earth was seeded with organisms carried here by alien spacecraft (Directed Panspermia.)cite episode
title = Episode One
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2007-02-10
season = 1
number = 1]
*2700 Ma - The prehistoric end of the skyscraper anomaly opens and lets strange worms pass through.cite episode
title = Episode Nine
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2008-01-26
season = 2
number = 9]

Proterozoic

*1500 Ma – Eukaryotic, multicellular, organisms develop.
*580 Ma – The Ediacaran fauna evolves.

Cambrian

*545 Ma – The Cambrian explosion occurs.

Ordovician

*500 Ma – The First Fish/Vertebrates evolve.

Silurian

*430 Ma – The first algae begin to live on land.
*400 Ma - The prehistoric end of the worksite anomaly opens and closes soon after, trapping Stephen Hart and Nick Cutter in the past. cite episode
title = Episode Eleven
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2008-02-09
season = 2
number = 11]

Devonian

*409 Ma – The first Sharks evolve along with the first Amphibians.
Helen Cutter says she got "slimed" here.

Carboniferous

*350 Ma – Primitive Ferns – first plants with roots evolve.
*325 Ma – The prehistoric end of the Carboniferous Anomaly opens and remains open.cite episode
title = Episode Two
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2007-02-17
season = 1
number = 2]
*300 Ma – The first Reptiles/Mammal like reptiles evolve

Permian

*251 Ma – The prehistoric end of the First Permian Anomaly opens and closes soon after.
*250 Ma – The prehistoric end of the Future Anomaly opens and presumably remains open. Two Predators come through into the Permian Era. The prehistoric end of the Second Permian Anomaly opens. Professor Cutter leads a team through the Second Permian Anomaly, looking for the Future Anomaly, but the team is then massacred by the Female Predator. This heralds an unknown change in the timeline which alters history.cite episode
title = Episode Six
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2007-03-17
season = 1
number = 6]
*5 years later – The prehistoric end of the Third Permian Anomaly opens, and closes soon after.

Triassic

*230 Ma – The first dinosaurs evolve

Jurassic

*200 Ma – The first true mammals evolve.
*150 Ma – Helen Cutter claims to have seen a "Utahraptor" at this point in history. The exact details of this encounter were never explained.cite episode
title = Episode Four
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2007-03-03
season = 1
number = 4]
*145 Ma – The first Birds evolve.

Cretaceous

*120 Ma - A raptor passes through an anomaly into a shopping mall.
*100 Ma - A Giganotosaurus passes through an anomaly. [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a93747/flemyng-rouass-join-primeval-cast.html]
*80 Ma - The prehistoric end of the Cretaceous anomaly opens and Helen Cutter passes through from an unknown date.
*80 Ma - The prehistoric end of the Cretaceous/present day Skyscraper incident anomaly opens, and Helen passes through to Stephen Hart's house after being wounded by a Pterosaur.
*75 Ma - The prehistoric end of the swimming pool, Queen Mary Reservoir, and basement anomaly opens and closes soon after.
*70 Ma – The prehistoric end of the Indian Ocean anomaly opens and closes soon after.cite episode
title = Episode Three
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2007-02-24
season = 1
number = 3]
*70 Ma – The prehistoric end of the golf course and John Lewis shopping centre anomalies open and close soon after.cite episode
title = Episode Five
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2007-03-10
season = 1
number = 5] cite episode
title = Episode Seven
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2009-01-12
season = 2
number = 7]
*65 Ma – KT mass extinction occurs. The dinosaurs and other major groups go extinct.

Palaeocene

Eocene

*50 Ma – The first Monkeys evolve.A pristichampus comes through

Oligocene

An entelodont passes into the 21st century, according to the book 'Extinction Event'.

Miocene

*25 Ma – The Dodo, the Parasite and the Rodrigues Solitaire evolve . A pack of Thylacosmilus goes together with a future bird through an anomaly, which leads into the present (Shadow of the Jaguar).
*20 Ma – The Hominids evolve.

Pliocene

*3.9 Ma – Appears Australopithecus.
*2 Ma – The most recent ice age takes place.

Pleistocene

*0.05 Ma – Homo sapiens evolves.
*0.03 Ma – The prehistoric end of the Blue Sky park anomaly opens.
*0.03 Ma – The prehistoric end of the M25 motorway anomaly opens.

Holocene

These dates are now historic dates rather than millions of years.
*Sometime between the 15th-17th centuries – The prehistoric end of the Football stadium anomaly opens and closes soon after.
*1581 – The discovery of the Dodo by Portuguese sailors occurs.
*1693 – The extinction of the Dodo and the Parasite occurs.
*1707 – The Acts of Union takes place forging the British isles into one political unit known as Great Britain.

Anthropocene

*1858 – Charles Darwin and his friend Alfred Russel Wallace Publish a joint presentation of two scientific papers to the Linnean Society of London. Darwin latter condensed these papers in his book The Origin of Species.
*1880 – Parsons Green Station is opened on 1 March.
*1909 – The Security Service, derived from the Secret Service Bureau, is founded to control secret intelligence operations in the UK and overseas. As a result, the home section underwent a number of administrative changes and became the Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 5 (MI5).
*1914 – The First World War, a global military conflict which took place primarily in Europe and was said to be "the War to end all Wars," begins. More than nine million soldiers and civilians died.
*1918 – The Treaty of Versailles was signed with Germany, ending the First World War. Later treaties with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and The Ottoman Empire were signed. A anomaly opens in Loch Ness and closes soon after however not before a plesiosaur comes through.
*1921 – The British Empire now holds sway over a population of about 458 million people and approximately one-quarter of the world's population. It also covers about 36.6 million km² (14.2 million square miles), about a quarter of Earth's total land area.
*1939 – The Second World War begins with the Invasion of Poland and the Second Sino-Japanese War, followed by an attack on the Soviet Union and a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
*1940 – Sustained bombing of Great Britain by Germany begins, over 43,000 civilians were killed and more than a million houses destroyed or damaged. Later, the attacks where concentrated on London. This became known as the Blitz. Bunkers and service tunnels are constructed under Parsons Green Station.
*1945 – The Second World War comes to an end, resulting in a victory for the British Empire. Germany and Italy are already defeated and the Japanese forces surrender on September 2, thus ending the Second World War. The tunnels and Bunkers beneath Parsons Green Station are abandoned and forgotten.
*1997 – The present end of the Indian Ocean Anomaly also opens and closes. Shoals of Sarcopterygians pass through and are trapped in the present. One of which will later be caught by fisherman and sent to Professor Cutter.
*1999 – This is where the events of the series begin. The present end of the First Permian Anomaly opens and closes soon after. Helen Cutter and Professor Cutter separate, pending divorce. Helen then enters a short lived affair with her husband’s best friend, Stephen Hart. Helen Cutter discovers the Anomaly while conducting research in that area. Helen then begins her adventures in Time and is presumed murdered.
*January 2007 – Professor Cutter is sent a specimen of a captured Sarcopterygians. The present end of the Third Permian Anomaly opens in the Forest of Dean. That night, a Gorgonopsid enters the present. (This is caught on camera and is published in the newspapers.) The Third Permian Anomaly is found by Professor Cutter and closes soon after. Professor Cutter discovers the ruined camp from his first visit, unaware that this is, chronologically speaking, his second visitThe present end of the Carboniferous Anomaly opens in the underground WW2 bunkers at Parsons Green Station and remains open.. The present end of the Cretaceous Sea Anomaly opens and closes after moving location due to its unstable nature. Helen Cutter is caught by MI5.
*February 2007– The present end of the Football stadium anomaly opens and closes soon after. Helen Cutter escaped through this Anomaly and may have been responsible for the Dodo flock that came through soon after. One escaped Dodo triggers a series of events that result in the death of Tom, Connor's best friend. The present end of the Cretaceous Sky Anomaly opens and closes soon after. Helen Cutter also entered, and later left, the present via means unknown and saved Claudia Brown for reasons also unknown. The present end of the Second Permian Anomaly opens. Helen Cutter escapes through it, leading two future predators into the present. Professor Cutter and several soldiers go through to find the future anomaly they must have come through. He realises that this is really their first visit, heralding a no open time-loop which seemingly closed like one would expect. So it is likely fatalistic unless the timeline remained mutable, meaning the changes corrected and as a net result there's no "fate" and the past and future are in constant flux. Cutter struggles to understand the cause of the crisis and adjust to this new universe. The present end of the Castle Cross shopping centre anomaly opens.
*March 2007 – Strange worms Appear.cite episode
title = Episode Eight
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2009-01-19
season = 2
number = 8] .. Between this time and the present day, an anomaly opens in Peru (Shadow of the Jaguar). The team has to deal with a futuristic carnivore called the 'Mer'.cite episode
title = Episode Ten
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2008-02-02
season = 2
number = 10]
*April 2007 - The present day end of the worksite annomaly opens and closes soon after. Nick and Steven get trapped in the Silurian. Soon after they return, Leek kidnaps Cutter, Caroline, Abby, Jenny and Connor. Stephen fights a Silurian scorpion at a holiday resort. Connor, Abby, Caroline and Jenny find Rex and escape the bunker. Stephen dies and they have a funeral. Another anomaly opens and the teams leaves to deal with it.cite episode
title = Episode Twelve
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2008-02-09
season = 2
number = 6] cite episode
title = Episode Thirteen
series = Primeval
serieslink = Primeval (TV series)
network = ITV
station = ITV1
airdate = 2008-02-09
season = 2
number = 7]

The Future

*Extinction event – A mass extinction, the cause of which is unknown, wipes out the current species on Earth.
*Future Anomaly – The future end of the Permian-future anomaly opens and two Predators pass through.
*Second Future Anomaly - Probably leading into the miocene. A future evolution of birds comes through and begins to control a pack of Thylacosmilus via pheromone control (Shadow of the Jaguar).
*Third Future Anomaly - The future end of the Future-present anomaly opens, leading to an unspecified point in time. Several Mer creatures come through, together with a futuristic shark.

References