“Instead of finding the gradual unfolding of life,” says evolutionary paleontologist David M. Raup, “what geologists of Darwin’s time, and geologists of the present day actually find is a highly uneven or jerky record; that is, species appear in the sequence very suddenly, show little or no change during their existence in the record, then abruptly go out of the record.”
In reality, the vast majority of fossils show stability among types of creatures over extensive amounts of time. The evidence does not show them evolving from one type into another. Unique body plans appear suddenly. New features appear suddenly. For example, bats with sonar and echolocation systems appear with no obvious link to a more primitive ancestor.
In fact, more than half of all the major divisions of animal life seem to have appeared in a relatively short period of time. Because many new and distinct life forms appear so suddenly in the fossil record, paleontologists refer to this period as “the Cambrian explosion.” When was the Cambrian period?
Let us assume that the estimates of researchers are accurate. In that case, the history of the earth could be represented by a time line that stretches the length of a soccer field (1). At that scale, you would have to walk about seven eighths of the way down the field before you would come to what paleontologists call the Cambrian period (2). During a small segment of that period, the major divisions of animal life show up in the fossil record. How suddenly do they appear? As you walk down the soccer field, all those different creatures pop up in the space of less than one step!" --Origin of Life-Five Questions Worth Asking
Some of the oldest and first fossils are the ones that evolved photosynthesis and why you breath Oxygen on this planet and not natural gas. Before you get to why are there still wolves or "kinds" or any animals.
As well as when the Earth first formed it did not have van allen belts so life would have been fried by solar radiation, not to mention constant meteor bombardment and magma. You jump much later into life, before a lot of other things happened. When the iron core of the Earth cooled it created the Van Allen belts and life could survive. You wouldn't survive on the surface of the moon, from solar radiation and no oxygen. Not to mention how the moon formed as well.
The Cosmic Timeline
Astrophysicists have deduced the age of the Universe
(dated from the Big Bang) to be
13.7 BILLION YEARS!
Imagine that the entire history of the universe is compressed into one year - with the Big Bang corresponding to the first second of the New Year's Day, and the present time to the last second of December 31st (midnight).
Using this scale of time, each month would equal a little over a billion years. Here's a closer look at when important events would occur when we imagine the universe in one year:
The Universe in One Year was inspired by the late astronomer, Carl Sagan (1934-1996). Sagan was the first person to explain the history of the universe in one year-as a "Cosmic Calendar"-in his television series, Cosmos.
Let us look at the calendar in a bit more detail:
Cosmic Calendar (From The Dragons of Eden - Carl Sagan)
Pre-December Dates
Big Bang January 1
Origin of Milky Way Galaxy May 1
Origin of the solar system September 9
Formation of the Earth September 14
Origin of life on Earth ~ September 25
Formation of the oldest rocks known on Earth October 2
Date of oldest fossils (bacteria and blue-green algae) October 9
Invention of sex (by microorganisms) ~ November 1
Oldest fossil photosynthetic plants November 12
Eukaryotes (first cells with nuclei) flourish November 15
December
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1
Significant oxygen atmosphere begins to develop on Earth.
2 3 4 5
Extensive vulcanism and channel formation on Mars.
6
7
8 9 10 11 12 13
14
15 16
First Worms.
17
Precambrian ends. Paleozoic Era and Cambrian Period begin. Invertebrates flourish.
18
First oceanic plankton. Trilobites flourish.
19
Ordovician Period. First fish, first vertebrates.
20
Silurian Period. First vascular plants. Plants begin colonization of land.
21
Devonian Period begins. First insects. Animals begin colonization of land.
22
First amphibians. First winged insects.
23
Carboniferous Period. First trees. First reptiles.
24
Permian Period begins. First dinosaurs.
25
Paleozoic Era ends. Mesozoic Era Begins.
26
Triassic Period. First mammals.
27
Jurassic Period. First birds.
28
Cretaceous Period. First flowers. Dinosaurs become extinct.
29
Mesozoic Era ends. Cenozoic Era and Tertiary Period begin. First cetaceans. First primates.
30
First evolution of frontal lobes in the brains of primates. First hominids. Giant mammals flourish.
31
End of Pliocene Period. Quaternary (Pleistocene and Holocene) Period. First humans.
December 31
Origin of
Proconsul and
Ramapithecus, probable ancestors of apes and men ~ 1:30 p.m.
First humans ~ 10:30 p.m.
Widespread use of stone tools 11:00 p.m.
Domestication of fire by Peking man 11:46 p.m.
Beginning of most recent glacial period 11:56 p.m.
Seafarers settle Australia 11:58 p.m.
Extensive cave painting in Europe 11:59 p.m.
Invention of agriculture 11:59:20 p.m.
Neolithic civilization; first cities 11:59:35 p.m.
First dynasties in Sumer, Ebla and Egypt; development of astronomy 11:59:50 p.m.
Invention of the alphabet; Akkadian Empire 11:59:51 p.m.
Hammurabic legal codes in Babylon; Middle Kingdom in Egypt 11:59:52 p.m.
Bronze metallurgy; Mycenaean culture; Trojan War; Olmec culture; invention of the compass 11:59:53 p.m.
Iron metallurgy; First Assyrian Empire; Kingdom of Israel; founding of Carthage by Phoenicia 11:59:54 p.m.
Asokan India; Ch'in Dynasty China; Periclean Athens; birth of Buddha 11:59:55 p.m.
Euclidean geometry; Archimedean physics; Ptolemaic astronomy; Roman Empire; birth of Christ 11:59:56 p.m.
Zero and decimals invented in Indian arithmetic; Rome falls; Birth of Islam and the Islamic Civilization 11:59:57 p.m.
Mayan civilization; Sung Dynasty China; Byzantine empire; Mongol invasion; Crusades 11:59:58 p.m.
Renaissance in Europe; voyages of discovery from Europe and from Ming Dynasty China; emergence of the experimental method in science 11:59:59 p.m.
Widespread development of science and technology; emergence of global culture; acquisition of the means of self-destruction of the human species; first steps in spacecraft planetary exploration and the search of extraterrestrial intelligence Now: The first second of New Year's Day
Within the scheme of the Cosmic Calendar, an average human life of 70-80 years is equivalent to approximately 0.16 cosmic seconds!
Cosmic Calendar
