Wirt, thanks again for the kind offer.  I hope this will be educational for
some others, I know it will be for me.



First off, I want to make sure that I understand the current state of the
theory of evolution.  I do not care if I make mistakes as I know you will
correct me, realizing this is definitely not my field of expertise.  It is
only recently, after a long hiatus, that I have become re-interested in the
subject.



It is my understanding that Charles Darwin is, if not the originator, he is
at least the scientist that first formulated this theory in his book "The
Origin of Species." The basis of the theory is that all current life forms
on planet Earth have evolved from prior forms that in turn evolved from
prior forms and so on until the very beginning of life in the primordial
soup.  I believe the current theory is that evolutionary changes occur due
to environment changes and the natural selection of the more adapted forms
in the continuing struggle for existence.



I believe the age of the planet is currently pegged at about 4.5 billion
years old.  IIRC, for the first two billion years or so, Earth was barren
without either an atmosphere or with an atmosphere radically different than
what we have now.  I think the current theory is for one large ocean with an
original super continent or archipelago, called Columbia, which broke apart
about 2 bya.  The landmass was later reassembled into another supercontinent
called Rodinia.  Then that one broke apart.  The landmass reformed into
Pangea which then broke apart about 300 mya.



During this breakup and assembly cycle, life appeared somewhere on the
planet, perhaps in the oceans and one of the by-product of this life is
oxygen, which explains how the atmosphere was transformed over time.



This life, which somehow started in the "primordial soup", evolved over time
into something like 100 million or is it a billion, species over about 2
billion years.  Of this huge number, about 98% is now extinct.   For
example, the dinosaurs were by all accounts, a very successful and diverse
group of species which existed for over 400 million years, before hurriedly
disappearing about 65 mya.  If I remember, there have been "great dyings"
going back eons.  It's almost as if on some type of schedule, the slate is
wiped almost clean and a bunch (sorry for the technical term here,) of new
critters emerges, and these new life forms do not seem to have much relation
with the prior occupants.  There seems to be a rather large jump and then
ordinary evolution runs its course.



What I would dearly like to see is a solid chain that shows the ancestry of
man going back a lot further than apes.  The step from apes to man is, in my
estimation very small, compare to the whole concept.  All the talk on
evolution to which I have ever been exposed, seems to focus on small
changes, like skin color, or teeth or bone formation.  What I want to
understand is the progression from something say, a half inch long swirling
blindly in a mud puddle to a human being able to build computers, airliners
and spaceships.



That's just the beginning of my questions.  For whatever reason, I learned a
lot about some internal organs recently.  It has been over 30 years since my
last anatomy class and I am now looking at the function of some organs with
wonder.  But that comes later.  Like evolution, we go one step at a time.



I look forward to the education.  Thanks again, Wirt.



Denys

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