Introduction
1961 Life Pictorial Atlas of the World.
There is a pattern of discrepancy and convergence between ancient dates established scientifically and ancient dates provided in The Urantia Book.
In general, the dates given in The Urantia Book, regarding the evolutionary developments of the last 35 million years, correspond with the dates produced by radiometric dating. Between 35 million and 450 million years ago, radiometric dates are longer relatively by an average factor of 1.5. This relationship slightly increases from the later to the more recent dates, followed by a more rapid decrease to 1.0. From 450 to 550 million years ago, the factor increases from 1.4 to 4.0. Earlier than 550 million years ago, radiometric dates are consistently longer by a factor of 4.0. The Urantia Book says that eukaryotic (evolutionary) life was brought to our the planet 550 million years ago and that 450 million years ago marks the appearance of protozoa. Mammals are said to have evolved 35 million years ago.
Physicist Chris Halvorson speculates—based on the implications of the discovery of massive quantities of “unstable” technetium and promethium in the atmospheres of some stars, as well as numerous other considerations—that the rate of radioactive decay can be altered locally. He suggests that the spatial environment has been regulated as part of the divine overcontrol of the evolution of life on this planet. Put simply, the idea is that evolution is an aspect of God’s technique for creation and that the planet gets “cooked” at various “radioactive temperatures” during different stages of the evolutionary process.
Though consistent with Halvorson’s theory, The Urantia Book does not specifically affirm his explanation. And notwithstanding the calibration of the relative increase in radiometric dating to one decimal place, the rate is an estimation.
See History of Life by Chris Halvorson, PhD.
From the Urantia Papers:
Paper 57: The Origin of Urantia
Section 8: Crustal Stabilization, The Age of Earthquakes, The World Ocean, and The First Continent:
(57:8.1) 1,000,000,000 years ago is the date of the actual beginning of Urantia history. The planet had attained approximately its present size. And about this time it was placed upon the physical registries of Nebadon and given its name, Urantia.
(57:8.2) The atmosphere, together with incessant moisture precipitation, facilitated the cooling of the earth’s crust. Volcanic action early equalized internal-heat pressure and crustal contraction; and as volcanoes rapidly decreased, earthquakes made their appearance as this epoch of crustal cooling and adjustment progressed.
(57:8.3) The real geologic history of Urantia begins with the cooling of the earth’s crust sufficiently to cause the formation of the first ocean. Water-vapor condensation on the cooling surface of the earth, once begun, continued until it was virtually complete. By the end of this period the ocean was world-wide, covering the entire planet to an average depth of over one mile. The tides were then in play much as they are now observed, but this primitive ocean was not salty; it was practically a fresh-water covering for the world. In those days, most of the chlorine was combined with various metals, but there was enough, in union with hydrogen, to render this water faintly acid.
(57:8.4) At the opening of this faraway era, Urantia should be envisaged as a water-bound planet. Later on, deeper and hence denser lava flows came out upon the bottom of the present Pacific Ocean, and this part of the water-covered surface became considerably depressed. The first continental land mass emerged from the world ocean in compensatory adjustment of the equilibrium of the gradually thickening earth’s crust.
(57:8.5) 950,000,000 years ago Urantia presents the picture of one great continent of land and one large body of water, the Pacific Ocean. Volcanoes are still widespread and earthquakes are both frequent and severe. Meteors continue to bombard the earth, but they are diminishing in both frequency and size. The atmosphere is clearing up, but the amount of carbon dioxide continues large. The earth’s crust is gradually stabilizing.
Wikipedia’s overview:
It was long thought that Earth’s water did not originate from the planet’s region of the protoplanetary disk. Instead, it was hypothesized water and other volatiles must have been delivered to Earth from the outer Solar System later in its history.[3] Recent research, however, indicates that hydrogen inside the Earth played a role in the formation of the ocean.[4] The two ideas are not mutually exclusive, as there is also evidence that water was delivered to Earth by impacts from icy planetesimals similar in composition to asteroids in the outer edges of the asteroid belt.[5] …
Geological evidence also helps constrain the time frame for liquid water existing on Earth. A sample of pillow basalt (a type of rock formed during an underwater eruption) was recovered from the Isua Greenstone Belt and provides evidence that water existed on Earth 3.8 billion years ago.[12] In the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, Quebec, Canada, rocks dated at 3.8 billion years old by one study[13] and 4.28 billion years old by another[14] show evidence of the presence of water at these ages.[12] If oceans existed earlier than this, any geological evidence has yet to be discovered (which may be because such potential evidence has been destroyed by geological processes like crustal recycling). More recently, in August 2020, researchers reported that sufficient water to fill the oceans may have always been on the Earth since the beginning of the planet’s formation.[15][16][17]
Unlike rocks, minerals called zircons are highly resistant to weathering and geological processes and so are used to understand conditions on the very early Earth. Mineralogical evidence from zircons has shown that liquid water and an atmosphere must have existed 4.404 ± 0.008 billion years ago, very soon after the formation of Earth.[18][19][20][21] This presents somewhat of a paradox, as the cool early Earth hypothesis suggests temperatures were cold enough to freeze water between about 4.4 billion and 4.0 billion years ago.[22] Other studies of zircons found in Australian Hadean rock point to the existence of plate tectonics as early as 4 billion years ago.[23] If true, that implies that rather than a hot, molten surface and an atmosphere full of carbon dioxide, early Earth’s surface was much as it is today (in terms of thermal insulation). The action of plate tectonics traps vast amounts of CO2, thereby reducing greenhouse effects, leading to a much cooler surface temperature and the formation of solid rock and liquid water.[24]
Earth in the early Hadean had a very thick hydride-rich atmosphere whose composition likely resembled the solar nebula and the gas giants, with mostly water vapor, methane and ammonia. As the Earth’s surface cooled, vaporized atmospheric water condensed into liquid water and eventually a superocean covering nearly all of the planet was formed, turning Earth into an ocean planet. Volcanic outgassing and asteroid bombardments further altered the Hadean atmosphere eventually into the nitrogen- and carbon dioxide-rich, weakly reducing Paleoarchean atmosphere.
Additional support:
“We’re revealing a new picture of what the early Earth might have looked like,” said lead author Michelle Hopkins, a UCLA graduate student in Earth and space sciences. “In high school, we are taught to see the Earth as a red, hellish, molten-lava Earth. Now we’re seeing a new picture, more like today, with continents, water, blue sky, blue ocean, much earlier than we thought.”