Long, long ago a universe other than our own had grown to old and enfeebled to be of any use anymore. Having evolved for trillions and trillions and trillions of years, the mass in that space-time continuum had finally all been locked up in degenerate stars that had blown up and collapsed or withered into remnants. This fatal conquest of entropy ultimately lead to the full breakdown of matter through the slow evaporation of black holes into loosely bound particles. Then, about fourteen billion years ago, absolutely everything decayed into nothing, leaving behind a dark featureless macrocosmic void.

Having reached a local temperature of absolute zero, the last emergent property of that universe triggered the cosmological process of involution. As a result, all the energy of that system rapidly condensed back down into the closed dimensions of the omniverse from which it was initially released. Converging toward a single microcosm, this energy became increasingly more massive as it passed through the probabilistic regions of the compactified multiversal dimensions.

As this incredibly dense seering mass took form, everything rippled with cataclysmic ferocity. When it all finally crashed in on itself, the uneven collision lead to minimal variations in the overall temperature of an unimaginably tiny piece of matter. This was in excess of a thousand billion degrees, with an average density that was slightly more than a thousand grams per cubic centimeter.

Having achieved this absolute resistance toward acceleration, the energy rebounded and everything began to expand again. This opened up a new set of possibilities in the multiverse, causing a brief burst of super-accelerated expansion as the universes increased from something on the order of a billionth of a zillionth of a centimeter to about ten centimeters. As these dimensions unfurled, a single event was selected to decohere out of the instability of these entangled states. This stabilized our universe, allowing the energy to express itself in four physically extended macrocosmic dimensions of negatively unbounded space-time. The remaining dimensions in this particular set of possibilities shrank back down into the underlying potentia, having lost their chance to unfold out of the entanglement.

Since the unactualized alternate universes of this surreality remained open their dimensions were all forced to wrap in on themselves, forming clusters of multiversal space-time at every point of reality in this universe. These compact structures of occult dimensions twist around to converge at the smallest points of the cosmos. Each of these microcosms condenses totality into the positively unbounded space-time of the omniverse.

In this way, every microcosm serves to anchor the universe to the sacred source from which everything is derived. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to understand what this really means. Microcosms are so unusual that they far surpass the clockwork physics of our everyday experiences and zip right past the enigmatic facts of quantum mechanics into an aspective realm that is incapable of being comprehended. It quite literally transcends the bounds of the imagination itself, and we simply cannot conceive of something without the use of our minds.

As if that isn’t bad enough, the alternate universes of the multiverse are subjective in nature, so they don’t deal with ordinary moments and locations either. Since the universe exists objectively, in the present moment—here and now—the alternate universes are necessarily restricted to the past and future—there and then. In regards to this, the past of any given moment contains every possible event that could have lead up to that particular instant. This is true of the future as well. The only difference is that the future contains the potential of every possible outcome, rather than every possible history. As a result, the fabric of multiversal space-time is composed of a network of interwoven paths, or world-lines. Each of these continuous waves of information contain a complete series of events that begin with the start of a universes evolution and end when it stops, in the far distant future when it reaches a state of complete disorder.

Singularly, the different configurations of their independent orbifolds affect the single strands of energy that passes through a world-line by setting a value for all of the fundamental constants that give rise to the various different characteristics of nature. These one dimensional filaments of energy, known as strings, are roughly a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimeter long. With the exception of the closed loop strings that ubiquitously transmit the positive and negative influences of the dichosmic motive throughout the entire cosmos, every string in the universe is open-ended. At the smallest scale of being, one end of a string is attached to the omniverse, while the length of it moves through the multiverse. As a result, the loose end is expressed as a particle, in the unfurling dimensions of the universe, at the largest scale of being.

By way of this fundamental process, the shape of an orbifold produces a gradient scale of tensions that give rise to the various different types of energy that presently exist. In this way, every facet of existence is governed by the limited number of ways in which strings can behave. Since the specific configurations of orbifolds actually dictate what strings can do, the multiverse can be seen as that part of the cosmos which effects the form and function of everything, because these tiny slivers weave together to form the tapestry of reality.

In addition to this, the entire cosmos is permeated with microcosms that serve to emit particles while the macrocosm absorbs them. This is a function of the dichosmic motive that allows particles to be produced or destroyed anywhere at anytime. These excitations of the positve and negative fields became important after the universe had expanded enough to cool down by about ten million degrees. At this point the energy of this system began to condense out into the smallest elementary particles of matter.

These sub-atomic entities are known as quarks and they emerged as both matter and antimatter—in particle-antiparticle pairs. The quarks and antiquarks then began to smash into and annihilate each other, producing light. Although, under the extreme conditions of the early universe, these photons carried so much energy that they were interchangable with quarks.

Eventually a small asymmetry in the way these fundamental interactions work caused more particles to be produced than antiparticles. This occurred in a ratio of about one in a billion. So, after the universe cooled a bit more, all the paired particles and antiparticles annihilated and the one in a billion particles were all that remained.

At this stage of evolution, photon radiation made up a large portion of the energy density in the universe. Then, within a hundredth of a second, something dramatic happened to the particles that transmit the negative nuclear force. As the ambient temperature cooled to around a hundred billion degrees, they gained mass which drastically restricted the range of this force, making it weak.

A millionth of a second after the initial condition of our universe, electrons and anti-electrons began to emerge and annihilate each other. So, at first quarks and electrons had only a fleeting existence as a plasma because matter/anti-matter annihilations removed them as fast as they were created.

However, within a split second, the positive nuclear force became so strong that quarks could no longer exist as free particles. As a result, they began to combine together to form protons and neutrons.

At this point, light still couldn’t travel very far through the natal universe. After all, space-time was filled with a hot sea of subatomic particles. This meant that photons constantly crashed into and scattered off them before the light could get very far. In turn, the scattering of photons produced more radiation.

Then, after space-time expanded a little more, the pressure of the universe changed. This made it possible for regions of high energy density to have the same pressure as regions of low energy density. So, regions with higher energy density were able to collapse and form primordial black holes.

These incredibly dense regions of space-time are curled up so tight that they generate super-intense gravitational fields. Moreover, black holes make up a large percentage of what is known as dark matter. This is pretty important because, dark matter outweighs normal matter by a factor of about ten to one.

None-the-less, merely one second after the universe formed, the first atomic nuclei began to appear. These macro-particles existed in thermal equilibrium—with about 1000 protons for every 220 neutrons. Of course, the universe was still hot enough for nuclei to collide and form new gaseous elements through the thermonuclear fusion of protons and the capture of neutrons.

As a result, the majority of neutrons in the universe wound up stuck in combinations of two protons and two neutrons—in the helium nucleus. A small number of neutrons contributed to the formation of lithium—with three protons and three neutrons in its nucleus. The leftover neutrons gave rise to the element deuterium.

Within about three minutes the universe had grown so big that the overall temperature dropped to a mere one billion degrees. This was too low for nuclear activity to occur, so all the associated reactions stopped.

At this point, the universe consisted of an expanding plasma that was free of any atomic structures. It was simply composed of dense waves of radiation with clumpy structures of gas stretched across open space.

During the fourth minute, about three-quarters of the universe consisted of hydrogen. Helium made up much of the remaining difference, and only trace amounts of deuterium, lithium, beryllium, and boron could be found.

By just over half an hour after the initial condition, all of the anti-electrons had annihilated with almost all of the electrons. However, there was the exceptional one in a billion left over, and the temperature had dropped to around 300 million degrees. This meant that the density of the cosmos was now only about ten percent of that of water, but even at this temperature stable atoms still weren’t able to form.

As a result, the universe remained barren for a few hundred thousand years. Then, the physical domain of space-time finally cooled off enough for hydrogen nuclei to capture electrons—thus forming the first stable atoms.

Although now at a scale pretty well removed from the individual particles that make up these structures, atoms are still unimaginably small, measuring out to something like one ten billionth of a centimeter in diameter and weighing in at around a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of one gram. What’s even more unusual is the fact that, the size ratio of an atom to its nucleus is about ten thousand to one.

This is due to the fact that most of the space occupied by an atom is actually empty. After all, an atom is just a pinpoint of mass surrounded by a cloud of frantic probabilities. Even the dense nucleus at the center of every atom pops in and out of the universe, as readily and unpredictably as the orbiting electrons.

Since the entire universe is more or less unstructured and nonexistent,  matter is nearly insubstantial. In fact, the only thing that makes matter stable and seemingly solid is the fact that the energy of an electron that is bound to an atom—at rest—can only take on a certain numerical value, and therefore a specific characteristic.

The regions of space in which electrons exist—known as orbitals—manifest as various different three-dimensional shapes. Therefore, an electron has a certain amount of energy, depending on the type of orbital that it occupies. This gives rise to the electron’s energy level.

Each energy level in an atom has a set number of ways in which they can combine. For instance, one of the ways atoms can gain more energy is to absorb a single unit of energy—like a photon.

When a photon hits an atom, one of the atom’s electrons absorbs the photon. As a result, the photon’s energy makes the electron jump from its original energy level up to a higher energy level. This jump leaves an empty space in the original inner energy level, making the atom less stable.

The atom is now in what is known as an excited state, but it cannot store the new energy indefinitely. This is due to the fact that atoms always seek their most stable condition. So, when the atom releases the energy, the electron drops back down to its original energy level. As it does, the electron releases energy.

Furthermore, the number of electrons in an atom’s outer level determines the atom’s chemical properties—based on how it will react with other atoms. If an atom’s outer energy level is only partially filled, it will bond easily with atoms that can help it fill its outer level, and atoms that are missing the same number of electrons from their outer energy level will react similarly to fill their outer energy level.

This is why electrons account for the overall stability of matter in general, because once all of an atom’s electrons are in their lowest possible energy levels, an atom will continue to stay in its ground state forever. That is unless it is affected by external forces.

Moreover, the emergence of atomic structures served as a herald to the moment when matter fully separated from energy. This set the stage for a physical level of existence that is far more deterministic than the probabilistic tendencies of the multiverse.

Since hydrogen atoms—unlike free protons and electrons—can only absorb photons at specific wavelengths, this meant that photons of other wavelengths could travel farther when hydrogen atoms first formed. So, the universe changed from being opaque to being largely transparent as the atoms allowed radiation—in the form of photons—to travel freely through space.

As a result, these light rays were stretched out—forming a microwave background radiation that was released out into the expanding universe. This has been traveling through space ever since.

However, since the universe was still very hot, radiation couldn’t travel very far without being absorbed and emitted by a nearby particle. So, this continuous exchange of energy allowed the universe to maintain a state of thermal equilibrium.

This meant that any particular region of physical space-time was unlikely to be much hotter or cooler than any other. As a result, the distribution of matter and energy was nearly uniform, with very small irregularities–a thousandth of one percent–in the intensity of the microwave background radiation.

This was very significant because, up to this point, the growth of structure in the early universe had been prevented by radiation pressure. However, neutral matter was now able to slip through the radiation and form separate gas clouds. So, by the time the universe was one fifth its present size, these tiny accumulations had gradually built up a web-like structure of matter within which stars and galaxies would later form.

Of these, the Milky Way galaxy began to form—about 100 million years after the universe began—when a primordial black hole evolved into a super-massive black hole. This incredibly large mass gradually drew in a lump of  primordial matter and some neutral hydrogen with a trace amount of helium. Then, it began to collapse under the gravity of the super-massive black hole. Shortly thereafter, the various different types of matter started to separate in the proto-galaxy.

At this point, the atoms in the gas collided—raising the temperature of the cloud. This caused the gas to lose energy, move slower, and eventually collapse to the center.

As the gas continued to lose energy, its density increased creating smaller and smaller clouds which all moved around on orbits. When these clouds collided, the gas was compressed. The enormous compression waves traveling through these gas clouds then created dense clusters in the clouds.

The attractive force of these areas drew in the nearby gas particles. Then, as the clusters grew, their gravity increased, and they attracted even more particles.

Eventually, these clusters coalesced into growing spheres of compressed gas that reached internal temperatures of a few million degrees. At this point the gases in the interior of the clusters became so hot that their atomic nuclei began fusing—creating large amounts of nuclear energy and forming the first stars.

However, with no heavy elements the cooling of this gas was very inefficient. So, these conditions made the first generation of stars very short-lived, as well as considerably more massive, hotter, and brighter than modern stars.

As a result, these enormous blue orbs irrevocably changed the space around them—by fusing the nuclei of atoms together to form heavier elements, subsequently releasing energy that was transformed into light. This release of highly energetic photons from the first stars then heated the gas while their searing surfaces spewed out a steady stream of ultraviolet radiation.

The most massive of these preliminary stars ended their lives as supernova. This occurred whenever one of the super-giant stars used up all of its hydrogen fuel. At this point, a star’s core was still hot enough that it provided the initial energy necessary for the star to begin burning helium and then heavier elements through nuclear fusion.

This process stopped when the core was mostly iron, which is too heavy for the star to burn in a way that gives off energy. So—with no fuel left—the inward attraction of the star’s material for itself had no outward balancing force, and the core collapsed.

As it collapsed, the core released a shock wave that tore apart the star’s atmosphere. This seeded the universe with all of the chemicals of creation. All the while, the star’s core continued collapsing until it either formed a neutron star or a black hole—depending on its mass.

Either way, by the time the universe was about half its present size, gas was being pulled into the halos around many of the maturing galaxies. Shock waves then produced the second generation of stars in the accumulation of fresh gas amidst the gravitational attraction—further heating the gas.

At this point, the gravity exerted by neighboring structures applied torques to the associated matter, contributing to the rotational support of the gas against the force of gravity. Then, small proto-galaxies collided and merged to form larger and larger structures. Eventually, as time went on, much of  the remaining gas was gradually pushed further and further away, leaving behind huge galactic clusters of stars.

All the while, the rate of universal expansion had been decelerating—due to the presence of gravity. However, around six billion years ago, the universe grew so large that an important switch to acceleration occurred when the effect of antigravity was no longer counter-balanced by gravity. So now, instead of gravity pulling everything back down, a runaway effect of the dichosmic motive accelerated the expansion process, pushing everything further apart faster and faster—at an ever increasing rate.

This unbalanced force causes every point in the universe to continuously move further and further away from each other. This means that as inflation causes the universe to expand, the curvature of the universe lessens as well. Thus, as the universe grows, the geometry of space-time becomes more and more flat. This also means that, as the physical universe ages, it will become increasingly bigger, colder, and darker.

Regardless, several hundred million years later, our solar system took shape in one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms—when a cloud of supernova gas was induced to spin. This motion contributed to the collapse of the cloud—which caused it to heat up. Eventually, the temperatures became hot enough to vaporize all the dust particles in the enormous cloud of gas.

As this structure swirled faster, and faster—over a period of about 100,000 years—it contracted under its own gravity. This flattened the cloud of gas out into an accretion disk—with a huge bulge in its center. This central mass compressed enough to become a proto-star, while the remaining gas flowed around it in orbit.

Most of this gas flowed into and added mass to the forming Sun. Although, the centrifugal force from this prevented some of the gas from making the journey. Instead, it formed a rotating disk of various different elements around the star. This disk then radiated away its energy and gradually cooled off.

After a few hundred million years, the accretion disk was finally cool enough for metal to condense out into tiny particles. Shortly thereafter, rock and even ice also began to condense into particles. All the while, small particles of matter collided into each other forming larger and larger masses as time went on. This continued until the particles had joined together to form small boulders.

Once the larger masses got big enough to have a nontrivial gravity, their growth accelerated rapidly. In addition to this, their gravity then gave them an edge over the smaller accumulations. The largest of these objects became planetesimals, which quickly swept all the surrounding debris into their own orbits.

In the center of it all, the recently formed Sun grew into a large star that emitted infrared light. Of course, within a million years, the gravitational attraction of the star caused it to shrink to its present size. The added pressure caused by this collapse in size then raised the star’s internal temperature high enough to trigger nuclear reactions in the core.

As a result, the Sun stabilized and began to shine when the temperature in its core reached about ten million degrees—causing hydrogen to fuse into helium. Then, about a million years after the nebula cooled, the Sun generated violent solar winds that blew huge amounts of volatile elements out into space for almost ten million years.

During this time, the planetesimals gradually collided with each other, becoming more massive with each assault. The smaller of these remained close to the Sun, as their metallic and rocky bodies formed over tens of millions of years. This produced the seedlings of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

Further out in space, the larger proto-planets pulled in the nebular gas that was forced towards them by the solar wind. Eventually, some of these became giants—like Jupiter and Saturn. At this point, several different proto-planets had become locked in permanent orbits around the Sun. Thus, the solar system was finally established.

Shortly thereafter, a planetoid—about four thousand miles in diameter—with its own core and mantle, struck the early Earth with ferocity. The collision severely disturbed the mantles of both bodies, causing their cores to fuse within hours of impact.

Then, the mantle debris was blasted outward, with a major portion moving into Earth’s orbit. There it coalesced and—after a phase of accretion and differentiation—became a molten satellite.

Over the course of a few hundred million years, the energy released by radioactive decay gradually heated the already molten Earth, melting some of its main constituents. This consisted of iron and silicates, with small amounts of other elements.

The iron melted before the silicates, and—being heavier—sank toward the center. As a result, the silicates were forced to the surface—as the iron traveled down for years on end. Then, when the iron reached the center of the Earth—nearly 4,000 miles down—it began to accumulate, forming a solid core surrounded by molten metals.

During this process, the motion of the molten metals—within the outer planetary core—along with the effect caused by the overall planetary rotation, created a magnetic field. Then, as the conducting fluid moved through the existing magnetic field, electric currents were induced, creating a second distribution of magnetic forces. This second magnetic field then reinforced the original magnetic field, and a self-sustaining system was formed.

This field forms an obstacle to the solar wind, which confines its energy into an elongated cavity. The inner edge of this is known as the ionosphere. This part of the atmosphere is ionized by solar radiation. Conversely, the lowest part of the Earth’s atmosphere—the troposphere—extends from the surface up to about six miles. The atmosphere above this is known as the stratosphere, and the boundary between this layer and the mesosphere is where incoming solar radiation began to create the ozone layer.

In addition to this, the solid outermost portion of the Earth—known as the lithosphere—gradually formed as the Earth cooled. This crust is rich in the elements oxygen and silicon with lesser amounts of aluminum, iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and sodium.

This layer of the planet is composed of large, rigid slabs—called tectonic plates. These include the African, North American, South American, Eurasian, Australian, Antarctic, and Pacific plates. In addition to this, several minor plates also exist.

As these structures formed, the weak nuclear force continued to produce the radioactive decay that serves to heat the planet’s core. This meant that the rigid slabs were moved along the broiling magma beneath them. Furthermore, many of the fractures in the Earth’s crust served as conduits for materials to rise up from the mantle, yielding much of the planet’s mineral wealth.

In addition to this, the planet belched out massive clouds of greenhouse gases from its interior. This included things like carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia. However, there wasn’t any oxygen in the early atmosphere.

Then, depressions in the Earth’s crust acted as natural basins in which water—slowly rising from the interior of the planet—collected to form a massive worldwide ocean. Of course, since the atmosphere was dominated by carbon dioxide, the water-soaked planet was a drab green color—rather than the familiar blue of modern times. None-the-less, this activity set the hydrologic cycle in motion.

The phases of this cycle are storage, evaporation, precipitation, and runoff. That is to say, water is stored in glaciers, polar ice caps, lakes, rivers, oceans, and in the ground. Then, heat from the Sun evaporates water from the Earth’s surface and the water then condenses to form clouds. This falls back to the Earth—as either rain or snow—then runs back into storage and begins the cycle again.

In addition to this, there are columns—known as plumes—of exceptionally hot material that rise from deep within the Earth’s mantle. Such plumes are relatively stationary within the Earth, while the tectonic plates move above them. This is very significant because as the volcanic rock rose up from these plumes it created tiny islands on the surface of the water. Then as the plates moved, islands formed in new regions. As these proto-continents underwent metamorphism, clay and mud formed.

Soon, these landmasses began to fuse together to form larger, more stable islands. In addition to this, landmasses also began to grow when pieces of crust were scraped off as plates descended under the proto-continents.

All of these newly formed landmasses were no more than 300 miles in diameter. What’s more, they were short-lived since their constituent rocks were destroyed by early tectonic forces.

These forces result from the fact that the plates are all moving in different directions and at different speeds. In regards to this, the place where the two plates meet is called a plate boundary, and these regions have different names depending on how the two plates are moving in relationship to each other.

For instance, places where plates crash together are called convergent boundaries. Here, the edge of one plate can fold into a huge mountain range, while the edge of the other plate bends downward and digs deep into the Earth. At this point a trench forms at the bend.

Furthermore, all that folding and bending makes the rock in both plates break and slip, causing earthquakes. Then, as the edge of a plate digs into the Earth’s hot interior, some of it melts—in a process known as subduction.

In addition to this, the places where plates are coming apart are called divergent boundaries. Here, the lithosphere is pulled apart, so it typically breaks along parallel faults that tilt slightly outward from each other. Then, as the plates separate along the boundary, the block between the faults cracks and drops down into the soft interior. This forms a rift—known as a mid-ocean ridge.

As the plates separate, hot molten mantle material flows up to fill the void. The increased heat resulting from this flow reduces the density of the plates, causing them to float higher in the molten mantle, thus elevating the boundaries by many thousands of feet above the colder surrounding sea floor. Furthermore, all of the mid-ocean ridges in the world are connected in a single system that makes up the longest mountain range on Earth.

In this way, new ocean floor is formed at the rift of mid-ocean ridges. The ocean floor, and the rock beneath it, are produced by magma that rises from deeper levels. The ocean floor moves laterally away from the ridge and plunges into an oceanic trench along the continental margin. The lithosphere then arrives at the edge of a continent, where it is subducted.

Finally, the places where plates slide past each other are called transform boundaries. Here, the plates on either side of a boundary slide past each other. As a result, transform boundaries lack the spectacular features found at convergent and divergent boundaries.

Instead, transform boundaries are marked in some places by linear valleys along the boundary where rock has been ground up by the sliding. In other places, transform boundaries are marked by features like stream beds that have been split in half and the two halves have moved in opposite directions.

Regardless, the point is that the world emerged from a horrific string of cataclysmic events, so it’s hard to imagine how life could ever take hold in such hellish conditions. However, this is what would inevitably occur. After all, every living thing is made from a small set of chemical elements that go on to become something magnificent when they are combined in just the right way.

This all began a few billion years ago when the most distant planets in the solar system were more or less fully formed. As such, deep space was becoming quite a bit more peaceful. Even the bombardment from cosmic debris had become less frequent on the surface of the Earth.

However, the barrage was not over yet. Incoming meteors, comets, and asteroids—the largest of which were the same size as early continents—would occasionally vaporize themselves along with a portion of the surface that they impacted.

These blasts would then cover the entire planet with an incandescent rock vapor. This, literally, broiled the surface of the Earth. The excessive heat sterilized everything, down to a depth of about three thousand feet.

Fortunately, organic compounds are relatively common in space. In fact, many comets, meteors, and asteroids contain full-fledged amino acids. These are composed of complex biological materials formed from simple carbon compounds—catalyzed from irradiation by the light of the Sun.

It was from this field of biochemical cosmic debris that these massive chunks of ice and rock were pulled toward the Earth by its gravity. The heat and pressure of these impacts catalyzed amino acid reactions, which fused combinations of carbon and other basic elements together to form more complex molecules.

The impacts also evaporated the frozen comets, creating storm clouds over vast areas of the planet. These clouds produced a deluge of hot, acidic rain that would continue for millions of years. In addition to this, the relentless bombardment—along with frequent volcanic eruptions—sent searing hot gas and dust around the globe. As such, the early Earth was very inhospitable. That is, on the surface at least.

Things were quite different in the water. Here, at the greatest depths, organic compounds were shielded from many of these ill effects. As a result, some organic substances were able to survive the trip from deep space into the vast ocean of the world. These molecules then gave rise to a sort of primeval sludge when hydrothermal vents began to emerge along mid-ocean ridges.

These broiling hot water springs precipitated out black plumes of mineral particles. Common amongst these clouds were sulfides of various different metals—like copper, lead, and zinc. This was due to the fact that hot magma rose up where the water met the seafloor—bringing with it heat from the Earth’s interior. Cold seawater then percolated down the fractures to meet with the magma ten miles under the seafloor. The super-heated water then rose again, dissolving minerals from the rock and emerging at the ridge.

Such an environment was perfect for the formation of life, which occurred when the primordial soup of interacting organic molecules went through the vents, time and time again. As this occurred, the heat inside the vents provided the energy to drive the chemical reactions necessary to form peptide linkages. Then, the cool periods in the water cycle ensured that these newly synthesized molecules did not immediately break apart.

Shortly thereafter, the first building blocks of life were converted into long strands—known as nucleotides. These were made up of a sugar molecule called ribose, a phosphoric acid, and one of four different nitrogen-containing compounds called bases. The four bases came in the form of adenine, guanine, uracil, and cytosine.

At this point, the assembling properties of the dichosmic motive strung nucleotides together to produce the first ribonucleic acid molecules. These molecules consisted of two strands of nucleotides, linked together to form a chain. These were arranged like a ladder that had been twisted into a helical shape.

The sugar molecule occupied the center position in the nucleotide. On one side of this was a phosphate group, while a nitrogen base was on the other. The phosphate group of each nucleotide was also linked to the sugar of the adjacent nucleotide in the chain. These linked units formed the parallel side rails of a ladder, while the bases faced inward toward each other, forming the rungs of the ladder.

In regards to this, the nucleotides in one ribonucleic acid strand had a specific association with the corresponding nucleotides in the other ribonucleic acid strand. These bases were joined to each other through weak hydrogen bonds. Moreover, because of the chemical affinity of the bases, nucleotides containing adenine were always paired with nucleotides containing uracil, and nucleotides containing cytosine were always paired with nucleotides containing guanine.

These primitive ribonucleic acid molecules acted as both the hereditary instructions and catalysts for the various reactions involved in metabolism and replication. As such, it was possible for a ribonucleic acid molecule to make copies of itself without the need for other kinds of molecules.

This process began with the separation of two nucleotide chains, each of which then acted as a template for the assembly of a new complementary chain. As the old chains separated, each nucleotide in the two chains attracted a complementary nucleotide. The nucleotides were then joined to one another by hydrogen bonds to form the rungs of a new ribonucleic acid molecule.

As the complementary nucleotides were fitted into place, the phosphate group of one nucleotide bonded to the sugar molecule of the adjacent nucleotide, forming the side rail of the new ribonucleic acid molecule. This process continued until a new nucleotide chain had been formed alongside the old one—forming a new double-helix molecule.

Once this crucial step was achieved, variations in sequence occurred which could compete with each other, leading to more complex arrangements. These ribonucleic acid molecules could also make copies of their own sequences, so they could replicate both ribonucleic acid strands, and the cycle could be repeated indefinitely.

Of course, the ozone layer was still very thin at this time, so the surface waters of the primordial Earth were still a hostile place for such long-chain molecules because they could be broken apart by the ultra-violet radiation. However, the ability of nitrogen bases to absorb and disperse such radiation protected the original ribonucleic acid from breaks if they happened to rise too close to the surface.

Under these intense levels of ultra-violet light, ribonucleic acid molecules were far more stable than any other large molecules and the smaller molecules that joined together to form ribonucleic acid. This gave the first generation of ribonucleic acid molecules a selective advantage, setting the stage for life.

Then, the energy from the absorbed ultra-violet radiation actually drove the elongation of the ribonucleic acid chains. This meant that nitrogen bases were initially only used as protection. As such, these units were replaceable and variable. So, several variants of the original template molecules formed as the result of copying mistakes. This gave rise to divergent types of ribonucleic acid.

Eventually, the development of new ribonucleic acid molecules made a primitive form of protein synthesis possible. This began with the separation of a ribonucleic acid molecule into two strands.

In a process called transcription, a section of one strand acted as a pattern to produce a new strand—called messenger ribonucleic acid. Then, in a process called translation, amino acids were linked together in a particular sequence, dictated by the messenger ribonucleic acid, to form proteins.

As a result of this process, the subsequent generations of ribonucleic acid molecules took a selective advantage because the proteins that they were making favored their replication through mutual evolution. Thus, proteins became very abundant in a relatively short period of time.

At this point, new entities began to form. This was because the organic chemicals did not remain uniformly dispersed, but separated out into layers. These structures were ultimately surrounded by a tight skin of molecules.

These spherical aggregations of lipid molecules provided a locally segregated environment in which the hardware of life could undergo isolated revisions in the dark waters of these ancient depths. This also created boundaries that would allow for the selective absorption of simple organic molecules from the surrounding medium. This equipped these proto-cellular machines with the necessary components of metabolism.

At this point, the fundamentals of the modern genetic code also began to develop with the formation of chromosomes. In this way, nature produced the resources necessary for the process of asexual reproduction that was soon to come.

After these proto-cellular constructs were more or less fully formed, the inactive machines rose to a depth where the light of the Sun just barely illuminated the murky depths. Being fully equipped with rudimentary organelles, these objects contained the precursor to modern day centrioles. So, when the electromagnetic radiation came in contact with these structures it triggered an awakening of the vital life force that was previously dormant in these machines.

When life began and inert unconscious objects became animate conscious organisms, a broad range of new properties emerged. As an example, the genetic code was now replicatable because cells could procreate. This usually resulted in two nearly identical cells. However, some cells had a relatively high rate of mutation. So, they gave rise to alternate forms of genes—known as alleles—in their subsequent generations.

Either way, the cells that resulted from this were self-contained and self-maintaining entities. They could take in nutrients, convert these nutrients into energy, carry out specialized functions, and reproduce as necessary. In addition to this, each cell now stored its own set of instructions for carrying out each of these activities.

Most importantly, a moving cell has to navigate its body through space-time while dealing with numerous unpredictable events—like encounters with other cells or free-floating peptides. To do this, the cell membrane serves as the central control organ that tells the molecules of the rest of the cell what to do in order to generate the myriad of its biological actions.

This is due to the fact that, every single cell has receptor sites along its exterior. These receptors constantly study their environment. So, when something is encountered, it sends a signal into the cell. This sets off a chain reaction that immediately puts the cell into action.

In other words, these primitive creatures were able to perceive and thereby respond to selected features of their environment, thus making them aware of those features. That is to say, a primitive cell was able to interpret incoming information, order and integrate countless unforeseeable signals, and then purposely act within a certain limit of choice. That’s right, even primitive cells had the ability to decide and act.

However, at this minimal level of consciousness, our earliest ancestors simply unreflectively perceived stimuli in the present moment. They didn’t behave in a rational way. They couldn’t plan how to spend the time ahead of them. They just reacted to what was going on around them. This laid the foundation for the development of instincts at the pre-chromosomal level of existence.

An instinct is the ability to react to an external stimulus the correct way each and every chance an organism receives. In other words, instincts are unconscious atavistic stimulus response impulses that are forged by evolutionary development. As such, they prompt an organism when it experiences something similar to an event that occurred at any point during the course of life as a whole.

This stems from the urge for survival, which is the single greatest motivating factor in existence. Thus, every organism is driven to avoid those things that represent a threat to its existence. It is this negative stimulus, this experience of pain, that prompts all forms of life to avoid such potential life threats in order to insure success. In other words, instincts compel us to desire pleasure and avoid suffering. They are the foundation of approach and avoidance responces.

Furthermore, due to the presence of a soul, every normal conscious experience has a mood that pervades the experience. This need not be a particular mood—like depression, but there is always a tone to any conscious state.

Thus, if an organism becomes aware of something the creature will automatically form an opinion about it. This may be as simple as the recognition of pleasure or pain, or it may be psychologically complex—drawing on numerous emotional experiences and individual prejudices.

Regardless, about 150 million years after the first peptides emerged on Earth, the next great biological triumph was underway. Translation was becoming accurate enough to unambiguously link the sequences of individual proteins with the sequences of individual ribonucleic acid genes. However, these primitive genes were very short and contained a small number of amino acids compared to modern times.

Then, as the result of mutation, protein enzymes began to emerge. This enabled the evolving cells to perform new chemical reactions, or at least refine less efficient processes. So, enzyme-dependant metabolism gradually replaced its primitive predecessors. After this, the appearance of deoxyribonucleic acid brought about a crucial refinement in the information processing systems of early cells.

Like ribonucleic acid, deoxyribonucleic acid is a long chain of repeating nucleotides. So, the structure and function of a deoxyribonucleic acid molecule is similarly dependant on the sequence and the number of nucleotides of which it is composed.

In most cellular organisms, replication of a deoxyribonucleic acid  molecule takes place just before the cell divides. This process is identical to that of ribonucleic acid, except for the fact that thymine replaced uracil. Aside from the emergence of this new nitrogen base, everything else remained the same.

So, as the genetic systems became increasingly more complex, there were greater advantages to storing the information in a separate molecule. Thus, deoxyribonucleic acid soon copied all of the information contained in the ribonucleic acid genes. Having, then, been displaced by deoxyribonucleic acid and the more effective protein enzymes, ribonucleic acid was relegated to the intermediate role that it plays in modern day genetics.

By this time, the weather was similar to that of modern times. For instance, torrential rains would occasionally poor down as electrical storms raged through the sky above. This served to create vast wastelands on the inland regions of the continents.  In addition to this, pools of boiling mud bubbled, geysers spewed incredibly hot water into the air, and active volcanoes hurled super-heated ash into the atmosphere.

Of course, the first modern cellular organisms were undeterred by all of this, emerging as they did from the ocean depths. In fact, these prokaryotes had refined many of the simpler systems that primitive cells had used.

For instance, next to the inner surface of the cell wall is a thin membrane—called the plasma membrane. This is composed of two layers of flexible lipid molecules and interspersed with durable proteins.

Unlike the cell wall—whose open pores allow the unregulated traffic of materials in and out of the cell—the plasma membrane only allows certain substances to pass through. Thus, the plasma membrane actively separates the cell’s contents from its surrounding fluids.

While small molecules—like water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide—diffuse freely across the plasma membrane, the passage of many larger molecules—including amino acids and sugars—is carefully regulated. This is accomplished by way of specialized transport proteins that span the plasma membrane. These form an intricate system of pumps and channels through which motion is conducted. In this way, a cell fine-tunes its internal environment.

Furthermore, the plasma membrane encloses the cytoplasm—a semi-fluid that fills the cell. This is packed with up to a billion molecules per cell, providing a suitable environment for the thousands of reactions that must take place.

Within the cytoplasm of all prokaryotes is its genetic information. This is about 1000 times the length of the cell. So, to fit inside, it repeatedly twists and folds to form a chromosome.

Also immersed in the cytoplasm are the only organelles—diminutive organ systems—in prokaryotic cells. These tiny bead-like structures are called ribosomes. Following the instructions encoded in the deoxyribonucleic acid molecules, ribosomes churn out proteins by the hundreds every minute, providing needed enzymes and replacements for worn-out proteins required by the cell.

Such tremendous efficiency made these creatures incredibly successful, in a relatively short time. In fact, genetic mutations soon led to several different kinds of bacteria. These ubiquitous single-celled critters are responsible for a number of biological activities—like the spread of infectious diseases, putrefaction, and fermentation.

As the bacteria spread, eukaryotes began as one cell but, gradually, developed a membrane-bound nucleus—in which deoxyribonucleic acid was stored as chromosomes. These nuclei dictate the structure of a cell’s proteins, and by this means control several of the activities of the cell itself.

In addition to this, there are no physiologic functions in a modern animal’s body that wasn’t already pre-existing in the biology of the eukaryotic cell. That is to say, single-celled organisms—like the amoeba—possess the cytological equivalents of a digestive system, an excretory system, a respiratory system, a skeletal system, an immune system, a reproductive system, a cardiovascular system, and many others.

In most animals, these physiologic functions are associated with the activity of specific organs. However, these same physiologic processes are carried out in cells by organelles.

Eukaryotes also contain other organelles that evolved by incorporating prokaryotes into the cell. At first, these bacteria invaded the cells, but instead of being digested, the invaders formed a symbiotic relationship with their hosts.

In time, the bacteria came to depend on the host cells for survival, and in return they provided their hosts with energy. These bacteria became mitochondria—which reproduced in the cells and served the same function in the next generation of hosts, which became eukaryotic animal cells. Similarly, light-using bacteria became symbionts in eukaryotic plant cells—keeping their ability to convert the energy of the Sun into food.

In these eukaryotic cells, the plasma membrane, rather than a cell wall, forms the cell’s outer boundary. This separates the cell from its surroundings and regulates the traffic across the membrane.

In addition to this, these cells are typically about ten times larger than prokaryotic cells. This is due to the fact that these cells contain so many organelles.

Mitochondria is the powerhouse of these cells. Within these long organelles, enzymes convert the sugar glucose and other nutrients into adenosine triphosphate. This molecule, in turn, serves as an energy battery for countless cellular processes, including the shuttling of substances across the plasma membrane, the building and transport of proteins and lipids, the recycling of molecules and organelles, and the dividing of cells.

Of course, the nucleus is the largest organelle in a eukaryotic cell, containing numerous strands of deoxyribonucleic acid. Unlike the circular prokaryotic deoxyribonucleic acid, long sections of eukaryotic deoxyribonucleic acid pack into the nucleus by wrapping around proteins. As a cell begins to divide, each deoxyribonucleic acid strand folds over onto itself several times. This forms a rod-shaped chromosome.

Moreover, unlike the tiny prokaryotic cell, the relatively large eukaryotic cell requires structural support. This is provided by the cytoskeleton—a dynamic network of protein tubes, filaments, and fibers—which crisscrosses the cytoplasm, anchoring the organelles in place and providing shape and structure to the cell.

In addition to this, plant cells also boast several added features. These include chloroplasts, a central vacuole, and a cell wall.

Chloroplasts convert light energy into the sugar glucose through the process of photosynthesis. They possess a circular chromosome and prokaryote-like ribosomes—which manufacture the proteins that the chloroplasts need.

The central vacuole of a mature plant cell takes up most of the room in the cell. This membranous bag crowds the cytoplasm and organelles to the edges of the cell. The central vacuole stores water, salts, sugars, proteins, and other nutrients.

In plant cells, a sturdy cell wall surrounds and protects the plasma membrane. Its pores enable materials to pass freely into and out of the cell. The strength of the wall also enables a cell to absorb water into the central vacuole and swell without bursting. The resulting pressure in the cells provides plants with rigidity and support for stems, leaves, and flowers. So, without sufficient water pressure, the cells collapse and the plant wilts.

And so, with the emergence of both the animal and plant kingdoms, the first opportunity for sexual reproduction arose. This allows an organism to combine half of its genes with half of another individual’s genes. As such, new combinations of genes are produced every generation. This increase in genetic variation increases the opportunity for change over successive generations. Sometimes, offspring inherit new characteristics that give them a survival and reproductive advantage in their local environments. These characteristics tend to increase in frequency in the population, while those that are disadvantageous decrease in frequency.

This process involves the fertilization of a female reproductive cell by a male reproductive cell. These cells, known as gametes, join together to form a fertilized egg. This egg, known as a zygote, carries the combined genetic material of both gametes—two complete sets of chromosomes, one set from each parent. The zygote then divides and slowly develops into a new organism.

So, the main difference between asexual and sexual reproduction is that the latter involves genetic recombination, thus producing diversity in a population. However, an organism that reproduces asexually passes on all of its own genes to all of its offspring. Therefore every descendant is merely a clone of its ancestor. The only sort of diversity that can come about in such a population is found in mutations.

Of course, sexual beings can also undergo mutation. However, their main source of variation comes about during fertilization wherein a series of divisions reduces the amount of genetic material by half in each successive generation. This is why you inherited half of your mother’s genes and half of your father’s genes, but you only share a quarter of your genetic make-up with your grandparents.

In addition to this, the new form of replication gave rise to what is known as sexual selection. This is natural selection operating on factors that contribute to an organism’s mating success. As a result, traits that are a liability to survival can evolve when the sexual attractiveness of a trait outweighs the liability incurred for survival. For instance, a male who lives a short time, but produces many offspring is much more successful than a long lived one that produces few.

In the more advanced organisms of modern times, sexual selection rarely affects females. This is because the duration of pregnancy and infant care limits the number of babies they can have. Males, on the other hand, have few limitations on the number of offspring they can father, and a male who produces many offspring has a high level of evolutionary fitness. Males of many species, then, must compete with other males to mate with females. Some males win females’ attention more often than others and, as a result, pass their genes to more offspring.

This means that males and females need to follow different strategies for getting their genes into the next generation. For many animals, males can reproduce hundreds of times a year, while females can only reproduce once. Thus, for a female there is little point—genetically speaking—in mating with multiple partners. However, each new partner offers a male a chance to get more of his genes into the next generation.

Females must sacrifice much more for reproduction than males. Hence female reproduction is best served by their being selective about sexual partners, judging the male’s fitness and commitment and his potential to contribute to or invest in the offspring. Females are more selective about sex partners than males are, and males desire sex with many partners. Males focus on younger mates—who are better able to produce babies, whereas females prefer older mates—who are better able to provide resources.

So, males evolve to compete for scarce female eggs, and females evolve to compete for scarce male investment. Thus, natural selection favors males that are good at deceiving females about their future devotion and females that are good at spotting deception.

Regardless, with this new form of reproduction, the shores of Earth began to harbor generation after generation of strange new forms of life. Of these, algae were one of the most prolific of these new organisms. This was because the ocean provided algae with nourishment that could easily be absorbed through the cell wall.

Some of these critters even set out building cabbage-shaped laminated silicate structures—known as stromatolites. While these were emerging in the shallows of the water, another industrious type of algae was hard at work on one of the most important steps toward modern existence.

Blue-green algae—known as cyanobacteria—began to use photosynthesis as a life-sustaining process. This began a massive oxygenation of the Earth’s atmosphere. This served as a crucial turning point for life on this planet.

Then, the Earth’s lighter materials—bearing with them most of the radioactive elements—fully emerged near the outer part of the planet. This was generated by potassium, uranium, thorium, and rubidium. Of course, during this time their heat production was about four times what it is now. This excessive heat served to evaporate massive amounts of water on the planet’s surface.

Over time, a change in sea levels resulted in the inundation of proto-continental areas. Then, tectonic collisions resulted in the formation of several landmass belts. For instance, the first of India’s structures emerged in the south-west of the country. This acted as a kind of stable nucleus to which other belts became attached.

The new fauna that appeared were then able to exploit a wide variety of environments. Gradually, an adaptive radiation of stromatolite species led to an abundance of body shapes along the different shorelines.

Eventually, after hundreds of millions of years of evolution, the first multi-celled algae appeared. These primitive creatures were soft, lacking any skeletal support. However, over time, new species of algae began to emerge in the water. This led to distinct colonies of eukaryotic plankton.

Of these, green and red algae were the first to evolve semi-rigid skeletal structures—to give them extra support and protection. As such, the destruction of these calcareous algae produced carbonate sands. This occurred in conjunction with an extraction of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, in association with calcium that came from eroded strata, that resulted in the deposition of lime stones and other carbonate rocks. These events would later play an important role in the formation of reefs.

Within another couple hundred million years, four primary continental slabs of granite arose from the Earth’s mantle. These came together and formed the extensive Canadian Shield—a region that presently makes up much of northern and central Canada.

By this time, the flora of the world had begun to create more free oxygen than the oceans could absorb. As a result, the atmospheric oxygen increased significantly, and the oxidation of iron-rich minerals began to take place. Then, as the oxygen levels built up, the ozone layer started to filter out harmful ultraviolet rays.

This allowed for the evolution of new marine plants and animals. The arrival of these new organisms brought about a division between producers and consumers—prey and predator.

As this was occurring, the movement of proto-continental landmasses led to some trivial changes in the climate. This accretion of a half dozen micro-plates took about 100 million years to complete and ultimately led to the formation of the first continent—known as Laurentia.

Another landmass consisted of four regions in the evolving crust of what would one day become Africa. From this time on these regions have not experienced any real severe geological disturbances.

However, due in part to intense glaciation, fragments of continental crust began to assemble a giant continent. Within 200 million years, the collision had produced mountain ranges along the margins of an aggregation of minor continental masses in the southern hemisphere. This eventually resulted in the first super-continent—Rodinia—the landscape of which was a rusty-red color.

The one great planetary ocean spawned violent storms over this expansive landmass. So, with nothing to protect the landscape from the forces of water, great floods were common on the continent.

By now, fungus had already been evolving for a few hundred million years and the precursors of sponges, corals, mollusks, and worms began to appear in the oceans. Then, within two hundred million years of this, the center of Rodinia lay across the equator. So, about 700 million years ago, the first communities of higher organisms established themselves in the shallow waters surrounding the massive tract of land.

Some of these new creatures were the first to develop nerve cells, or neurons. Of course, brains did not yet exist, but there were animals that had a cerebral ganglion—a cluster of nerve cells in the head—and a ventral nerve cord.

In regards to this, a neuron is a relatively long cell that has a thick central area containing its nucleus. These specialized cells have one long processor called an axon and one or more short, bushy processors called dendrites. At the tip of the axon, small, bubble-like structures release neurotransmitters.

These are chemicals that either excite an electrochemical response in the dendrite receptors or they block the response of the dendrite receptors. They do this by conveying signals across the gaps between neurons.

This results from the fact that neurons contain low concentrations of potassium and sodium—which are positively charged. They also contain high concentrations of chlorine—which is negatively charged. Furthermore, this degree of concentration is reversed outside of the cell.

This charge differential generates electrical energy. So, when a charge crosses the cell’s membrane it is reversed. This produces a nerve impulse.

That is to say, when any kind of stimulating current is received by the neuron, it triggers a sudden influx of sodium into the cell. The high concentration changes the overall charge within the cell from negative to positive. The local change in sodium concentration triggers similar reactions along the membrane, propagating the nerve impulse. Then, after a brief period during which the concentration returns to resting potential, the neuron can repeat this process.

As would be expected, the emergence of these new structures triggered an evolution of consciousness. However, the animals of this day and age were still not yet aware that mental events were taking place. They were totally immersed in experience. So, although they were aware—realizing that they are separate from their environment—they were not at all aware of the fact that they were conscious.

It is also important to understand that with many forms of consciousness, animals never just experience one perception—like the scent of prey. Instead they have several feelings all occurring simultaneously as part of one unified conscious experience. Of course, at any given instant, all of an individual’s experiences are unified into a single conscious field.

What‘s more, the organization of consciousness extends over more than single instants. So, for example, if an animal sets out hunting it must maintain at least a crude memory of where it is in relation to its dwelling the entire time it travels. Otherwise, it would never find its way back home.

None-the-less, by now, there were hundreds and hundreds of intelligent creatures in the water. Intelligence is nothing more than the capacity to pose and resolve problems. Simply put, neurons give animals the ability to understand. This was an evolutionary advantage because it enabled these individuals to model, predict, and manipulate reality.

This required far more than a passive correspondence between internal representations and sensory data. After all, intelligence allowed these organisms to choose between possible futures by selecting actions on the basis of their predicted results and that’s no small feat. Unfortunately, all of the intelligence in the world couldn’t save these  individuals from what was happening to the Earth.

The movement of Rodinia into equatorial regions created vast polar oceans—like the Iapetus, in the southern hemisphere. This generated a runaway cooling effect that began to cover the Earth in snow and ice.

In time, this forced the surviving species to hibernate below the frozen ocean surface, while volcanic activity generated excessive carbon dioxide. This caused a greenhouse effect that slowly thawed the gelid planet, while patches of green and brown sea weeds gradually began to cover the barren shores.

Eventually, over a period of about 25 million years, oxygen was recycled back into the atmosphere. This set the stage for what would soon be a massive evolutionary explosion—resulting in the formation of dozens of separate major groups of organisms.

At this point, Rodinia fell victim to the Earth’s internal heat. A slow increase in temperature beneath the massive continent caused the crust to dome, stretch, and weaken.

Violent spreading centers developed underneath the continent and began to slowly tear Rodinia apart. The giant continent began to rupture along a line now running roughly north to south, and in just ten million years the waters of the ocean flowed into the new rift valley.

As the rift continued to grow, it went on to form a vast ocean basin called the Panthalassic Ocean. The Panthalassic Ocean separated the Americas, Siberia, and Scandinavia from Antarctica, Australia, and the rest of the eastern hemisphere.

This brought about an increase in favorable habitats such as continental shelf edges and shallow bodies of water—with a range of depths, temperatures, substrates, and salinity. This provided new niches and, with them, new opportunities for the animals living at that time. In addition to this, the extinction of life just prior to this opened up ecological niches for new forms of life.

This period in Earth’s history saw most of the continents located in the southern hemisphere, near the equator. The supercontinent of Pannotia—which evolved from Rodinia—continued to assemble in some regions but fragmented into continental masses, like Gondwana, Lauerntia, and Baltica. Laurentia stretched across the equator, partly submerged by the Iapetus ocean, with a mostly submerged Baltica and Siberia approaching from the Southeast.

Continental fragmentation separated landmasses—creating barriers to migration—thus isolating existing species. This redistribution of continents across different climatic zones led to different paths of evolution. So, distinctive species began to develop on each new continent.

Then, after the harshest ice-age in Earth‘s history, temperatures rose so much that the Earth was warmer than it is today. So, after a critical level of oxygenation was reached in the water, animals were able to construct large bodies without oxygen diffusion becoming a constraint.

In addition to this, the food chain began to diversify. As a result, the pressure to adapt to increasingly competitive predator-prey interactions dramatically amplified the evolutionary response. Thus, organisms mineralized skeletal structures as a means of protection.

This appeared in many forms—like calcified exoskeletons and carbonate shells. Such bony features brought about a range of new benefits, above and beyond mere protection. This included things like the ability of sedentary organisms to filter food out of water currents, and more significantly the ability of motile animals to move about more efficiently.

To better cope with these changes, the first animals with anything resembling an eye began to emerge. This is very important because the eye is the predominate mechanism of perception, and more importantly, it is quite literally the window to the soul.

This began as a simple light-sensitive spot on the skin of these ancestral creatures. Then, over the course of a hundred million years, compound and then single-chambered eyes increased greatly in size, in their ability to resolve, and in optical sophistication.

Random changes then created a depression in the light-sensitive patch. This pit made the detection of movement a little more precise. At the same time, the deep opening gradually narrowed, so light entered through a small aperture.

Eventually, the light-sensitive spot evolved into the layer of cells and pigment at the back of the eye—known as the retina. Then, over hundreds of thousands of generations a lens formed at the front of the eye. This arose as a double-layered transparent tissue containing increasing amounts of liquid that gave it the modern convex curvature.

Around this time, the mutation of hox genes also initiated a tremendous morphological change in the phylogenic tree of life. This allowed for the rapid evolution and development of a large range of body plans in a very short space of time.

This burst of biological diversification led to the eventual appearance of the lineages of almost all animals living today. This stunning and unique evolutionary explosion occurred over a period of about 40 million years.

During this period, the climate was generally warm and wet. As there were no continental landmasses located at the poles, ocean currents were able to circulate freely. So, there wasn’t any significant ice formation. As a result, temperatures were mild throughout the world.

All the while, global transgressions occurred, as shallow seas repeatedly invaded the land, providing a perfect habitat for many marine invertebrates. These shallow seas covered much of the continents except for Gondwana—where there was highlands.

Soon after this, reefs were being built by calcified cyanobacteria and archaeocyaths. The former developed in colonies and could produce reefs tens of feet high. The latter resembled densely perforated cups. Some of these were more cylindrical—-standing up to three feet tall, while others were more like plates—growing up to twenty inches in diameter. However, the vast majority of these sponges were smaller than an inch.

Such primitive architecture was engineered primarily by the calcified cyanobacteria, although they did need the archaeocyaths as a foundation. The completed structures then housed a wide variety of organisms and prevented competitors from destroying any chain in the complex trophic web, thus maintaining diversity.

In addition to this, many of the animals of this era were beginning to develop new life strategies. This included things like active hunting, burrowing deeply into sediment, and making complex branching burrows amidst organized social structures.

Then—about 30 million years after the first reefs were built—the Earth underwent a continental flip. Concentrated landmasses near the poles led to an imbalance that resulted in a shift by centrifugal force of excess bulk to the equator. Siberia and northern Europe were united as the large island of Baltica,  the North American part of Laurentia went from the south pole to straddle the equator, Northern Europe slid south, and East Africa went from the tropics to the south pole.

At this time, there were no terrestrial plants, so the land was still bare of any life other than microorganisms. Conversely, the oceans were teaming with life, and an adaptive radiation eventually triggered the principal expansion of cephalopods.
Unfortunately, though, the ecosystems of this time were not as robust as those of later times—due to the lack of diversity. So, this period saw a number of mass extinctions—of which, over 80% of the hard-shelled animals did not survive.

Overall, there were a number of these extinction events that took a toll on the marine fauna. For instance, there were three distinct intervals in trilobite distribution—each marked by a mass-extinction. However, these events were all connected to climactic changes.

None-the-less, roughly 500 million years ago, our first vertebrate ancestors began to evolve from a sedentary marine animal called the sea squirt. These pouch-shaped animals had translucent bodies made of a substance similar to cellulose. They varied in size from a few millimeters to one foot in length—being cylindrical, circular, or irregular in shape.

As such, the fish that evolved from these animals were simple jawless, filter feeders. The most primitive of these ostracoderms used their spinal column to contribute to their balance while they swam. This was due to the fact that they did not initially have fins to help support their bodies in the water.

Ostracoderms also lacked scales. However, they quickly evolved plates for protection from large predatory arthropods. This covered their head and upper torso exposing their back half, which was made up of cartilage.

These freshwater fish were often less than one foot long. They were, however, the first animals to truly have brains.

A brain is made up of neurons whose long branches reach out to other neurons, forming neural nets. Thus, everything in the mind is more or less inter-connected. So, every facet of consciousness has a possible relation with every other.

For instance, a concept—like food—is built up from many different ideas. Thus, the notion of something to eat might be connected to something in general—like meat. This could also be related to a specific event—like hunting—which can have any number of feelings associated to it. Moreover, these things can be entirely unrelated to the concept of hunger—except in the context of one particular brain.

In other words, animals build up models of how they perceive the world around them. So, the more experiences that they have, the more these models are refined. Unfortunately, this means that organisms never actually perceive what’s really going on around them. Instead, every idea is tainted by a personal model—complete with a wide range of emotional responses to the environmental stimuli to which they are exposed. This gives every animal a unique identity.

Furthermore, if an animal thinks, or feels, a certain way on a regular basis the neurons associated with this will build up long term relationships. In other words, nerve cells that fire together will wire together. This rewiring of a particular neural net then establishes a long-term relationship with the cluster of neural nets that make up an individual’s identity.

Thus, an animal becomes predisposed to behave in a certain way. In addition to this, the neurons that don’t fire together eventually lose their long-term relationship with the identity. So, by changing the way it thinks, or feels, an animal can literally take on a new identity. Thus, the ego is not permanent.

Regardless, in a lower vertebrate—like a fish—the brain is tubular and bears a striking resemblance to the early embryonic stages of the brains of more highly evolved animals. However, the brain of every single vertebrate is divided into three different regions—the cerebrum, cerebellum, and brain stem.

The cerebrum receives information from all the sense organs and sends signals that result in activity in the muscles or glands to other parts of the brain and the rest of the body. In other words, the forebrain integrates and processes information, enabling an animal to make decisions and respond to the world around it.

The cerebellum, is located at the back of the cerebrum. This part of the brain coordinates every movement of the body. It coordinates voluntary movements by fine-tuning commands from the motor cortex in the cerebrum. The cerebellum also maintains posture and balance by controlling muscle tone and sensing the position of the limbs.

Finally, the brain stem is a central core that gradually becomes the spinal cord, exiting the skull through an opening at its base. This is the most primitive part of the brain and is responsible for sustaining the basic functions of life—like breathing and blood pressure.

Together, these and other parts of the brain serve as the control center for every vital activity necessary to an organism’s survival. This organ also receives and interprets the countless signals that are sent to it from other parts of the body and from the external environment.

Regardless, within about 10 million years, continental glaciation became responsible for a decrease in global temperatures. This destroyed the fauna, which was intolerant of cooler conditions, producing a mass extinction of mostly warm water species. The continental glaciation also brought large amounts of ocean water onto the land in the form of frozen glacial ice.

This trapping of ocean water inevitably resulted in the decrease of sea-levels and the withdrawal of shallow bodies of water. This reduction in sea-level decreased the range of habitats for marine species as continental shelves were obliterated. This forced marine life to venture out into the ocean depths. Ecological competition consequently ensued, thus acting as another driving agent for the extinction just mentioned.
As with other glaciations this also led to worldwide cooling and oxygen depletion. The cooling also resulted in a stratification of the water column. So, many species ultimately perished due to their inability to tolerate dramatic shifts in such limiting factors as temperature and oxygen availability.

During this time, Southern Europe, Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia remained joined together as the supercontinent of Gondwana, which continued moving down to the South Pole. Western and Central Europe were separated from the rest of Eurasia, in the southern tropics. North America was engaged in a slow collision with the micro-continent of Baltica, which formed the core of what would later become Europe.

The northern hemisphere was dominated by the vast Panthalassa Ocean. As a result, currents circulated in a closed loop. Thus, little opportunity existed for mixing cooler northern waters with the relatively warmer waters of the tropics.

Various different sized bodies of water separated the North China, South China, and Western China plates. However, all of these regions possessed faunas very similar to those of Laurentia, Siberia, and Australia—because China occupied the intermediate position between them all.

Gondwana extended into the tropics. This included parts of modern South America as well as a huge landmass containing much of modern Antarctica, Australia, and the Middle East. A temperate climate zone prevailed from South America in the west to Baltica in the east. This was aided by the proximity to the Iapetus Ocean.

Then, a few million years later, green algae began to be washed ashore by the tides and trapped in evaporating ponds. On land, they were subjected to drying winds and large temperature changes. So, at first these creatures just died. Then, over hundreds of thousands of years, genetic mutations slowly enabled some green algae to survive life-threatening exposures to the drying air and direct sunlight.

To do this, these proto-plants evolved thicker cell walls and a waxy outer coating–known as a cuticle—that protected them from things like wind and ultraviolet radiation. They also developed valves on the surface of their leaves that allow the passage of air into and out of plants otherwise blocked by the cuticle. In other words, these pores allowed and regulated exchanges with the gas molecules of the atmosphere.

These primitive plants also began to evolve shallow root systems that allowed them to soak up any available water around them. In addition to this, these organisms found ways to protect their reproductive cells from drying out.  To do this, male reproductive organs released swimming sperm that united with egg cells in the female reproductive organs. This produced small, un-encapsulated spores—which developed in moist areas.

At this point, the proto-plants began to occupy increasingly differentiated ecosystems. As a result, their successors went on to produce half of the world’s oxygen and provide shelter and sustenance to an array of fauna.

However, within about 30 million years of the emergence of vertebrates, little land remained exposed to the air. The sea level was up to seven hundred feet higher than it is today. The Iapetus Ocean was beginning to close, consuming most of the newly formed ocean crust. The stone corals—together with lime-secreting algae and the colonies of calcareous moss-animals—produced a completely new kind of sea floor.

Then, the new life forms emerging at this time began to inhabit new realms, like pelagic waters and the bottom of the ocean. So, the entire space from the surface of the water all the way down into the sediment became subdivided into tiers of sub-communities, thus reducing competition and increasing diversity.

This period was favorable for most marine life—particularly around the areas of Europe and North America. As such, this was an age of evolutionary experimentation—in which new organisms evolved to replace those that had previously died out. The number of families of marine invertebrates increased from about 200 to around 500.

Similarly, there was a sudden increase in filter feeding organisms. Previous to this, animals were predominately crawling mud-grubbers with a few swimming and burrowing predators thrown in the mix. This sudden increase in the number and diversity of filter-feeders was directly proportional to the growing number of plankton. Furthermore, groups absent or under-represented in previous times suddenly became more important.

This ancient trophic web had some unusual effects on the fauna of the time. The planktonic crustaceans grazed on phytoplankton. Their indigestible waste was bounded by a special membrane, thus forming into pellets. The rapid descent of these  pellets didn’t allow bacteria and fungi to completely destroy the organic matter or use a significant amount of oxygen in the process. Excess oxygen then began to accumulate in the water.

On the seabed, detritus-feeders were supplied with a permanent source of food. This allowed for their diversification. In addition to this, the excess food was mixed in with the sediment and subsequently buried. This created a store for animals living directly under the surface of the seabed. This spelled doom for the filter-feeders that were weakly anchored here.

The bryozoa—tiny creatures, not unlike a coral animal—appeared in large numbers, and constituted the most predominant colonial animals of the time. Their distant cousins the hard-shelled brachiopods were also successful. Indeed, after humble beginnings the articulate brachiopods greatly increased in diversity and abundance.

Of course, the earliest species were simply bottom-dwelling detritus feeders and scavengers. These critters could do little more than crawl along the seafloor and dine on weak or dead soft-bodied animals that posed no challenge to a hunter.

However, in time, these intelligent, carnivorous mollusks evolved along many different lines. Eventually, they even became the dominant life form and top predator of the early under water ecosystem. The biggest, grew to an immense size. With shells up to thirty feet in length they were, by far, the largest animals of their day.

At this time, the octopus was the most intelligent of all invertebrates—although their short life-spans limit the amount they can ultimately learn. An octopus has a highly complex nervous system—only part of which is localized in its brain. A full two-thirds of their neurons are found in the nerve cords of their tentacles, which have a remarkable amount of autonomy.

Octopus arms show a wide variety of complex reflex actions arising on at least three different levels of the nervous system. However, an octopus cannot form a mental image of the overall shape of the object it is handling. So, although it can detect local texture variations, it cannot integrate the information into a larger picture.

The neurological autonomy of the arms means that the octopus has great difficulty learning about the detailed effects of its motions. So, although the brain issues a high-level command to the tentacles, the nerve cords in the arms actually execute the details. There is no neurological path for the brain to receive feedback about just how its command was executed by the arms. This means that the only way it knows just what motions were made is by actually looking at the tentacles while they function.

None-the-less, the use of higher cognitive functions—like problem solving skills and learned behavior—gave rise to an evolution in consciousness. To understand how this worked, consider the fact that when an animal learns something new, the brain must restructure itself through the shifting of neuro-nets.

To do this, an electrical impulse must first jump cross a synapse. Then, once the initial contact has been made, this process becomes easier and easier—with each connection. Depending on the complexity of that which is being learned, this might require hundreds, thousands, or even millions of connections between neurons.

The ability of the brain to change with learning is what is known as neuro-plasticity. This is the lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences. As an animal learns, it acquires new knowledge and skills through instruction or experience. In order to learn or memorize a fact or skill, there must be persistent functional changes in the brain that represent the new knowledge.

As an animal ages, old neural connections are deleted through a process called synaptic pruning. This eliminates weaker synaptic contacts while stronger connections are kept and strengthened. Connections that have been activated most frequently are preserved. In other words, neurons must have a purpose to survive.

Neurons that do not receive, or transmit, information necessarily atrophy. It is this plasticity that enables the process of developing and pruning connections, allowing the brain to adapt itself to its environment.

This evolution of consciousness primarily affected the function of memory, which had only recently emerged. Like instincts, this self-defense mechanism evolved to protect an animal from predators and similar forms of harm. That is to say, memory arose from the need to protect oneself from past mistakes, thus insuring that they would not be made again.

When an animal commits a datum to memory, a neural pathway is created. This is a route connecting brain cells to where ever the memory is stored. So, to retrieve this information, all the creature needs to do is trigger the same pathway back to that perceived fact. In regards to this, the more pathways there are between neurons, the better a connection will be and the stronger a memory will become.

However, it must be understood that the act of remembering something is a subjective use of energy, and not an objective course of action. Actually, memory is a collection of systems and not just an isolated function. This means that any given memory might consist of a number of attributes—based on the perceptions with which they were initially received. For instance, an animal that was previously attacked might simply remember the color of the predator or the location in which it was encountered.

As if that wasn’t complicated enough, there are actually two aspects of memory—short term and long term. The former refers to that which an animal can consciously pay attention to in a single moment. That is, how many things it can perceive at once. As it is, most of the information that is recorded by the short term memory will be forgotten in a few seconds.

Long term memory, on the other hand, is the continuous record of data and experiences that is kept by the mind. As such, retrieval of information from the limited capacity of short term memory is automatic and effortless while it can be difficult to remember things from the long term bank.

Of course, as it is, the retrieval of data from one’s long term memory bank is not an all-or-none process. That is to say, an individual is not necessarily going to either remember the entirety of phenomenon or simply remember nothing at all about it. Memory can occur on a partial scale wherein only bits and pieces can be recalled or most of something can be remembered but parts might be missing.

This is because memories are actually generated through a process of reconstruction. What’s more, memories aren’t even localized in specific neurons. They are enfolded throughout the brain, like all other subjective content. As a result, memories are not precise mental images. Instead, they come into being by way of accumulation wherein specific pieces of data are gathered together—from all over the brain—to produce a single memory.

Regardless of this development, the geologically isolated continents continued to drift at this time—while marine organisms engaged in evolutionary experiments along the continental shelves. Then, genera of families previously limited to one faunal province appeared in another, revealing their tendency towards migration.

However, more than 60 million years after sea squirts gave rise to vertabrates, the onset of a long ice age was brought about by continental drifts. Gondwana, particularly in the region of modern day Africa, straddled the South Pole and became extensively glaciated—causing sea levels to drop worldwide. This was accompanied by changing currents, including increased deep-ocean currents—which caused deep-ocean oxygenation and brought up both nutrient and toxic material.

As a result, marine habitats changed drastically as sea levels decreased—causing a wave of mass extinction. Then, surviving species evolved to cope with the changed conditions and to fill the ecological niches left by the animals that died out.

500,000 years later, the massive continent drifted north again, melting the glaciers and causing the sea level to rise once more. This caused a second wave of mass extinction. In all, about 85% of the species of fauna went extinct.

Less than 450 million years ago, a long warm greenhouse phase led up to a stabilization of the general climate, ending the previous pattern of erratic climatic fluctuations. All the while, continental fragments drifted together near the equator.

The Caledonian mountains of Scotland, northern Ireland, and Scandenavia were forced up when Avalonia and Baltica collided with Laurentia. As a result, magma intruded into what were to become the Highlands. The absorbed sedimentary strata then turned into coarse-grained granite.

While Laurentia remained at the equator, Avalonia and Baltica travelled north closing off the upper region of the Iapetus Ocean. South west of this, the Paleothetis Ocean divided Gondwana from Laurentia and Baltica.

The spread of very shallow seas continued over much of South America and north-western Africa along with parts of Arabia. There was also a massive reduction of the seas across North America. Water levels withdrew completely from several regions.

To the north-west and in the east large expanses of the sea were cut off from the open water. Under the hot, arid climate these giant lagoon-like areas acted as great evaporating basins. In the Michigan basin and the New York area, for example, as much as 2,500 feet of salt was laid down.

About 15 million years after the climate stabilized, terrestrial algae began to evolve a number of characteristics that allowed them to change into vegetation. As these new plants began to explore habitats well above the flood levels, they were ultimately forced to make a transition from environments in which dissolved nutrients were reasonably available to one in which nutrients were relatively unavailable—as in sterile mineral soil.

The slow-growing lichens that clung to the rocks along the shore were the first plants to face this dilemma. These tough little organisms are made up of a partnership between an alga and a fungus. The fungus provides a protective environment, and the algal cells make food with their chloroplasts. The algae associated with lichen solve the problem of lack of nutrient availability by partitioning nutrient and energy gathering between the fungi and the symbiotic algae, respectively.

In addition to this, lichens have no roots, and they absorb moisture from the rain that falls on them, and from the air. In dry seasons they become dry and brittle, but are revived when moisture returns.

Shortly after this, the Earth gave rise to vascular plants. This particular type of flora has internal vein-like tubes that circulate water and nutrients. This was an important early step toward the evolution of taller, stronger structures. This is because, without an efficient system of communication between the nourishment found at ground level and that which is captured from leaves found well above the ground, plants cannot exist as viable entities.

The first of these plants were primarily a collection of branching-stemmed plants that produced spores. These tiny plants sent their shoots skyward to capture sunlight and release reproductive spores to the winds.

Having deeper root systems than earlier plants along with a rigid stem to support upright posture, these plants were now equipped to colonize more of the Earth’s surface. As a result, they have been the basis of terrestrial ecology since their appearance.

By now, arthropods were the first animals to adapt to living on land. This was because, in many ways, these creatures were already adapted to life on land. By the time they moved ashore, they had already evolved lighter bodies and slim, strong legs that could support them against the pull of gravity. Furthermore, their hard outer exoskeletons provided protection and would help to retain water, although the further development of a waxy, waterproof cuticle was necessary for more efficient water conservation.

Although spiders, centipedes, and mites were among the earliest of these land animals, some of the ancient arthropods were gigantic in comparison to these little bugs. For instance, the largest—Slimonia—was the size of a man and a relative of the scorpions. Of course, this animal was still too big and too heavy and the walking legs too small to venture onto land for any length of time, so they lived in marginal marine environments.

At this point in history, two principal groups of reef-builders—corals and calcified sponges—had achieved their prime. Soon, reefs—the size of the modern Great Barrier Reef—encircled the planet’s warm seas. These were subsequently influenced by contemporaneous regional sediments and local climates, which served as barriers to the circulation of water in the basin.

There were two main types of coral—tabulate and rugosan. The former were modular, while the latter were often branched. What’s more, these creatures inhabited loose substrates and were not active reef-builders. Modular calcified sponges and corals actually made the reefs.

There were two main types of calcified sponges—stromatoporoids and chaetetids. The former were primarily dome-shaped heavily calcified structures, while the latter consisted of a bunch of incredibly thin vertical tubes.

These sponges were quite big, being almost two feet in diameter. When they were alive, a thin, tough organic envelope prevented their spicules from being dissolved. After death, cavities were left behind where the spicules were.

Then, about 10 million years after the arthropods adapted to life on land, the first fish with jaws appeared. These acanthodians were generally small and shark-like—varying from toothless filter-feeders to toothed predators. These small fish were active swimmers, due to their streamlined shape. They had large eyes and small nasal capsules, because vision was much more important than olfaction.

Their jaws began as simple gill arches. Then, through the process of evolution, the gills began to take on a separate role that allowed the fish to open and close its mouth. This helped the fish to breathe better and eat more.

The introduction of the jaw also changed the appearance of the fish’s head by extending it forward. Of course, their greatest adaptation was the swim-bladder, an internal organ of buoyancy, which was to become modified into the lungs of land animals.

The ocean depths also began to experience a widespread diversification of echinoderms. These spiny-shelled marine invertebrates are characterized by fivefold radial symmetry, calcareous skeletal structures, and appendages equipped with suckers. This includes things like starfish and sea urchins.

In fact, vast areas of the sea floor were covered by crinoids at this time. This delicate, stalked, flower-like group of echinodermata, lived by the millions, rising as much as three feet above the seafloor.

The placoderms appeared a few million years later. These fish reached up to fifteen feet in length, and they dominated both marine and freshwater habitats. They were bottom-dwelling fish that didn’t have any teeth. Instead, bony plates performed the function of teeth—forming razor-like, self-sharpening edges.

Much of their head and neck bore such thick bony armor. These plates were connected by a joint that allowed the head to move upwards as the jaw dropped downwards, creating a large gape. Some placoderms even had armor surrounding their eyes.

Shortly after this, Panderichthys was the only fish whose fin bones fit the tetrapod pattern of humerus, ulna, and radius in the forelimb and femur, tibia and fibula in the hindlimb. Yet these appendages still had fins on them. Similarly, their brain case was very much like that of the earliest tetrapods, however these creatures were definitely fish.

In addition to gills, these lobe-finned fish also had nostrils and lungs. The latter developed from simple pouches leading from the throat, which developed a rich supply of blood vessels. Their teeth had in-folding enamel, which was identical to that of the earliest tetrapods.

Unlike all fish, but like the tetrapods, the Panderichthys lost their dorsal and anal fins, leaving four fins in the place where legs would be in the tetrapods. Unlike fish, Panderichthys even had a tail.

Panderichthyids had a hole—called a choana—between the nasal passage and the mouth. This hole is missing in all other lobe-finned fish. It allowed air to pass from the nose into the mouth. Furthermore, Panderichthys’ external nostrils were in the same position as those of the primitive tetrapods.

Eusthenopteron—another lobe-finned fish—had limbs with digits, lungs, and the beginnings of a neck. This last feature is the most significant, since a terrestrial predator cannot rely on water current to bring food into its mouth. Instead, it must move its head to catch prey. In addition to this, the bones in Eusthenopteron’s fins were almost identical to those in the limbs of the earliest amphibians.

Like an amphibian, this animal had skin through which water could pass in and out, to supplement the lungs in gas exchange. This colorful, hairless skin provided the animals with a protective defense against hungry predators.

Amphibian skin also contains glands that secrete a slimy mucous layer to protect the skin from drying out. In the water, these protective secretions help amphibians retain a healthy balance of salt and water within their internal tissues.

Amphibians, being cold-blooded, are not able to generate their own body heat. Instead, their body temperature is determined by their surroundings. This means that they cannot control the speed at which their body systems work. As a result, much of an amphibian’s lifestyle is dictated by the necessity of keeping its skin moist and preventing its body temperature from becoming too hot or too cold.

Some species bask in the Sun in order to raise their body temperature. In hotter climates, many adult amphibians are active at night rather than in the day to avoid excessive heat and guard against water loss. During the daylight hours, these amphibians shelter in moist sites beneath rocks or logs, or in burrows or cracks in the Earth. In cold areas, amphibians become completely inactive during the cooler months.

In addition to this, amphibian eggs are surrounded by a clear, protective, jelly-like substance. So, the eggs need to be placed in water, or at least a damp place, to prevent the developing embryo from drying out.

Then, after hatching into a larval form, amphibians undergo a dramatic change in anatomy, diet, and lifestyle. During this time, amphibian larvae slowly change from fishlike, water-dwelling animals to animals better suited for life on land.

As such, amphibians became the first tetrapods to colonize terrestrial regions. These primitive explorers were about two-feet long and they used limbs—that ended with eight delicate fingers—to paddle along the bottom of shallow bays and estuaries.

These four-legged animals had a supportive rib cage and a neck that enabled their skull to rotate. These creatures were far better suited to moving around and resting their bodies on land than their ancestors—the fleshy-finned bony fish called rhipidistians.

These early amphibians were relatively large animals that didn’t really resemble anything living today—such as frogs or salamanders. Despite their modified bone structure, these primitive amphibians maintained a strong connection to the water. For instance, they spawn in water, laying a number of smaller eggs that hatch into swimming larvae.

Of course, as it was for the first land plants and arthropods, several key adaptations made the vertebrates’ transition to life on land successful. For instance, amphibians evolved skeletal and muscular features that supported their body weight, enabled walking, and kept their heads up off the ground. However, it should be noted that they were not the first vertebrates to venture onto land. Their ancestors—the rhipidistian fish—used fleshy, lobed fins to shuffle ashore.

In fact, many of the characteristics of the amphibians of this time stem from these predecessors. Many unmistakable physical similarities exist between the lobefin rhipidistians and the first land amphibians. For instance, the fleshy ventral fins—attached directly to lobefin skeletons near the tail-end of the fishes—had moveable bones and muscles. Remarkably, the bones within these fins are matched, one to one, with those in the legs of early amphibians.

Another shared trait is the ability to breathe air. Rhipidistians, along with several other groups of early fish, had nostrils and lungs. Oddly enough, these physical adaptations— while later recruited for use on land—originally evolved in the water. This resulted from a need to cope with environments where oxygen levels were seasonally low, like in shallow bodies of water.

Of course, prior to the emergence of other tetrapods, a short-lived radiation gave rise to animals like Elginerpeton. This critter grew to about five feet in length. More importantly, the jaw of this animal exhibited a mosaic of both fish and tetrapod features. For instance, the front of the skull was narrower than in either lobe-finned fishes or other early tetrapods, and the total cranial length was much longer.

Soon after this, the cartilaginous-skeleton sharks and rays, descended from the placoderms. However, the cartilaginous skeletons were actually a later development. By that time, these critters completely lacked internally ossified bony skeletons. Instead, they had a special type of cartilage forming the braincase, jaws, gill arches, vertebrae, and fin supports.

Along with this light and flexible skeleton, sharks were also the first animals to develop an immune system. That is to say, they were the first creatures to produce white blood cells.

These cells defend against bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. They accomplish this by identifying the invading organism as foreign, then surrounding, ingesting, and destroying it.

Then, within another ten million years, the first gymnosperms—seed-bearing plants—emerged. This was a crucial adaptation to life on land because seeds protect an embryonic plant from drying out during its most vulnerable stage, allowing it to get a good, strong start.

Unlike spore-producing plants, which need standing water nearby in which swimming sperm can fertilize eggs, these seed plants evolved pollen. This was important because pollen isn’t damaged by the dry air.

This type of flora creates seeds along their branches without specialized structures—like cones or flowers. Instead, the seeds are produced singly or in pairs, and are surrounded by a loose cupule. This small cup-like structure was lobed in the earliest seeds, producing a somewhat sheltered chamber at one end of the seed.

Within this cupule, the seed was enclosed by an integument—a layer of tissue found in every seed. It was produced by the parent plant, and develops into the seed coat. As the integument evolved to enclose the seed more tightly, an opening was left at one end which permitted pollen to enter and provide sperm to fertilize the egg cell.

Furthermore, pollen can be dispersed by wind or animals from the male to the female reproductive organ. Hence, seed plants could reproduce away from water and expand their range into drier habitats. Subsequently this gave rise to the first trees, laying a foundation for forests.

In addition to this, carbon dioxide levels dropped around this time. So, plants increased their water loss, which cooled them down. This meant that wide flat leaves would not overheat, which gave the plants that evolved them a greater advantage in later times.

A few million years later, Ichthyostega was the first animal to have feet—having seven digits on each hind limb. However, its legs were only good for being in the water, because they could not support the animal’s weight.

Ichthyostega had external nasal openings and a choana like that of the Panderichthys. It had both lungs and gills. Ichthyostega’s tail was long with fins above and below like that of Panderichthys. His legs were like a tetrapod—having humerus, ulna, and radius in the forelimb and femur, tibia, and fibula in the hindlimb.

Ichthyostega had a bulky body, supported by a strong vertebral column and stout limbs so that it could lift its body from the ground. It also had a strong rib cage, so that the internal organs were not squashed by the weight of the animal when it lay down on the ground. These primitive amphibians were extremely successful. As a result, they rapidly radiated into a great range of species.

Acanthostega—another early tetropod—had four legs, and lungs, but still had internal gills. It had eight digits on its front feet, and seven on its back feet. Acanthostega’s legs could not support its weight either. In fact, its front legs were more fish-like than the back legs. In addition to this, it had fish-like lower arm bones. So, these were still half-evolved legs.

Acanthostega also retained a caudal fin and an elongated tail with fins stretched out along the top. The stapes—the bone that would eventually become part of the hearing apparatus in tetrapods—was still used for ventilation of the gills.

Moreover, the earliest tetrapods lacked hands that could flex. As a result, walking on an uneven surface would have been difficult. This was true even for Ichthyostega and Acanthostega, who were able to bend their partially evolved hands, ever so slightly.

None-the-less, by this time, many of the continents were now very close to one another. North America and Europe sat together near the equator, but much of their current land still remained submerged under water. To the north lay a portion of modern Siberia. However, the world was still dominated by the super-continent of Gondwana.

As a result, about 350 million years ago, there was a massive loss of biodiversity. This—like most of the world’s early extinction events—was brought on by global cooling and the widespread lowering of sea levels. What’s more, the crisis primarily affected the marine community, and selectively affected warm-water organisms rather than cool-water animals.

The most important group to be affected by this extinction event were the reef-builders. However, a total of 65 percent of the invertebrate genera did not survive. On the other hand, freshwater species—like your tetrapod ancestors—were far less affected.

Since this all happened in the water, terrestrial creatures weren’t really affected. However, the world’s oxygen levels were beginning to increase. This affected photosynthesis and caused plants to lose more water than usual. Of course, this didn’t have much of an effect on the plants that grew in close proximity with standing water—like Lepidodendron and Calamites.

Lepidodendron—which could grow upwards of 100 feet tall—formed a broad open canopy in the forest. The deciduous forest had a tighter canopy. Intermediate levels of growth were formed by things like 30 foot Calamites. Lepidodendron and Calamites were both thick-barked, spore-bearing plants.

Then, millions of years later, the collision of present-day Europe and North America into present-day Africa and South America produced the Appalachian mountain belt of eastern North America and the Hercynian Mountains in the United Kingdom. A further collision of Siberia and eastern Europe created the Ural Mountains.

Tectonic movements had almost doubled the stable crust in Africa. Apart from small areas in the north-west, south-east and the Cape region, the continent had achieved the outline that it presently possesses.

At this time, the North American continent slid quietly under the waves to an extent scarcely matched before or since. For a very brief period there was a stagnant expanse of dead, still water. Over time the water was populated once more, and from the North-west territories of Canada to Mexico and from the Pacific ocean to east of the Mississippi there was a shallow sea—known as the Madison.

This ever-changing North American environment was alternately terrestrial and marine, with the transgression and regression of the seas being caused by glaciation. These environmental conditions—with the vast amount of plant material provided by the extensive forests—allowed for the production of coal. This was due to the fact that the plant material did not decay when the seas covered them. So, pressure and heat eventually built up over millions of years and transformed the plant material to coal.

The large coal deposits of this era primarily owe their existence to two factors. The first of these is the appearance of bark bearing trees. The second is the lower sea levels that allowed for the development of extensive lowland swamps and forests in North America and Europe. Subsequently, large quantities of wood were buried because animals and decomposing bacteria had not yet evolved that could effectively digest the new matter.

This extensive burial of organically produced carbon led to a buildup of surplus oxygen in the atmosphere resulting in concentrations up to 80% higher than today. The oxygen increase led to a rise in wildfire activity, as well as the expression of gigantism in certain insects and amphibians whose size is  constrained by respiration systems that are limited in their ability to diffuse oxygen. Furthermore, such a dense atmosphere promoted the evolution of things like insect flight and primitive lung effectiveness.

At this time reptiles evolved as the first strictly land-dwelling animals. These creatures have tough, dry skin covered with scales. The outer layer of reptile skin is composed of a horny material called keratin.

A reptile’s scales are not separate, detachable structures like fish scales, but rather thickenings of the epidermis. The lower layer of skin, called the dermis, contains many blood vessels and nerves as well as the pigment cells that give reptiles their color. Then, as they grow, reptiles regularly shed their outer layer of skin.

Although reptiles are cold-blooded, the body temperature of most terrestrial reptiles matches the temperature of their environment only at night and during periods of inactivity. During the day, these reptiles are able to maintain their body temperatures within a very narrow range, often warmer than their surroundings, and much of their behavior is geared toward manipulating the heat flow between their bodies and their environment.

When the weather cools, many reptiles find a secure place underground or in ground debris, where they pass the winter in a state of torpor—inactivity much like hibernation. When the weather warms in the spring, reptiles emerge again to begin a new season of activity.

Like all vertebrates, reptiles have a central nervous system and a well-developed brain. However, these were the first animals to truly define their hierarchic position inside a social group and to establish their own territory in an ecological niche.

Of course, in order to live in complex social groups reptiles had to form complex mental constructs that represent the social hierarchy of the group. This is because an individual needs to know where it stands in relation to all the other members of its group as well as where other members stand in relations to each other. In order to perform all of these comparisons and remember them, reptiles needed a more complex brain.

Besides keeping relationships straight, organisms within a society also form alliances with other members of the group to create a more beneficial situation for themselves. This example of using other members of a group as tools is another indication of new level of intelligence that was required at this time.

Of course, not everything changed. The first reptiles still resembled their amphibian ancestors—although their skull and limb girdles were more robust. However, some physical differences did establish their relationship to later distinctive reptiles—like turtles and dinosaurs.

So, it’s no surprise that reptiles would soon surpass amphibians as the dominant vertebrates on land. After all, they possessed several new survival advantages. These adaptations helped reptiles move into habitats where the water-breeding amphibians could not survive.

Of the greatest significance was the reptiles’ reproductive cycle—which truly set them apart from their ancestors. This is because reptiles have penetrative sex, delivering sperm directly to the egg while it is still protected within the female’s body. The resulting embryos then develop within an egg that is divided into separate compartments.

These amniotic eggs provide protection, nourishment, separate storage for waste products, and a supply of air to the developing embryo. Furthermore, because reptile eggs are relatively larger and can sustain embryos longer than most amphibian eggs, reptile embryos develop into juveniles without having to pass through a larval stage. So, when it’s time to hatch, reptiles are immediately exposed to the air and ready for an independent existence.

This was one of the greatest evolutionary innovations that ever occurred, because the amniotic egg allowed for the further exploitation of the land by certain tetrapods. This allowed our ancestors to reproduce on land by preventing the drying-out of the embryo inside the egg.

In addition to this, mammal-like reptiles arose shortly after this. One of the great genetic innovations that made this possible was the evolution of the male Y and female X chromosomes from ordinary chromosomes.

You see, many of the cold-blooded vertebrates didn’t have gender specific chromosomes. This was because if they had different sexes, gender was determined environmentally rather than genetically. However, X and Y chromosomes diverged when mutated reptiles developed a gene that made all its owners males. The chromosomes with this gene became Y chromosomes, and similar chromosomes without it became X chromosomes.

So initially, X and Y chromosomes were almost the same. Genes which were beneficial for males and harmful for females either moved into a Y chromosome or developed in it. This was beneficial for both sexes. However, recombination between X and Y chromosomes was harmful because it provided males without some male genes or females with some male genes. As a result, male genes assembled around the sex determining gene in order to make this less probable.

Later, Y chromosomes changed in such a way that the areas around the sex determining genes completely lost their ability to recombine with X chromosomes. With time, the larger and larger areas lost the ability to recombine with the X chromosomes.

Then, harmful mutations increasingly damaged male genes until some stopped functioning and became useless. These useless genes were removed from Y chromosomes. The resulting hybrid reptile-like mammals utilized the XY sex-determination system, wherein females have two of the same kind of sex chromosome (XX), while males have two distinct sex chromosomes (XY).

The earliest of these mammal-like creatures began as semi-aquatic animals, gradually diversifying onto dry land. Then, the more advanced species eventually evolved over millions years. One example of these—known as Lystrosaurus—was widespread.

This was a heavily-built, quadruped mammal-like reptile with a short, stubby tail. Instead of teeth it had two tusk-like fangs made of horn. It was a plant-eater about three feet long, weighing around two hundred pounds.

Lystrosaurus was fully terrestrial and capable of burrowing. So, although frequenting aquatic waterside and thickly vegetated terrestrial settings, these animals could also survive in arid environments.

Regardless, by now, the motion of tectonic plates had brought much of the Earth’s land together, fused into one giant super-continent—known as Pangea. Most of the rest of the surface area of the planet was occupied by a corresponding single ocean—Panthalassa, with the smaller sea of Tethys to the east of Pangea.

This super-continent straddled the equator and extended toward the poles, with a corresponding effect on ocean currents in Panthalassa. This created a climate with extreme variations in temperature, along with highly seasonal rainfall patterns. The sea levels were generally low, and near-shore environments were limited by the collection of landmasses into a single continent. Furthermore, deserts were becoming widespread.

Such dry conditions favored plants with seeds enclosed in a protective cover over plants that disperse spores. So, tall-growing conifers soon evolved and began to dominate the forests.

The reproductive organs of conifers are contained in cones. Male pollen cones scatter their pollen in dry conditions, while the female seed cones contain receptor organs on their scales. Fertilized eggs produce seeds, which—when mature–are dispersed. Thus, reproduction occurs without the need for water.

The Appalachian orogeny was concentrated in North America around this time. The fierce volcanic activity widespread in Europe was not extended into the west. All of Europe and North America became dry land. However, there were limited shallow, very salty seas in central Europe, parts of Russia, and the high Arctic areas of Canada and Siberia.

Then, about 230 million years after the birth of vertabrates, Dimetrodon became one of the first reptiles to exhibit truly mammal-like qualities. In fact, this animal was more closely related to mammals than to things like dinosaurs, lizards, and birds.

It grew to up to nine feet in length. It walked on four side-sprawling legs and had a large tail. This carnivore also had teeth of different sizes. They were long at the front and short in back.

Of course, Dimetrodon’s most distinctive characteristic was the spectacular sail-like fin on its back. This was used to regulate body temperature. That is to say, the surface area would allow it to warm up or cool off more efficiently. This was one of the earliest transitional developments toward warm-bloodedness.

Then, within twenty million years, vertebrates started to become diverse and efficient herbivores. This was because, they were the first to evolve sliding jaws for crushing plant tissue.

However, the land was still dominated by carnivorous arthropods, amphibians, and reptiles. Of course, primitive archosaurs also began to emerge. This group of animals includes things like snakes, crocodiles, dinosaurs, and even birds.

By this time, a creature known as Biarmosuchia had also emerged. This animal employed a radical alteration in its method of locomotion. It had a much more mobile forelimb, more upright hindlimb, and more mammalian femur and pelvis. Furthermore, Biarmosuchia’s toes were approaching equal length—as in many mammals. This animals neck and tail vertebrae also became distinctly different from the trunk vertebrae.

However, about 10 million years later, the abundance of life would slowly come to an end—over a period of 80,000 years. The new configuration of continental landmasses had created a non-fatal but precariously balanced global environment and radically decreased the extent and range of shallow aquatic environments exposing formerly isolated organisms of the rich continental shelves to competition from invaders.

Then, torrents of lava covered over 3 million cubic miles of Siberia—during one of the biggest volcanic effects on Earth. This event also created tons of smoke and ash that blanketed the Earth, gradually killing off a great many terrestrial species.

This caused an increase in carbon dioxide, which led to global warming that increased the Earth‘s temperature by a few degrees. This reduced the temperature gradient between the equator and the poles. As a result, the oceans stagnated, and the marine ecosystems that rely on the upwelling and circulation of nutrients and oxygen starved and suffocated in a second wave of mass destruction.

Sulfur and particulates in the air contributed to a cooling effect that lasted for several months. Combinations of these effects produced a cycle in which the climate alternatively warmed then cooled. Such temperature fluctuations caused an overturn of the oceans. This released frozen methane hydrate, causing it to rise up to the surface.

The oxygen-starved aftermath of an immense global belch of methane left land animals gasping for breath. The long-term effects of the methane release, then unleashed a cascade of effects on wetlands and coral reefs. This reduced oxygen levels in the atmosphere from 35 percent to just 12 percent in a period of only 20,000 years.

Subsequently, lungs that were used to the higher levels strained desperately for oxygen as they filled with fluid. This lack of oxygen left most the land animals gasping for breath, suffering from nausea, headaches, and inflamed lungs. Marine life also suffocated in the oxygen-poor water.

Furthermore, since methane is a strong greenhouse gas, it reacted with the atmospheric oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, which also turned up the global thermostat. This led to another worldwide temperature increase of another few degrees.

All of these effects were sufficient enough to kill off about 95 percent of all marine species and 70 percent of all terrestrial species—in all. From start to finish, this was the worst mass extinction that the world has ever seen.

After the greatest tragedy the world has ever known, only the most resilient marine fauna survived—although in greatly diminished numbers. Of course, they never again reached the ecological dominance they once had, clearing the way for another group of sea life. On land, a relatively smaller extinction of certain reptiles cleared the way for other forms to dominate.

In many ways, this was a time of transition, when the survivors of the mass extinction spread and re-colonized. The holdovers included creatures like the shelled cephalopods—which had diversified from a single line that survived the catastrophe. Similarly, the fish were all remarkably uniform, further reflecting the fact that very few families survived the onslaught. Most significantly though, was the odd little beast known as Lystrosaurus.

This ungainly meter-long animal survived because it had evolved to live in burrows, where oxygen levels are low and carbon dioxide levels high. To do this, it had developed a barrel chest, thick ribs, enlarged lungs, a muscular diaphragm and short internal nostrils to get the oxygen it needed.

Lystrosaurs’ success was also due to their being well adapted to very dry habitats. The odd, turned-down face gave this critter a jaw movement that allowed it to tackle the driest, toughest plant material. So much so, that when the familiar flora went extinct, the tubby lystrosaurs simply moved out of their fringe habitats into new areas of the world.

At this time, Thrinaxodon—another highly advanced reptile—began to display mammal-like juvenile care. In addition to this, all four of Thrinaxodon’s legs were fully upright, not sprawling. Furthermore, these animals had short tails, which were necessary for agile locomotion.

Thrinaxodon was also one of the first creatures to exhibit a mammalian jaw hinge. As a result, the eardrum eventually developed in the lower jaw, right near the jaw hinge. This meant that these animals could hear airborne sound, which was transmitted through the eardrum to two small lower jawbones.

In addition to this, many of the other reptilian ancestors of mammals also exhibited several mammalian traits. This included things like specialized teeth and a hard palate that enabled simultaneous eating and breathing.

Of course, the transition from reptiles to mammals was a gradual one and involved a slow accumulation of mammalian features over a long period of time. These included things like a smaller body size, a larger brain cavity, and a middle ear with three bones—which vastly improved hearing.

Another new trait emerged as a space behind the eye socket that allowed extra room for more brain matter and larger jaws. This gave rise to a new kind of jaw hinge, and increasingly complex teeth.

As the number of bones in the lower jaw slowly decreased from seven, a time came when only one remained. Of course, instead of being completely lost, the extra bones changed shape and took on a completely new role, helping to conduct sound waves from the eardrum to the inner ear. This final refinement of the joint gave rise to the first true mammals.

One of these was a species called Morganucodon, which lived on the forest floor over 200 million years ago.  This little critter looked like a weasel—except that it was only a couple inches long. It had large eyes because it was active at night, preying on insects and small vertebrates. This tiny quadruped made use of short legs that ended with 5-toed feet. It also had a long, narrow snout, and both sharp teeth plus grinding molars.

What makes Morganucodon special is that some of its upper jaw resembled that of reptiles, while the lower jaw was exactly like that of a reptile. This animal’s cheek teeth were differentiated into simple premolars and more complex molars, and the teeth were replaced only once.

Moreover, this creature was ancestral to every modern mammal—including you. As such, this creature raised its young on milk that was produced in the mother’s mammary glands.

To aid in this, mammals are born with a strong sucking instinct that helps them feed immediately. In addition to this, the period before weaning forms a crucial part of a young mammal’s development. During this time, it plays with its siblings and learns social and survival skills from its parents.

During weaning, young carnivorous mammals start to share the food that their parents have caught, while young plant-eating mammals begin to feed for themselves. Independence comes only when the adult teeth are fully formed, enabling the young animal to switch to an adult diet.

What’s more, Morganucodon used food to keep itself warm as well as to power its body and grow. As a result, this primitive mammal had to eat more frequently than the cold-blooded animals.

To assist in this, mammals’ teeth fit together in a precise way when their mouth is closed, allowing them to nibble, gnaw, slice, or chew. This helps them to both collect and process food.

Most importantly, mammals have highly developed nervous systems and are incredibly intelligent—compared to other vertebrates. As such, mammals are quick to exploit opportunities, and to learn from past mistakes. This ability makes them greatly adaptable, and gives them the best chances for survival under difficult conditions.

In addition to this, mammals are capable of expressing a wide range of feelings. Unfortunately, these brief episodes produce partial or total blocking of logical reasoning. This can provoke a high degree of behavioral loss of control. As a result, the more the bodily symptoms increase, the more mobilizing the affect becomes, until it evolves into an emotion.

This type of reaction involves certain physiological changes that stimulate the animal, or some component part of its body, to further activity. This includes things like an accelerated or retarded pulse rate, the diminished or increased activities of certain glands, or a change in body temperature. As an example, the three primary negative reactions of this type are agony, hate, and fear.

These are related to activity in brain areas that direct attention, motivate behavior, and determine the significance of what is going on in the environment. So, these reactions are really nothing more than a way to chemically reinforce a somatic sensation into the long-term memory of one’s brain—by way of the limbic system.

This complex set of structures lies on both sides and underneath the thalamus, just under the cerebrum. Of course, this intermediate brain only began to evolve after the first mammals, being practically non-existent in reptiles, amphibians, and all other preceding species. This is why things like birds are not very emotional.

The limbic system commands certain behaviors that are necessary for the survival of all mammals. It gives rise and modulates specific functions that allow the animal to distinguish between the agreeable and the disagreeable. Here specific affective functions are developed, such as the one that induces females to nurse and protect their young, or the one which induces these animals to develop playful moods.

This is primarily enacted by the hypothalamus, which is mainly concerned with homeostasis. In other words, the hypothalamus is responsible for regulating things like hunger, thirst, response to pain, levels of pleasure, sexual satisfaction, and aggressive behavior. It also regulates the functioning of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems, which in turn means it regulates things like pulse, blood pressure, breathing, and arousal in response to emotional circumstances.

To do this, the hypothalymus takes small chain proteins and assembles them into neuropeptides. In regards to this, there is a specific neuropeptide for every feeling that an animal can experience. Actually, an organism might have several different neuropeptides for any one of these—depending on a specific state of mind. These chemicals are then released through the pituitary gland and out into the bloodstream. Once in the blood they find their way to the different parts of the body.

Moreover, every single cell in the body has millions upon millions of receptor sites along its exterior. These receptors constantly study their environment. So, when a neuropeptide docks on a cell, it sends a signal into the cell. This sets off a cascade of biochemical events that immediately put the cell into action—doing whatever it is the neuropeptide was coded for. As such, an animal is forced to create situations that will fulfill the biochemical cravings of the cells in its body. This is the basis of every compulsion.

None-the-less, at this point in our story crocodile-like archosaurs began to emerge, at which time they soon diversified into a variety of forms—known as the thecodont group of reptiles. Members of this group showed a general trend toward a more upright, less sprawling stance, with the hind limbs especially being progressively positioned more directly beneath the body. Eventually, some archosaurs could even walk upright on two legs.

A few of these reptiles gradually evolved into the first dinosaurs—like Coelophysis. These little beasts were only a couple feet long, however they were very fast and extremely agile. In addition to this, they had strong, clawed hands with which to grab their prey.

The evolution of skeletal features in their pelvis and ankles had resulted in a near-vertical posture, with their rear limbs positioned directly under the body. Furthermore, they had long S-shaped necks. This distinguished dinosaurs from their low-slung thecodont ancestors.

In fact, every dinosaur can be distinguished from other prehistoric reptiles by their upright rather than sprawling legs and by the presence of three or more vertebrae supporting the pelvis, or hipbone. In addition to this, dinosaurs are classified into two orders according to differences their in pelvic structure. One is Ornithischia—the bird-hipped dinosaurs. The other is Saurischia—the lizard-hipped dinosaurs.

Early ornithischians were small bipedal plant-eaters, about 3 feet in length. In ancestral ornithischians the bony structure projecting down and back from each side of the hips was composed of two bones, so that their hips superficially resembled the hips of birds. However, some ornithischians quickly became quadrupeds and relied on body armor and other physical defenses rather than fleetness for protection.

Saurischian dinosaurs, on the other hand, were characterized by a primitive pelvis, with a single bone projecting down and back from each side of the hips. This pelvis construction was similar to that of other ancient reptiles but, unlike other reptiles, saurischians had stronger backbones, no claws on their outer front digits, and forelimbs that were usually much shorter than the hind limbs.

However, in spite of these distinctions, all dinosaurs laid eggs. In proportion to the body weight of the mother, dinosaurs laid smaller eggs in greater numbers than do birds. This helped to counter balance the fact that the mortality rate of juveniles was very high.

Of course, in addition to the dinosaurs, the archosaurs also gave rise to aquatic reptiles like Ichthyosaurs. These critters had sleek bodies, resembling dolphins, except an Ichthyosaur’s tail fluke was vertical like that of a fish.

Then, about 215 million years ago, pterosaurs also evolved from the thecodonts. These were the first vertebrates to take to the skies. Pterosaurs did this by propelling their hollow-boned bodies using well-developed flying muscles. They used rising warm air to maintain their altitude as they soared through the air. This is a common strategy among large winged animals.

Unlike bird wings, pterosaur wings were not feathered. In fact, some of these creatures were covered with insulating fur. Moreover, their wing membranes were supported exclusively by the fourth digits of their forelimbs. These digits extended the full length of the wings.

Within ten million years of this, Kuehneotherium—the first primitive placental-type mammal emerged. Of course, this animal still had a reptilian double jaw joint. However, Kuehneotherium’s teeth and skull were very similar to a modern placental mammal. For instance, the three major cusps on the upper and lower molars were rotated to form interlocking shearing triangles—like in more advanced mammals.

Then—like its predecessor Rodinia, the giant continent of Pangaea fell victim to the Earth’s internal heat. At this point, the great landmass began to rupture to form the Atlantic Ocean. The breakup began as a rift between the modern western and eastern hemispheres. Then, the rift evolved into a spreading center that pushed the two hemispheres apart.

North America was forced to drift westward at the same rate the Atlantic Ocean was spreading. This westward drift had an enormous affect on the Pacific Northwest. After being a quiet, passive continental margin for most of its history, the days of quiescence were over. New tectonic activity began to affect the edge of the continent as the floor of the Pacific Ocean basin floundered against the western continental margin.

After a few million years of decay, Pangea had broken up into North America, Eurasia and Gondwana. The early Atlantic and Tethys Oceans were still relatively narrow. This massive continental drift caused massive volcanic activity and severe climactic disturbances. This led to another mass extinction event, which was particularly severe in the oceans.

Over all, about twenty percent of marine families and about half of marine genera died out. However, this was not equally devastating everywhere in terrestrial ecosystems. For instance, some tetrapods and early dinosaurs passed through this unchanged.

So, by about 175 million years ago, most of the basic varieties of dinosaurs had appeared. Of these, a group known as the sauropods had far surpassed all the other dinosaurs in size and weight. As an example, some sauropods reached lengths of nearly one hundred feet.

These dinosaurs walked on four massive legs that ended with feet closely resembling those of an elephant. Some sauropods, used their long, thin tails for balance, while others used their tails for defense–like a whip or club. The plant matter that they ate was ground by stones in a part of their digestive tract known as the gizzard.

In contrast to this, nearly all theropods were bipedal flesh-eaters. Some theropods were small and gracefully built, resembling modern running birds. Their heads were slender and often beaked, because they fed on small animals such as lizards and infant dinosaurs.

Many theropods bore powerful claws, like those of an eagle, on their hands and feet. What’s more, like many carnivorous dinosaurs, these animals often hunted in packs.

However, in the watery depths of the Earth, the dominant forms of life were fish and aquatic reptiles. The latter include ichthyosaurs,  plesiosaurs, and marine crocodiles. In addition to this, several new invertebrate groups appeared. Of these, shelled cephalopods—like ammonites—were particularly common and diverse.

Then, over 50 million years after the collapse of Pangea, Gondwana started to break up. At this time, there was no land near either pole, and no extensive ice caps existed. So, the climate was relatively mild. A shallow sea was present in parts of the northern plains of the United States and Canada.

By now, a diverse lineage of mammals—from the order Multituberculata—began to emerge. They gave birth to very small, immature young and occupied a rodent-like niche. In fact, even the dentition of multituberculates was similar to rodents in the enlarged front teeth, especially the pair of lower incisors, which were followed by a gap in the lower jaw.

The last lower premolars of most multituberculates formed large, serrated blades.  The back of the multituberculate jaw was occupied by a battery of molars that formed a grinding mechanism. These molars carried several longitudinal rows of many small cusps.

Many multituberculates were omnivores that fed on plants, insects, and carrion. Thus, the enlarged incisors were used for picking up and killing insects or other prey. While, the blade-like premolars served both for biting hard-shelled seeds and for chopping up small prey.

In addition to this, birds had just recently evolved directly from small, bipedal dinosaurs. As such, the very first bird—Archaeopteryx—was only about the size of a dove. Of course, Archaeopteryx did retain many of the structural features of dinosaurs—most notably the same type of pelvis, a long bony tail, hollow bones, clawed fingers, and a tooth-filled jaw. Modern bird features such as a breastbone and beak had not yet evolved. In fact, even their feathers had initially evolved for insulation and not for flight.

Archaeopteryx possessed asymmetrical flight feathers on its wings and tail, together with a wing feather arrangement shared with modern birds. These structural adaptations, along with increased brain power, gave these animals a small degree of powered flight capability. This began from the ground up, when these animals ran along the ground and leaped into the air to catch insects or to avoid predators.

Then, regional differences in floras and faunas between the northern and southern continents increased, about 144 million years ago. For instance, the first monotreme emerged.

The reproductive and excretory systems of monotremes share a single body opening. What’s even more unusual is the fact that these animals lay eggs—unlike all other mammals. So, when monotreme eggs hatch, the young feed on milk, lapping it up from a special milk patch on the mother’s underside.

By now, the Ornithopods had increased in variety and became the most abundant plant-eating dinosaurs. They ranged in size from about six to thirty five feet in length and weighed anywhere from a few dozen to several thousand pounds.

These animals had flexible jaws and grinding teeth, which were suitable for chewing fibrous plants. In time, their beaks became broader—like the bill of a duck. As a result, their tooth batteries became larger.

As such, much of the land was dominated by these long-necked dinosaurs who consumed vast quantities of vegetation. Of course, as they clear-cut large floral areas, they left the land open. This gave rise to many new forms of life.

As an example, primitive bugs began to diversify into different kinds of specialized insects—like ants, grasshoppers, and butterflies. Of course, another important insect to evolve was the bee, which was integral to the ecology and co-evolution of the first flowering flora—known as angiosperms.

These plants first appeared about 135 million years ago—in northern Gondwana—where elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide played a critical role in the initial stages of their radiation. To aid in this expansion, many angiosperms used colors and scents to attract animals that transfer pollen to female pollen collectors. Nectar is a prime example of something that evolved as a reward for performing this function.

Furthermore, animals deliver pollen more efficiently than wind, so plants that attract them improve their chances of reproducing. As such, angiosperms became the dominant forms of plant life on land.

The first representatives of many modern trees, including figs, planes, and magnolias also appeared. However, at the same time, some earlier gymnosperms, like conifers continued to thrive.

In the seas, modern fish, rays, and sharks became common. Additionally, a straight-shelled form of ammonite, and flightless, marine diving birds flourished in the seas.

By 100 million years ago, the landmasses had completely broken up into the present day continents, although their positions were substantially different at the time. As the Atlantic Ocean widened and South America drifted westwards, Gondwana broke up into Antarctica and Australia, which rifted away from Africa. However, India and Madagascar remained attached.

Such active rifting lifted great undersea mountain chains along the welts, raising sea levels worldwide. To the north of Africa the Tethys Sea continued to narrow. Within the continents, a broad shallow sea advanced across central North America and then started to recede, leaving thick marine deposits sandwiched between coal beds.

In North America, a primitive opposum-like creature became the first marsupial. This is an unusual order of mammals, whose females give birth to live young that are born while still in a very undeveloped state. They complete their development inside a special pouch on the mother’s abdomen, feeding on milk supplied by her nipples.

Nearly 30 million years later, the Atlantic Ocean was small, the Pacific was enormous, and the Tethys Sea was just a shallow, salty body of warm water that separated the northern and southern hemispheres. However, this all led to a gradual high-latitude cooling and a rapid and sharp decrease in deep ocean temperatures in conjunction with a 150 foot drop in sea level. Of course, this only lasted for about a million years, at which time the sea levels went back up.

Then, around 65 million years ago, the world experienced yet another global catastrophe. First, an asteroid—roughly six miles in diameter, traveling at 67,000 miles an hour—crashed into the gulf of Mexico. This produced an impact crater 112 miles wide and 20 miles deep.

Within seconds, this area of the Earth’s surface was vaporized. Then, massive shockwaves radiated out two thousand miles in every direction. As a result, those creatures who could fled in terror.

At the point of impact, dust and ash blotted out the Sun. Within minutes a super-headed cloud of debris had covered North America. Violent earthquakes triggered massive landslides, and the explosion sucked in all the surrounding air—along with everything in it.

Water surged up from the enormous crater, as colossal tidal waves—hundreds of feet high—crossed over the land. These were the largest sheets of water to ever touch down on the planets surface.

Then, as if this wasn’t bad enough, immense volcanic eruptions occurred all around the world. In the area that is now west-central India, tremendous activity laid down massive lava beds—almost a million miles squared. The eruption from this deep mantle plume also released an enormous volume of greenhouse gasses.

Meanwhile, deep inland, all the creatures continued about their daily lives. However, the effects of the distant disaster would soon be felt. The millions of tons of molten rock that were flung into orbit began to shower back down to Earth. Within a few days, half of the world’s forest were ablaze—in an inferno that raged on for weeks.

Those who survived the initial onslaught, now faced yet another challenge. Although some animals—like lizards and tortoises—were already accustomed to the rages of naturally occurring forest fires. Crocodiles were a bit more surprised. None-the-less, they instinctively took cover under water. However, the bulky dinosaurs could not flee into the burrows of the land or the depths of the sea. So, many perished.

Furthermore, the meteor had hit an area of the Earth that was rich in sulfur. As a result, nearly five million tons of rock were converted into sulfuric acid—which subsequently rained down on the planet. The Earth was drenched in the most concentrated acid rain that the world has ever seen. All but the toughest skins and shells simply melted away—along with the creatures they housed. Only the most resilient fauna—like the enormous ancestors of modern crocodiles and turtles—remained.

Crocodiles are very proficient swimmers, and although they breathe air, they can remain underwater for up to six hours at a time. In addition to this, they can slow their heart rates to a staggering three beats per minute—if they lie motionless on the sea bed below. This, coupled with the fact that crocs can go two whole years without a meal, allowed these animals to survive into modern times.

Of course, some turtles are similarly endowed. For instance, they are able to swim incredible distances relative to their size. Plus, they can remain submerged for up to five hours.

However, those lucky creatures who remained submerged or swam to safety eventually reemerged only to discover that the landscape had become almost unrecognizable. The surface world was now littered with the corpses of birds, and the last of the dinosaurs and pterosaurs. This served as a veritable smorgasbord for the scavenging creatures who persist on rotting flesh.

Unfortunately, it wasn‘t over yet. Soon, millions of tons of dust, soot, and ash clogged the Earth’s atmosphere. This heralded a great many dark days to come. Then, the temperature began to plummet.

On land, this lack of heat and sunlight made the world colder than even the harshest of winter nights. As a result, a majority of the remaining fauna—like cold-blooded reptiles, certain insects, and groups of amphibians—entered into states of suspended animation.

It wasn’t until many months later that the atmosphere began to clear—allowing the warmth to slowly return. Then, hoards of sluggish creatures began to emerge from the depths.

Insects were the first to glimpse the light of day. They emerged by the millions, as each species struggled to colonize the virgin territories—taking advantage before any of the larger predators had a chance to thaw out.

Ferns were the first plants to bounce back from the catastrophe. Their robust spores had resisted the cold, and they were better adapted to grow in the still reduced sunlight. In addition to this, the fact this plant is so widespread across the land allowed it to thrive in more regions.

Finally, the larger creatures slowly drug themselves out of the depths. Then they sprawled out, basking in the rejuvenating heat of the Sun. Gradually, even the largest crocodiles—some of which were dozens of feet long—began to thaw out.

After this, the climate was in turmoil. Monsoons soaked the scorched land, as remnant greenhouse gasses blanketed the atmosphere. This trapped in the long desired heat.

Eventually, global warming became so intense that the drenched landscape began to experience severe evaporation. Fish struggled to breathe as their world dwindled away. And, even the cold-blooded species—who had thrived through it all—began to become overcrowded in the increasingly shallow ponds. As such, even they began to die out.

In all—from start to finish—these events killed off nearly half of all the life that existed at the time. And, although this was devastating to so many creatures, it was a veritable godsend for mammals. The apocalypse had effectively leveled the playing field, by eliminating the larger-sized terrestrial animals. Thus, our ancestors now had a chance to rise up and dominate the world.

About 60 million years ago, the climate was warm and humid world-wide, with subtropical vegetation growing in Greenland and Patagonia. The poles were cool and temperate, North America, Europe, Australia and southern South America were warm and temperate. Tropical climates characterized equatorial areas, and North and South of the equator climates were hot and arid.

The continents continued to drift toward their present positions. North America, Europe and Asia were joined in the supercontinent Laurasia, but Greenland and North American were beginning to separate. The southern supercontinent Gondwana continued to split apart, with Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia pulling away from each other. Africa was heading north towards Europe and India began its migration to Asia.

South and North America were still separated by vast equatorial seas. However, much of inland North America, Africa, and Australia had been exposed. None-the-less, warm seas continued to circulate throughout the world—including the poles—giving rise to abundant marine life.

Aquatic faunas came to resemble modern animals, with the exception of marine mammals. Soft-bodied squid replaced the hard-shelled ammonites as the leading mollusks. Furthermore, with the demise of marine reptiles, sharks became the top predators.

On land, modern plant species developed. Thick tropical, sub-tropical and deciduous forest covered much of the globe, while ice-free polar regions were covered with pine trees. Flowering plants continued to develop and proliferate, and along with them the insects that fed on these plants.

This period also witnessed an explosive evolution of birds. These animals filled the niche left by the extinction of the dinosaurs. As a result, they became the new predators at the top of the food chain.

One bird that lived during this age was a two hundred pound carnivorous flightless bird, named Diatryma. This beast stood over six feet tall and had massive legs, a huge bill, and very small, underdeveloped wings. Of course, the internal body parts of all birds—even flightless ones—reflect the evolution of birds as flying creatures.

Birds have lightweight skeletons in which many of the major bones are hollow. A unique feature of modern birds is the furculum, or wishbone, which is comparable to the collarbones of humans, although in birds the left and right portions are fused together. This absorbs the shock of wing motion and acts as a spring to help birds breathe while they fly.

Several anatomical adaptations help to reduce weight and concentrate it near the center of gravity. For example, modern birds are toothless, which helps reduce the weight of their beaks, and food grinding is carried out in the muscular gizzard, a part of the stomach located near the body’s core.

The egg-laying habit of birds enables young to develop outside the body of the female, significantly lightening her load. For further weight reduction, the reproductive organs of birds become greatly reduced in size outside of the breeding season.

Flight, especially taking off and landing, requires a huge amount of energy—way more than humans need for running. Taking flight is less demanding for small birds than it is for large ones, but small birds need more energy to stay warm.

In keeping with their enormous energy needs, birds have an extremely fast metabolism, which includes the chemical reactions involved in releasing stored energy from food. What’s more, birds sleep to relax their muscles and conserve energy but not to refresh their brains—like mammals do. This is very significant because sleep developed, in part, because animals need to protect themselves. For example, many animals move about during the day because it is easier to see where they are going. Then, when it’s dark, it’s best for these animals to save energy and avoid harm.

This was very significant because several groups of mammals had also survived the catastrophe. These animals began to flourish in the insect-rich forest underbrush and high up in the trees.

As an example, Ptilodus—a typical medium-sized multituberculate from North America—was very similar to modern squirrels. This animal’s feet were very mobile and could be reversed backward, which allowed it to climb down trees with its head pointing forward. However, one marked difference from squirrels was the long prehensile tail, which Ptilodus used like a fifth limb when climbing.

In contrast to this, Lambdopsalis—a multituberculate from China—had specializations for digging, because this beaver-sized critter was living in burrows. As such, the ear of Lambdopsalis was inefficient for hearing high-frequency airborne sound, but well-adapted for hearing low-frequency vibrations.

Like rodents, many of these multituberculates had developed gnawing teeth with a self-sharpening mechanism. Only the front side of the incisors was covered with hard enamel. The rest of the tooth consisted of softer material that was worn away more easily. Therefore the tooth always had a sharp cutting edge at the front. This meant that the blade-like premolars were strongly reduced, whereas the molars formed enlarged, complex grinding surfaces with an increased number of cusps.

While many of these early mammals were small nocturnal animals with herbivorous and insectivorous diets, ten million years after the death of the dinosaurs, the world was overrun with rodent-like mammals, medium sized mammals scavenging in forests, and large herbivorous and carnivorous mammals hunting other mammals, birds, and reptiles.

The vast majority of these were short-legged and walked on the soles of their five toed feet. Many also possessed forty-four low crowned teeth. Almost all of them had slim heads with narrow muzzles and small brain cavities. Such mammals included things like the duck-billed platypus, primitive marsupials, and hoofed ungulates.

Many of these developed in northern Asia and migrated from there to the rest of Asia, to Europe and to North America. These creatures made up the typical Laurasian fauna of the time. The inhabitants of the scattered remains of Gondwana were all isolated from each other and from other parts of the world, and served as independent centers of evolution where unique fauna were able to develop in safety.

Then, our earliest primate ancestors evolved from archaic nocturnal mammals. These creatures were roughly similar to squirrels in size and appearance. They lived in tropical and subtropical forests, so many of their characteristic features were adapted specifically for this habitat. They had hands specialized for grasping, rotating shoulder joints, and nails on their digits—instead of claws. They also had a relatively large brain size and stereoscopic vision.

At this point, the diversity of multituberculates had reached a maximum, and it started to decline. This was mainly due to competition with an increasing number of placental herbivores, especially with the archaic hoofed mammals and with the newly evolved primates.

To make matters worse, within a couple million years, true rodents evolved in Asia. They, too, began to outsource the multituberculates. They were the most abundant and adaptable group of mammals, at the time. Within no time at all, they were living in trees, underground, in water, and in deserts on every continent except Antarctica.

Around 56 million years ago, the planet began to heat up in one of the most extreme global warming events ever. However, this episode of rapid and intense warming of several degrees lasted less than 100,000 years. This provoked a sharp extinction event that distinguished the new fauna from the previous ecosystems.

At this time, Australia and Antarctica remained connected, and warm equatorial currents mixed with colder Antarctic waters, distributing the heat around the world and keeping global temperatures high. The high temperatures and warm oceans created a moist, balmy environment, with tropical rainforests spreading throughout the world from pole to pole.

The Tethys Sea continued to shrink, while the uplift of the Alps isolated its final remnant, the Mediterranean Sea, and created another shallow sea with island archipelagos to the north. Though the Atlantic ocean was opening, a land connection remained between North America and Europe.

The northern supercontinent of Laurasia began to break up, as Europe, Greenland, and North America drifted apart. In western North America, mountain building began, and huge lakes formed in the high flat basins among uplifts. India continued its journey away from Africa, and began its collision with Asia, folding the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau into existence.

The unusual mixture of tropical and subtropical elements in the northern latitudes resulted in a mean annual temperature that was not as high as in the present tropics, however the flora was maintained by a greater rainfall than occurs in these northern latitudes today, with no pronounced seasonality in its distribution, and in the absence of winter frost.

After this, the only mammals capable of sustained flight first appeared. These new creatures were unique because their wings differed from those of both pterosaurs and birds.

Bats have elastic, membranous wings that stretch between arm, body, and leg. In addition to this, their fingers open out toward the wingtip, like a fan. Also, because the hind leg is not free for other uses such as walking, bats adopt some unusual habits, such as hanging upside down to rest.

It was around this time that new primates evolved. They resembled modern prosimians. Of these, there were at least 60 genera, divided into two families. One of these contained animals similar to lemurs, and the other, had animals like tarsiers. They lived in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Major evolutionary changes were beginning in some of these primates that foreshadowed species yet to come. Their brains and eyes were becoming larger, while their snouts were getting smaller. They had feet and hands capable of manipulating objects and differentiated teeth adapted for chewing. In addition to this, they were beginning to hold their bodies erect while hopping and sitting.

By this time, the branch that would lead to living whales had already become separate from the branch of land mammals that led to even-toed hoofed mammals. Subsequently, modern hoofed animals became prevalent due to a major radiation between Europe and North America. This included herbivorous grazers as well as carnivorous ungulates, like the mesonychids.

This cow-like creature resembled a wolf. They walked the Earth on the continents now known as Europe, Asia, and North America. For many, this meant that prey was scarce. So, the mesonychids hunted for food along the seashore.

As time went by, these animals spent more and more time offshore. This was due to the fact that a more abundant food supply existed in the depths of the water itself.

Generation after generation passed, and the mesonychids began to adapt in their new environment. They lost their fur to become more streamlined—enabling them to swim more easily—leaving bare skin over a thick layer of blubber to provide insulation in cold water.

Their front legs became flat pectoral fins, with which to steer. Their back legs were replaced by a muscular tail ending in broad flukes, which—when moved up and down—provided propulsion.

To make breathing at the water’s surface more efficient, their nostrils moved to the top of their heads and became blow-holes. In addition to this, their external ears vanished.

Thus, from the land-dwelling family of Mesonychidae a new family was born. Together, these cetaceans presently include whales, dolphins and their smaller relatives, the porpoises. These animals—like their mammalian ancestors—continue to remain warm-blooded, breathe air from the water’s surface, give birth to live young, and feed their juveniles on milk.

By 48 million years ago, a cetacean of the family Porocetidae—had broad frontal bones, widely-spaced eyes, hollow jaws, and massive ear bones. What made these creatures interesting is that their four sacral vertebrae were not fused and allowed for tail-powered swimming. So, these whales walked on four legs on land, but swam with an undulating, up-and-down tail motion in the water.

Although, within a mere three million years, Australia had split from the southern continent. As a result, the warm equatorial ocean currents were deflected away from Antarctica, and an isolated cold water channel developed between the two landmasses.

Then, the Antarctic region cooled. So, the ocean surrounding Antarctica began to freeze, sending cold water and ice-flows north. This further reinforced the reduction in temperature.

As the cetaceans evolved through transitional forms, structural changes enabled the whales to hear under water and regulate pressure when diving. Of these, a fellow named Basilosaurus had tiny hind limbs that were too weak to support its forty foot long body on land. This was because it spent its entire life in the ocean. So, primitive cetaceans were already quite similar to those in the oceans today.

However, through it all, they did retain many of their ancestors features—like complex brains. In fact, cetaceans have a cerebral cortex that’s relatively larger than a modern human’s. However, their cortex is stratified in much the same way.

The frontal lobe of dolphins is developed to a level comparable to that of humans. In addition to this, the parietal lobe of dolphins is larger than the human parietal and frontal lobes combined. The similarities do not end there, though.

Most cetaceans have large and well-developed temporal lobes, which contain sections equivalent to language areas in humans. Another major difference between primate and cetacean brains is that the primate brain favors the motor cortex, while the cetaceans greatly favor the sensory region and are not very balanced between the two.

Dolphins also have a higher ratio of neural density in certain areas of the brain. These are associated with emotional control, objectivity, reality orientation, humor, logical thought, and higher creativity. This seems to be correlated with dolphin’s ability to maintain a healthy emotional state while in captivity, while humans often exhibit psychological distress in analogous situations.

Regardless, after the passage of several million years, the circulation and the formation of water in the oceans changed greatly. This altered the distribution of heat on the earth’s surface and the global climate.

Continental interiors began to dry up, while forests were thinned out considerably in many areas. What’s more, the newly-evolved grasses were still confined to river banks and lake edges, and had not yet expanded into plains and  savannas.

The lives and habitats of many organisms were directly affected by this slow global cooling. Marine animals capable of withstanding cooler temperatures congregated to places further from the warm equator. Of course, a great many terrestrial critters were also over-powered by mother nature.

At this point, Multituberculates became the only major branch of mammals to ever go extinct—so far. After a 100 million-year history—the longest of any mammalian lineage—these animals were simply out-competed.

This was because the continuation of land mammal faunal migration between Asia and North America led to the dispersal of several lineages onto new continents.  So, mammals like horses, elephants, dogs, and primates began to dominate, except in Australia.

In addition to this, the first beavers graced the landscape, and birds that possess gaping mouths for catching insects emerged. Daytime raptors, such as falcons, eagles, and hawks, along with more than half a dozen families of rodents also first appeared at this time.

Deciduous trees, better able to cope with large temperature changes, began to overtake evergreen tropical species. Massive deciduous forests covered large parts of the northern continents, including North America, Eurasia and the Arctic, and rainforests held on only in equatorial South America, Africa, India, and Australia.

Antarctica, which had been fringed with a sub-tropical rainforest, became much colder as the ice age progressed. So, the heat-loving tropical flora was wiped out, and the continent began to host deciduous forests and vast stretches of tundra.

By little more than 30 million years ago, India had reached what was the southern coast of Asia and began to slide beneath it. This southern shore—once at sea level—took the full force of the collision and is now the area known as Black Gravel Range.

Elsewhere in the world, the Badlands of South Dakota were for the most part a vast, featureless floodplain forged by wide, slow-moving rivers from the west. Wonder Cave near San Marcos, Texas, was created on the Balcones fault line during an earthquake around this time. And, west of this, the Mendocino Triple Junction—a convergence of three tectonic plates—formed in California when an ocean spreading center in the Pacific plate collided with the continent’s edge.

At this point, the simians evolved from prosimians. Some of these were as small as a fat squirrel—weighing around 3 pounds, while others were the size of a large domestic cat—roughly 15 pounds. Compared to the prosimians, these monkeys had fewer teeth, less fox-like snouts, larger brains, and increasingly more forward-looking eyes.

In addition to this, angiosperms continued their worldwide expansion, as tropical and sub-tropical forests continued to be replaced by temperate deciduous woodlands. Then, incredibly humid forests became increasingly common in the southern parts of South America.

Grasses—along with grazing animals—expanded from the previous water-bank habitat, and moved out into open tracts. As this occurred, the legumes of the pea and bean family spread, as trees like the fern continued their ascent.

During this period, mountain building also continued in western North America. The Alps started to rise in Europe as the African plate continued to push north into the Eurasian plate. In addition to this, there was a land bridge between North America and Europe.

As time went on, the continents continued to drift toward their present positions. Of the modern geologic features, only the land bridge between South America and North America was absent.

The climate during this period was similar to today’s climate, only a little warmer. So, well-defined climatic belts stretched from Pole to Equator, and Australia was less arid than it is now.

As such, grasses, a product of the cooler, drier climate, became one of the most important groups of organisms on the planet. As they spread extensively over several million years, they fed herds of grazing mammals, sheltered smaller animals and birds, and stabilized the soil—which in turn reduced erosion.

These high-fiber, low-protein plants had to be eaten in large quantities to provide adequate nutrition. Because they contain tiny silica fragments, though, they are tough to chew and wear down animal teeth. So, grasses are adapted to recover quickly after their tips are grazed. Unlike many other flowering plants, grasses do not display colorful petals, and they rely on wind for pollination rather than insects or birds.

In addition to this, it was at this time that primitive apes evolved from monkeys in East Africa. Apes differ from monkeys in that they do not have tails and their arms are usually longer than their legs. Of course, like other primates, most apes are covered with thick fur. However, they have bare skin on their faces. This enables them to communicate with facial expressions. Ape skulls allow for large brains and forward-pointing eyes. Thus, apes have well-developed minds and are among the most intelligent of all animals.

So, these animals quickly expanded into many genera and species. Among these early primates were the ancestors of modern humans. One species in particular—Morotopithecus bishopi—was about 4 feet tall, and weighed around 100 pounds.

Then, global circulation patterns changed as Antarctica became isolated. This reduced significantly the mixing of warmer tropical water with cold polar water, subsequently permitting the buildup of the Antarctic polar cap. Additionally, the African-Arabian plate joined to Asia, closing the seaway which had previously separated Africa from Asia, and a number of migrations of animals brought these two faunas into contact.

In fact, the great diversification of land mammals was due in large part to the formation of such land bridges. These routes—which emerge as sea levels drop and inland seas dry out—connected continents previously separated by water. They provided access to new habitats and enabled migrating animals to greatly extend their geographic ranges.

Elephants and apes were among the mammals that ventured out of Africa and settled in parts of Eurasia, while rabbits, pigs, saber-toothed cats, and modern rhinos moved in the opposite direction. To the north, a dry corridor, the Bering land bridge, connected what are now Siberia and Alaska. Eventually, both elephants and rhinos made their way to North America, crossing paths with horses on their way to Eurasia.

By this time, most of the terrestrial fauna were fairly modern. Widely divergent species only existed in the isolated regions of South America and Australia.

Communities of kelp supported evolving marine life, such as sea otters, as well as established groups of fishes and invertebrates. Though kelp is a plant, it is not closely related to its land counterparts. Kelp grows in cool, shallow waters, where it attaches to rocks and corals or sometimes floats freely.

By 20 million years ago, volcanic activity increased, and fluctuations in the climate caused a majority of the woodland environments to be replaced by open savannas. These grasslands quickly became home to a diverse fauna.

In North America, species of rhino roamed the countryside. Africa became more arid, and India’s collision with the Asian mainland continued to piece together the Himalayas. As South America moved north, the passageway between it and Antarctica opened up. The resulting circulation of cold waters around Antarctica led to the formation of deep, cold bottom waters in Earth’s oceans.

This era also gave rise to a group of primates known by its genus name, Proconsul. The species Proconsul heseloni lived in the trees of dense forests in eastern Africa. This agile climber had the flexible backbone and narrow chest characteristic of monkeys. However, it also possessed a wide range of movement in the hip and thumb. In addition to this, it exhibited the lack of a tail. These traits are characteristic of apes.

An ancestor of the horse first appeared—around 18 million years ago—as cat-sized herbivores, feeding on leafy vegetation. As coarse grasses replaced this woodland vegetation, some horse species evolved larger jaws and deep-rooted teeth with protective enamel. They also evolved larger guts, because grasses are relatively poor in nutrition and must be eaten in higher quantities to compensate.

Grazing horses were larger than their browsing cousins, with longer legs and hooves that enabled them to run faster than those with padded feet. They quickly spread from North America to Europe and Asia, and from there to Africa, where some species became today’s zebras.

Approximately 16 million years ago, during a warm climate, Pliopithecus and Dryopithecus—two genera of primates—migrated from Africa into Eurasia. However, these species were vegetarians, and therefore were not pre-adapted to an ecology with fewer plants and a cold season.

Although language had not yet developed, many apes and monkeys had a sophisticated system of communication, none-the-less. Their tactile sense was crucial—finding expression in the form of sexual behavior, grooming, juvenile play, and any other means of displaying affection.

Their sounds were not only produced through the vocal organs but also by way of chest thumping, ground slapping, and tree drumming. Facial expressions—like teeth-baring—along with body postures also played key communicative functions.

The standard primate vocal repertoire, of the time, was limited to around a dozen sound types. However, many species were often very quiet—particularly amongst the ground-dwellers. On the other hand, some early primates gave warning barks and emitted various different grunts, roars, and growls to express how they felt.

Then, around 14 million years ago, our early ape ancestors were beginning to adapt to life on the edges of the expanding savanna in Southern Europe. These apes exhibited a greater range of sizes than is found amongst modern apes. In fact, some of these were the first primates to leave the treetops and live on the ground.

However, less hospitable cooler conditions in the Northern Hemisphere caused many primate species to die out while some survived by migrating south into Africa. Then, of course, there were those who ventured into Southern Asia where they evolved into Orangutans.

As time went on, the diversity of large apes continued to decline as tropical and subtropical habitats of Europe and Asia began to contract and become concentrated closer to the equator. Then, another significant cooling event occurred. This was related to the expansion of the ice sheet that covered Antarctica. Subsequently, ocean levels dropped in response to the formation of ice on land, which resulted in the catastrophic drying of the Mediterranean Sea.

By 10 million years ago, tectonic forces soon began to break the continent apart. As a result, many lives were caught up in the upheaval. The great African rift was forming. To the west of this, there were mountains. To the east was a high plateau, and beyond this was the sea. What’s more, this rift soon became an all but impassable obstacle—down the eastern coast of Africa.

On each side of this, life evolved separately. To the west, primates continued to thrive in the forests. To the east, a climate change began to reduce the forests. So, life was much harder for the primates that clung to the remaining trees of the open savanna.

Within a million years time, the global climate cooled and became drier. This broke up and reduced the area of African forests. As a result, the primates in this area experienced many changes in the environment. That is to say, they ended up living in a range of habitats, including forests, open-canopy woodlands, and savannas.

In response to this, their populations became adapted to a variety of surroundings. Then, the descendants of the early apes diverged into two lines–the gorillas and the line that would lead to humans and chimpanzees. This is evidenced in the fact that about 98 percent of the genes in people and chimpanzees are identical, making chimps the closest living biological relatives of humans. This doesn’t mean that humans evolved from chimpanzees, but it does indicate that both species evolved from a common ape ancestor. Whereas, orangutans—the great apes of Southeast Asia—differ much more from humans genetically, indicating the more distant evolutionary relationship.

Eventually, the expansion of dry terrain favored the evolution of terrestrial living, and made it more difficult to survive through arboreal means. As a result, terrestrial apes formed large social groups.

This improved their ability to find and collect food and to fend off predators.  These important evolutionary changes depended on increased mental abilities and, therefore, correlated with the development of larger brains in early primates.

These proto-human animals had a braincase similar to that of a chimpanzee. Their teeth were closer to those of modern men, and their faces included brow ridges. However, these creatures did not walk upright.

Then, around 6 million years ago, there was a mass extinction of forest dwelling creatures. This triggered a burst of adaptive radiation that resulted in several new primate species. For instance, one particular divergence separated the chimpanzees from the earliest, most primitive humans.

The scattered clans of these evolving apes were forced to endure the harsh conditions of the savanna. As a result, they soon began to realize that there wasn’t enough food accessible to them in the trees.

So, these creatures were compelled by their hunger pangs to climb down from the safety of the trees and venture out in search of food. However, once on the ground, they discovered that they couldn’t see through the tall grass. So, the first human stood up to get a better view.

This led to a momentous discovery. As a biped, she could see clearly across the plain. So, with no danger in sight, our ancestor decided to encourage the others to move on.

Unfortunately, back on all fours, she was no longer so confident. So, she stood up and walked like a woman once more. Then, the others joined her.

Of course, these triumphant apes tired fast and their wobbly legs were quick to stiffen. This forced posture also put constant strain on their back muscles—but that beats the hell of not being able to see where they’re going.

So, they adapted through hundreds of generations of physiological changes. In time, their front legs became useful as arms with which to forage. These apes we’re now well on their way to becoming truly human.

About 6 million years ago, climates became cooler, drier, and seasonal—similar to modern climates. The continents drifted very near to their present positions. South America finally linked to North America through the Isthmus of Panama, and this brought a nearly complete end to distinctive marsupial faunas.

The formation of this isthmus also had major consequences on global temperatures. Warm equatorial ocean currents were cut off and a cooling cycle began in the Atlantic, as the result of incoming Arctic and Antarctic waters. Then,  to top it off, new sea level changes exposed yet another land-bridge—between Alaska and Asia.

The change to a cooler, dry, seasonal climate had considerable impacts on vegetation, reducing tropical species throughout the world. Deciduous forests proliferated, while coniferous forests and tundra covered much of the north. Grasslands continued to spread over every continent—except Antarctica. Tropical forests were limited to a tight band around the equator, so in addition to dry savannas, deserts appeared in Asia and Africa.

Within a million years, both marine and terrestrial faunas were essentially modern, although continental faunas were still a bit primitive. This resulted from the great migration and mixing of previously isolated species. As a result, herbivores and several specialized predators grew larger.

Then, about four and a half million years ago, our ancestors evolved into something new. Their canines were low, blunt, and less projecting than the canines of all other apes, while their upper and lower incisors were becoming larger. Additionally, the lower molars were broader than those of a comparably sized ape. This trait, also, approached the modern human condition.

Apes have thick, projecting, sharp canines that they use for displays of aggression and as weapons to defend themselves. However, by this time, proto-man had developed the human characteristic of having smaller, flatter canines. This reduction related to an increase in social cooperation among humancestors and an accompanying decrease in the need for males to make aggressive displays.

What’s most amazing is the fact that their skulls rested toward the top of their vertebral columns, rather than in front of them. This was a key adaptation toward full upright walking. However, these primates still lived in shady forests rather than on the savanna.

None-the-less, the full shift to bipedal locomotion was well under way. As such, the proto-human nervous system began to reorganize—to operate in more coordinated ways. This triggered a crucial growth of the brain.

Of course, these creatures were already intelligent enough to use hunks of rock and wood to crack open nuts or dig for tubers. Although, they didn’t shape their tools in any systematic way. Even the most sophisticated tools in their arsenal were simply small twigs, which they used for pulling termites and ants out of their mounds.

So, within a million years or so, a new ape species emerged.  This creature was the gracile Australopithecine. It had a more human-like cranium permitting a larger brain—compared to body size—along with more humanoid facial features.

These primates were still relatively short and had disproportionately long arms. They used these to escape from predators into the safety of the forest canopy. On average, they stood no more than four feet tall. This made these people a major staple in the diet of large predatory animals—like big-toothed felines.

As a result, our paranoid ancestors were forced to use group displays as a scare tactic. However, this was mainly just a whole lot of screaming and arm waving. So, it wasn‘t all that effective.

The only thing that these animals could have used to defend themselves were sticks and stones. Of course, that meant getting close enough to bash something, and that was simply too risky. So, logically, the only option was to throw the objects at the opposition.

Unfortunately, such long distance accurate throwing would require a tremendous deal of brainpower, and this species wasn’t all that smart. After all they had a brain that was only slightly less than half of the size of modern man.

This adaptation resulted from a lack of other defense mechanisms—like sharp teeth or claws. Thus, the australopithecines started to use small stones as projectile weapons. Of course, this was only as a defensive maneuver.

Australopithecine species were not able to throw in an overhand style. Instead, they threw rocks like a man would throw a discus—not a baseball. This wasn’t very accurate. What’s more, they not only lacked the intelligence, but also the dexterity to throw accurately. In fact, no other ape can control a thrown projectile the way a man can, because independent finger control is a uniquely human characteristic.

As a result, the Australopithecines could not contend with the large voracious predators or the highly specialized scavengers of the day. So, our ancestors had to take the scraps that no one else could eat. Fortunately for them, many scavengers would leave behind some of the bones of their feast—especially the skulls. This meant that the marrow and brain were still plentiful because they were so hard to get at. So, to compensate for this, the Australopithecines used sticks and stones to aid in the acquisition of such fatty foods.

As an example, they would use long pieces of wood to scramble and scoop out brain matter from the cranial cavity. They would also use two stones as a primitive hammer and anvil in order to break open bones so they could suck out the nutrient marrow within. This yielded a great deal of energy and served as the building blocks for the growth of the brain.

However, in spite of all this evolution, the only distinctly human physical qualities in Australopithecines related to their bipedal stance. Before their emergence, no mammal had ever developed an anatomy for habitual upright walking.

Of course, the anatomy of these new creatures showed a number of adaptations for bipedalism—in both the upper and lower body. For instance, the Australopithecine’s pelvic bone—which rose above the hip joint—was much shorter and broader than it is in apes. This shape enabled the hip muscles to steady the body during each step. In addition to this, their pelvis also had a bowl-like shape, which supported the internal organs in an upright stance.

The upper legs of an Australopithecine angled inward from the hip joints, which positioned the knees to better support the body during upright walking. The legs of apes, on the other hand, are positioned almost straight down from the hip, so that when an ape walks upright for a short distance, its body sways from side to side.

These creatures also had shorter and less divergent toes than do apes. So, their arched feet worked as rigid levers for pushing off the ground during each bipedal step.

Other adaptations occurred above the pelvis. The Australopithecine spine had an S-shaped curve—which shortened the overall length of the torso and gave it rigidity and balance when standing. By contrast, other apes have a relatively straight spine.

The Australopithecine’s skull also had an important adaptation related to bipedal locomotion. The opening at the bottom of the skull—through which the spinal cord attaches to the brain—was positioned more forward than it is in apes. This set the head in balance over the upright spine.

As a result of this evolutionary development, within a few hundred thousand years, Australopithecines began to explore new territory. Eventually, they ranged widely over the African continent in areas like present-day Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, and Chad.

Once they found a place they liked, Australopithecines would then take control of an area that averaged about ten square miles. As a result, troops often engaged in fierce territorial wars with each other. So, in addition to being at the mercy of predators, Australopithecines were also constantly on guard against rival primates.

As if this wasn‘t bad enough, the climate was also changing. You see, as the Earth orbits the Sun it’s always on a slight angle and this angle had become very severe by about two and a half million years ago. So, the summers began to get cooler—year by year—as the continents came closer and closer to their present positions. This change in climate caused the polar ice caps to grow larger and larger.

Soon after this, the Arctic ice cap had completely formed, and Antarctica was entirely covered by year-round snow and ice. So, the climate was characterized by repeated glacial cycles—of which four were incredibly severe. Each glacial advance tied up huge volumes of water in continental ice sheets—thousands of feet thick—resulting in temporary sea level drops of a few hundred feet. This gradually led to several major extinctions.

Around this time, the gene that encodes myosin was inactivated in our ancestors. This loss was associated with marked reductions in muscle fibers—particularly in the face. In addition to this, testosterone levels had been increasing in both male and female hominids compared to chimpanzee males and females, respectively. Conversely, dehydroepiandrosterone levels were much higher in chimpanzees than humans.

As testosterone levels continued to increase within the human family tree, it increased the use of dehydroepiandrosterone for testosterone-affected tissues. This increase in testosterone positively affected the brains and bodies of the Australopithecines.

This increased the strength and massiveness of the muscles of posture by directing use of dehydroepiandrosterone for these muscles and stimulated habitual upright walking. The increasing testosterone then reduced the effects of estrogen on genital display, while, at the same time, increasing the growth of breasts. So, the signal of female sexual maturity was switched from genital display to breast display—in conjunction with bipedalism.

The basis of this evolutionary transformation resulted from an increase in testosterone amongst females. That is to say, through a process of natural selection, females with higher levels of testosterone increased in number faster than females with lower levels. The increased testosterone of these females then affected the brains of their fetuses. This stimulated larger brain formation. Eventually, this brought about a decrease in the ratio of male to female size.

Ultimately, this gave rise to a new lineage of apes in eastern and southern Africa. These people had smaller jaws and larger skulls. These were the first people to belong to the genus Homo. In other words, these were the first true humans—known as Homo habilis.

Of course, these humancestors were still very much ape-like in their proportions. However, they had smaller and narrower molar teeth than their Australopithecine predecessors did. Homo habilis even had more modern-looking hands and feet. This enabled them with greater dexterity.

As a result, the ability to throw overhand served as the impetus for lateralization in the brain. This differentiation of the cerebrum into two halves is unique to humans. Such an adaptation allows the brain to take both digital and analog approaches to any subject. This meant that the human animal was now capable of the integration and execution of complex sequences of behavior, like those involved in the everyday life of the modern world.

In regards to this, the left hemisphere specializes in verbal and numerical information processed sequentially in an ordered manner. It is the active, verbal, logical, rational, and analytic part of the brain. Thus, it is capable of cataloging and analyzing information.

In sharp contrast to this, the right hemisphere is the intuitive, creative, primarily non-verbal part of our brain and it deals in three-dimensional forms and images. Thus, it is capable of understanding complex configurations and structures through pattern recognition.

This is very important because all of these physiological adaptations made humans more proficient than other animals. This allowed for the development of a wide range of abilities and an unparalleled adaptability in behavior. That is to say, the brain’s size, complexity, and slow maturation means that learned behavior largely modifies instinctive responses.

In other words, each newborn baby possesses a few innate traits and a vast number of potential behaviors. Thus, an infant must be taught to achieve its biological potential as a human being. This is entirely different from something like a worm that doesn’t need to be shown how to live.

As a result of all these new faculties, Homo habilis was able to travel north and thrive—unlike the chimpanzees who lacked the brainpower and physical dexterity to exist in colder climates.

In order to survive in these new conditions, this walking ape also used imitation to transmit ideas and pass on skills. This required what is known as mimetic intelligence. This type of cognition draws upon the use of body language—the nonverbal communication that is signaled by the motions of our faces or limbs. This usually has emotional significance—like when a person opens up his face to communicate interest or contracts it to reject something.

In fact, the postures that you assume on a daily basis are simply the emergent properties of social living. This is because you imitate the expression on a face that you are looking at. This is a universal human tendency. What’s more, such synchronization of mood is crucial to smooth interaction, and it involves the linking and orchestration of physical gestures.

In other words, we tend to seek the company of others in order to confirm our current mood, or the mood that we have a disposition to be in. In other words, to be a member of a group you must mimic the behavior of others in that group—hence the development of mimetic intelligence.

As would be expected, this predated the use of language—including the ability to construct internal narrative sentences. In fact, thinking was restricted to visual images. Internal words and sentences were not available, only images of the process and its goal were available.

This meant that a person was only able to communicate the process and goal through gesture and movement. For instance, a person could indicate that he was hungry by miming the process of eating. Of course, as simple as this seems, this is a distinctly human invention.

That‘s not all though, these primitive humans also invented many other new things as well. This eventually gave rise to the first human cultures by establishing various different units of information—known as memes—that could be reliably replicated.

As an example, Homo habilis became the first creature to make stone flake tools. This resulted from the fact that members of the genus Homo have a well-developed flexor pollicis longus muscle. This feature is rudimentary or altogether absent in other primates, so they can use stone tools, but they can’t construct them.

An example of this process involved breaking and shaping an angular rock by hitting it with a round palm-sized stone. The tools made in this way included things like large axes with a chopping edge, and small, sharp flakes that could be used to scrape and slice.

Of course, these tools were primitive by modern human standards, however they were more advanced than any device that had previously been employed. None-the-less, they gave our early ancestors the edge they needed to prosper in hostile environments previously too formidable for primates.

This was true even in spite of the fact that this species only used these tools for scavenging—such as cleaving meat off of carrion—rather than defense or hunting. In fact, Homo habilis was still so far down on the food chain that he had to frantically butcher carcasses and quickly eat, in order to avoid any predators that might return to a kill.

Then, some new African species—like Homo ergaster—began to experience a significant increase in brain size over earlier species. These newcomers displayed a general trend towards a more modern brain. However, the increase in body size was minimal, which means that there was significantly increased encephalization—about two-thirds the size of a modern human.

This was very important because ergaster’s huge brain had emerged to allow for the development of greater social skills. In addition to this, ergaster was the first primate to have noticeable whites in his eyes. This, too, allowed our ancestors to convey a rich depth of meaning with nothing more than a glance.

Homo ergaster also had the ability to walk long distances. A ligament in this early man’s neck steadied his head and eyes. Additionally, elastic Achilles tendons worked like springs, and strong buttocks stabilized his torso when leaning forward into a stride.

Ergaster could also travel further distances because he possessed an incredibly efficient sweating system. That is to say, his hairless body let heat escape through millions of tiny glands in his skin. This allowed him to regulate his thermal equilibrium.

As a result, a member of this species would sweat instead of pant—even when working hard. This freed up the animal’s breathing for more efficient communication, giving it a greater range of calls. So, these were the first humans to have a modern sounding voice.

In addition to this, natural selection gave rise to the empathy that bonds human family members together. This provided a platform for the development of cooperation between genetically unrelated members of the same species.

This reciprocal form of altruism is fundamental to every animal society in which individuals and their deeds are recognized and remembered. This is because selection for behaviors that support cooperation are an evolutionary force underlying the appearance of a number of things—like a sense of obligation for friends or the upset caused by its betrayal.

As a result of this, the humans of this day and age were beginning to employ a distinct type of food-sharing. They delayed eating until they had returned to the other members of their social group. This was mainly because, by devoting himself to a particular female and sharing food with her, a male could increase the chances of survival for his own offspring.

This new way of sharing came about at the same time as another unprecedented behavior—that of extended infant care. This is due to the fact that animals with large brains have a prolonged period of infant development and childhood because the brain takes a long time to mature. In addition, the human brain becomes very large as it develops, so a woman must give birth to a baby at an early stage of development in order for the infant’s head to fit through her birth canal.

Thus, human babies require a long period of care to reach a stage of development at which they depend less on their parents. In contrast with a fairly modern female, a female Australopithecine could give birth to a baby at an advanced stage of development because its brain would not be very large.

In addition to this, the gender differentiation of the male and female anatomy and the specialization of gender tasks also emerged among these early humans. Since the females had broader hips for childbearing, they tended to spend more time attending to the tasks associated with the hearth. In contrast to this, males remained narrow hipped and roamed about as the hunters and defenders of the family.

Of course, for all of their similarities the divergent species of proto-humans each had very different lifestyles—particularly in regards to things like diet. Some ate termites rather than animals and therefore were not in direct competition with each other. However, feuds and even bouts of cannibalism were not altogether uncommon.

Regardless, the most advanced species at this time—known as Homo erectus—had fairly modern human features. This animal had a low and rounded braincase that was elongated from front to back, a prominent brow ridge, and an adult cranial capacity that was an average of twice that of the Australopithecines.

Their bones were also thicker than those of earlier species. So, they had a muscular body that could withstand powerful movements and stresses. And, although they had much smaller teeth than did the Australopithecines, they had a heavy and strong jaw.

In fact, these creatures had evolved a whole host of complex facial musculature. This enabled them to exhibit a richer range of emotional expression than their predecessors. This emotional expression was supported by an increased complexity of both the components of vocalization—including specific sounds, as well as the volume, pitch, tone, and emphasis of their calls.

In other words, changes in the skull and jaw allowed for the generation of more varied communication. Although, you must understand that language was not being employed. This was just an extension of the mimetic intelligence that was already in use.

This enabled these creatures to become the first early human to fit squarely into the category of a hunter and predator and not as prey for larger animals. This was because our ancestors could now learn about their prey by studying their behavior. This allowed these people to develop strategies and work together as a team.

By this stage of our evolution, early man had also begun to use more diverse and sophisticated tools. This new tradition consisted of increasingly larger and more symmetrical objects—like cleavers that were chipped on both sides to form two cutting edges. This style of work would continue for more millennia.

Of course, by little more than one and a half million years ago, the Earth experienced yet another ice age. As a result, seawater froze into huge glaciers, lowering the level of the oceans by as much as five hundred feet. Subsequently, the edges of the continents that extend out into the ocean became dry land.

The newly uncovered regions quickly added dust to the atmosphere. Some of the dust settled in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, where new layers of ice covered and trapped it. Then, increased plant and animal growth changed the levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere.

This change in the climate reduced the food supply on which Australopithecines depended. So, competition with several other species of plant-eating animals led to their extinction. However, things weren’t so grim for other primates.

Homo erectus had just realized that he could transfer naturally occurring fires to new locations by way of a torch. This controlled use of fire brought about many new changes in his body, brain, and behavior. For instance, he had to resist a great deal of instinctual impulse to flee from the inherent danger that flames possess.

In fact, torch bearing was the highest honor held by primitive men. Of course, this really didn’t affect the social hierarchy, because the guy who had enough courage to play with fire was typically already the alpha male. However, this did increase a clans need for overall social structure.

This was because early man had no idea that fire could be produced by way of sparks. Thus, Homo erectus had to plan ahead by putting together a system for tending a fire at night, and subsequently carrying it through the day as they migrated. This gave rise to the first form of human ritual, along with a religious reverence for an elemental force in nature.

You see, before fire, only tree-climbing skills protected our ancestors from the predators of the night. However, the use of campfires allowed early man to sleep on the ground. This, eventually, enabled him to develop arm and hand shapes that could be used for more than hoisting himself into branches.

In addition to this, a single meal of raw meat takes several hours to chew. Overall, this would have only yielded about the same amount of calories as a fruit diet. So, meat was actually very inefficient to the primates of the time. That is until they figured out how to tenderize meat by cooking it.

Then, fast calories from cooked foods triggered a massive growth spurt. In no time at all, early humans grew to about six feet in height, and the reduced need for digestion allowed their intestines and rib cage to shrink. Furthermore, less chewing allowed their jaw muscles to shrink so their skulls and brains could grow larger.

With all of these new developments, this primitive species of man traveled thousands of miles into Europe and Asia over the course of several millennia. Around 850,000 years ago, our ancestors even used makeshift boats to get to remote places—like the small Indonesian island of Flores. All the while, those members of Homo erectus that remained in Africa changed drastically from those who migrated to different parts of the world.

Around 700,000 years ago environmental conditions in Africa allowed many animals to become much larger than they are today. As such—in this region of the world—one species of early man grew to an average in excess of six feet tall, weighing more than 200 pounds.

This was nature’s attempt to push the envelope of body size, but it had a fatal drawback. This beast of a man used twice the amount of energy than that of a modern human, and the surface area of his skin wasn’t enough to adequately cool his body. So, to avoid dehydration, this species was restricted to living near a constant water supply.

None-the-less, this species eventually became intelligent enough to openly communicate, nearly 400,000 years ago. However, the degree to which the base of their skull was angled was not adequate enough for the larynx to move up or down. So, the full command of articulate speech was not possible at this time.

None-the-less, an open communication system allowed these individuals to recombine symbols to make new meanings from a set of symbols that refer to objects or ideas. This was a significant adaptation because prior to this, a call or sound had one specific meaning. In such a system of communication, new ideas could not be expressed, but now they could.

Less significantly, these people were also responsible for inventing the first throwing spear. This was because they needed a projectile weapon like this in order to catch the enormous prey of the time. In spite of this, their large mass finally forced them to venture north into the cooler climate of Europe.

In addition to this, our giant forefathers faced another problem. This centered around the fact that their offspring went through a longer phase of dependency than any of the previous proto-humans.

Instead of having to raise a child for three or four years, these individuals spent five or six years meticulously caring for their young. This meant that children could be better prepared to face the world on their own, however it also meant that the families would have to invest more time and energy on their kids.

This was simply too much for us to take. So, the human brain size stopped its slow trend toward enlargement. At this point, human intelligence was the result of a hundred billion neurons and a hundred trillion synapses.

This means that the average human brain can process 400,000,000,000 bits of information every second. However, a person is only even remotely aware of about 2,000 of these. The remainder of this is subliminal.

As an example, consider the fact that there are several imperceptible motions that affect life here on Earth. As the planet rotates on its axis, it spins through space at a little more than a thousand miles an hour. The Milky Way revolves at the mind-boggling speed of 185 miles-per-second, as it spins around the super-massive black hole to which it is anchored. This goes on and on to larger and larger scales—including things like the motion of the galaxy in the universe and the motion of the universe in the cosmos.

Just, the thought of all this can be dizzying—or at least unsettling. However, the body doesn’t notice. These forces have always affected life. So, you would really only notice if they changed suddenly and significantly. Regardless, the point is that your brain takes notice of absolutely everything that goes on around you—whether you notice it or not.

None-the-less, at this point in our story, the increased mental activity in the forebrain of early humans led to new abilities. What’s more, many of the remaining human species began to develop new ways of moving their mouths, and this eventually led to the ability to talk. That is to say, the evolution from percepts to concepts gave rise to the faculty of speech.

This new ability came as a response to the information overload that arose when the capacity of the previous set of communicative skills could no longer cope with the rising level of complexity in early human life. That is to say, as our ancestors began to live in bigger social groups, and engage in large-scale coordinated hunting, their minds could no longer cope with the demands of life solely on the basis of their perceptual senses.

As a result, a new level of intelligence emerged in the form of language. Of course, this new form of communication retained features of the proto-language from which it emerged. However, it also added new elements to deal with the stresses to which it was responding.

This is a distinctive feature of the cerebral cortex, whereas the vocal calls of primates and other animals are controlled by older neural structures in the brain stem and limbic system that generate emotional behaviors. As such, these older structures still control primitive vocalizations—like laughter.

So, the first concepts were actually the first words of spoken language. In this way, spoken language and abstract conceptual thinking emerged together from the concrete percept based thinking of pre-lingual humans. As a result, this transition served as the defining moment for the emergence of fully modern humans—like you.

What’s more, the advent of language enabled our ancestors to communicate ideas more efficiently. They could now exchange information about both past and future events, about objects that are not present, and about complex philosophical or technical concepts. More importantly, this helped man transcend the level of personal mental isolation. That is to say, by sharing their inner most secrets people were now able to bond with one another—in way that no other animal could.

In other words, language is an adaptation that developed to support the distinctions that need to be made in increasingly complex social organizations. Early human alliances based on grooming had become impractical as the increasing amount of time spent on grooming in a complex society interfered with other activities. So, language evolved—in part—as a substitute for grooming.

However, social status continued to play an important role in the organization of kinship. By naming individuals and relationships, it became possible to articulate the rules of social interactions between people. This made it easier to distinguish among close kin and individuals in other lineages. This laid the foundation for modern nuclear families, which set about the gradual decline of communal living amongst the humans of this era.

Of these, the Neanderthal was a species that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia about 230,000 years ago. They were adapted to cold climates, having short limbs to conserve heat and broad noses to cool them down to prevent them from making any sweat that would then freeze.

Most Neanderthals were very robust, standing about five and a half feet tall. They were also very muscular, comparable to modern weightlifters. Their skeletal features included a bowing of the limb bones in some individuals, broad shoulder blades, hip joints turned outward, a long and thin pubic bone, short lower leg and arm bones relative to the upper bones, and large surfaces on the joints of the toes and limb bones.

These squat little people lived in a frozen wasteland. As a result, this harsh climate changed their outlook on life. Only the most devastating hardships were noticed. So, a broken bone—for instance—was nothing to fuss over. In fact, they were beaten around by their environment so much that less than one in ten Neanderthals ever reached the age of 40.

In contrast to this, the skeletal structure typical of Homo sapiens began to emerge in Africa, around 130,000 years ago. These new features included a much smaller brow ridge, a globe-shaped brain case, and a flat or only slightly projecting face of reduced size—located under the front of the brain case.

Of course, other early humans had evolved independently in other parts of the world. As an example, one particular species lived on some of the Indonesian islands, around 94,000 years ago.

However, in the limited food environment on Flores, these early humans underwent strong dwarfism. The resultant species was roughly 3 feet tall and weighed about 50 pounds, having long arms relative to their size.

In addition to the small body size, they had a remarkably small brain, which was reduced considerably—relative to this species’ immediate ancestor. Nonetheless, these proto-people’s intelligence did not differ much at all. That is, for a little while at least.

Then, something profound began to happen to the Homo sapiens—back in Africa. These people lived in caves near the water, so they didn’t have to hunt or scavenge—all they had to do was fish. As a result, the abundance of omega-3 fatty acids made it easier for signals to jump the gap between neurons in their brains. This served as a catalyst for an evolution of the imagination by improving memory and concentration.

In addition to this, the increase in mental activity slowly caused a rewiring of the human brain. This eventually brought about an evolution of consciousness, which enabled people to focus on themselves, rather that the external world.

To better understand this, consider the fact that when an animal goes to a watering hole and bends down to take a drink it will not notice its own reflection. However, when the first truly modern human saw himself on the surface of the water, he could understand that he was seeing a reflection of himself.

This is because fully modern human beings have the capacity to become aware of and observe their own thoughts. This is an independent research method that leads to a conscious experience of subjective reality. In other words, at this point, man became aware of the fact that he experiences specific mental events, emits behaviors, and possesses unique characteristics. As a result, humans became aware of both personal and social levels of self.

This was so enticing to some people that they began to actively daydream. Some of these individuals would sit motionless, for lengthy periods of time—resisting their desires to twitch and squirm—while they explored the inner depths of their own minds. Even after cramp and fatigue, they continued to meditate.

This allowed certain brain circuits to be interrupted. For instance, the amygdalae were dampened. This served to eliminate any sense of fear within the individual.

The amygdalae are two almond-shaped masses of neurons that are located deep inside the temporal lobe. They are involved in detecting and learning what parts of an animal’s surroundings are important and have emotional significance. When these centers for the identification of danger are triggered, they give rise to fear and anxiety—which lead the animal into a stage of alertness.

That is to say, the scanning mind of the amygdalae gives rise to intuition by subconsciously comparing the present moment to every similar situation that the brain has encountered. Then, when something out of the ordinary is detected, a signal is sent to the conscious mind warning against the potential threat. Of course, this often manifests as a feeling of general uneasiness and is not necessarily indicative of the specific danger itself—as is the case with instincts.

Additionally, parietal-lobe circuits require sensory input to give someone a sense of physical orientation and a distinction between the body and the environment. So, when this is inactivated one feels connected to everything. Furthermore, frontal and temporal-lobe circuits mark time and generate self-awareness. So, when they disengage the sense of self briefly drops out.

Then, after extended periods of meditation, synchronization of the two hemispheres produces alpha and theta brainwaves with high amplitude. That is to say, the right hemisphere—the seat of emotion—is stimulated and then the left hemisphere—the seat of language—is called upon to make sense of this experience. As a result, the mind generates a sensed presence. This is often interpreted as an awareness of the supreme being. However this might just be a mimic of the ontological observer and not necessarily an actual perception.

Either way, by engaging in these mystical experiences, the ancient explorers were able to encounter their inner most level of being—in the multiverse of imaginary space-time. In regards to this, the use of the term “imaginary” refers to both the alternate space-time continuum and the creative faculties of the mind.

This is no coincidence. These seemingly unconnected things are actually facets of the same reality. In other words, consciousness literally take place in the quantum world of imaginary space-time. This is true of any act of imagination.

To sum it all up, the use of an inner narrative now allowed people to become aware of the fact that they were self-aware. So, instead of just being able to be content, an individual was aware of the fact that he was actually satisfied and he knew why. At this point, a man was able to understand that he will stay the same person across time and that he is the generator of all his thoughts and actions—whether he is awake or asleep.

The latter allows an individual to transfer his awareness from physical to imaginary space-time through the use of dreams. This enables the brain to find solutions to unresolved problems and to form long-term memories. In other words, a dream is just an imaginary drama that the brain uses to convey meaning to the rational mind or to examine an experience.

So, in some instances, dreams are nothing more than the process by which the brain integrates new information. However, other dreams are actual scenes of places, people, and objects that arise from the depths of the unconscious.

To put it another way, dreams are a way to personally experience the world of the soul. They are a collection of subjective images in multiversal space-time that are put together to create a story.

Unfortunately, this can be very confusing. As an example, a primitive girl might wake up thinking that she was just traveling about and having conversations with others. Yet, her companions will assure her that she has been asleep all night and has not moved. This led to a great deal of reflection and speculation.

In time, humans eventually came to the conclusion that there is a soul which inhabits the body but is able to leave the body during sleep and communicate with other souls. When the soul returns to the body, the person wakes up again and is reanimated. But when the person dies, it is because the soul has left the body for good.

At this point, the question of life after death led to a refusal to accept death as the ultimate termination of one’s identity. This fear of death and urge for immortality resulted from self-awareness. This challenged our ancestors to find the meaning of life, and with it, genuine happiness.

As a result, select people around the world decided to investigate the inner reality of the ego even further. This necessitated the ability to consciously interact with the multiverse firsthand, so a few brave people began inducing altered states of consciousness.

To experience this psychedelic facet of existence, they began to unlock the secrets of lucid dreaming and intentionally selected, prepared, and consumed plants and fungi that were known to contain hallucinogenic alkaloids.

Once exposed to a fully effective dose, a primitive human would then disconnect from the three-dimensional bodily organism and enter into the imaginary universe where he could function—for a short period of time—as a disembodied personality. Once there, he was able to become accustomed to that realm of archetypal existence and apparently communicate with other discarnate entities.

As a result, these humans—known as shamans—were able to show the way of navigating the mythic regions of the land of the dead. In this way, the shamans served as mediums through which help was channeled.

This typically involved journeys to imaginary space-time in order to interpret and bring back advice for one or more members of the community. This was an intentional effort on the part of the shaman to develop ongoing relationships with otherworldly beings and to keep the lines of communication open.

From these encounters, the archaic priests determined that once a being lives it never ceases to be. That is to say, a soul—being the imaginary counterpart of the body—continues on in the afterlife. Furthermore, they decreed that death is but a dream.

What‘s more, having encountered this other-worldly existence, the shaman’s quickly came to the conclusion that everything contains some sort of intangible core identity. So, man’s religious reverence of the impressive activities of nature progressed to a belief in things like ghosts and deities.

The idea that there are things like souls and demons is known as animism. This was the core from which all other aspects of religion sprang. As a result, beliefs in sorcery, divination, the soul, and life after death can be found in every culture.

In addition to this, there are further conclusions that can be drawn from animistic beliefs. One assumption is that after the soul has left the body it may continue an existence after death or may be reborn in another form. The rise of ancestor worship would be yet another consequence of this discovery.

There is also a wide spread belief in spirit possession. This is the idea that a discarnate entity can take over a living body, temporarily dislodging its rightful occupant. As a result, rites of exorcism were developed, to drive out invading spirits. Although, many societies do practice voluntary spirit possession.

From this it was reckoned that if a spirit can invade a living organism, then perhaps it can also take up residence in an object—like a statue. So, shamans began to believe that everything had a personality of its own. Therefore, they felt that anything could be treated as though it was sentient.

In other words, they felt that any concept, force, or object that manifested as a type of entity should be treated as such. This was true of everything that early humans interacted with—including animals, plants, rocks, and even natural forces like wind, lightning, or fire.

Furthermore, by acquainting themselves with the personified entities of their surrounding environment these people encountered new vistas of lore. From this polytheistic pantheons began to spring up out of the minds of these near-civilized people.

This transition to a new level of intelligence collected the scattered notions of a verbal culture under the governance of integrative mythologies. These fables served as the impetus that worked to unearth higher levels of consciousness in the minds of primitive man. This was because these stories sought to explain how and why things are the way they are.

In so doing, the shamans set a standard of living above and beyond what was required of them. Then, as time went on, people continued to do more and more things that weren’t absolutely essential to their survival.

As an example, tools were being made with a sense of pride and aesthetics. People also began to organize their cave dwellings. Some people even decorated their homes and their bodies with natural dyes and strands of shell beads.

In fact, decorations and adornments quickly became very fashionable. This took the form of culturally unique clothing, jewelry, and many other forms of personal expression—like body modification. Furthermore, these advances toward defining normality served as the next evolution of ritual ceremony—being communal rites of passage that tribe members were eager to indulge in.

Through transitional rites of passage, each major change in life is incorporated into the domain of the sacred. These ceremonies are preformed at certain stages in the life cycle of an individual when he moves from one status to another. For instance, a ceremony may be performed at birth to greet the new baby and welcome it into the world of the living. Later, initiation ceremonies mark the transition from childhood to adulthood at puberty. Then, death is the final occasion for rites of transition.

During many of these celebrations people sang, danced, clapped, stomped, and played their primitive instruments. Some of these rituals also served as religious expression and devotion to the natural forces that were personified as spirits.

Subsequently, all of the myths that attempted to explain the wonders of the world gradually became legends. These were then recounted—often even reenacted—and central to the establishment of different cultures. This development of new memes led to specific dialects, distinctive clothing and body markings, and tribally divergent social structures.

Then, around 73,000 years ago, a major volcanic eruption occurred in the largest part of Indonesia. This was three thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens. So, the volcanic winter that followed drastically reduced the number of Homo sapiens to a mere two thousand individuals. As such, the entire modern human genome can be traced back to this small band of dark-skinned people.

These survivors were grouped into tribal communities of around thirty individuals. This number correlates to the smallest number of people needed to avoid interbreeding—although many tribes instinctively traded members as a further precaution.

In addition to this, the catastrophe had dwindled the stocks of marine fauna in the Red Sea, so man had to set out in search of better fishing grounds. As a result, the first modern humans that left Africa to populate the world headed south along the coasts of the Arabian peninsula.

Later, Homo sapiens traveled east until they reached the Pacific Ocean. Then, more than 50,000 years ago, the first humans arrived in Australia. The latter of these came in bamboo rafts from Indonesia.

Then, the Aborigines began systematically burning down the forests. As a result, many of the land-dwelling fauna weighing over 100 pounds went extinct. In all, some 55 species died off from this destruction.

By now, people everywhere were beginning to become wholly consumed with spiritual practices. The resulting ceremonial observances often centered around the reverence of animals—due to the fact that hunters wanted to better understand their prey.

So, the best way that they felt they could do this was through some sort of communion with the animals themselves. This led to elaborate theatrical portrayals in which people actually dressed as, and mimicked, the animals that they wished to have dominion over.

This also led to elaborate cave paintings that depicted animals and the hunting thereof. These were not merely decorative pieces of art. On the contrary, they served the same religious purpose as the actual ceremonies themselves. They were meditative focal points and statements of intent.

Soon after this, humans made significant advances in hunting. People cooperated in large expeditions in which they killed great numbers of animals on the expansive grasslands that existed at the time. As a result, our ancestors became specialists in hunting certain kinds of animals in the various different regions of the world.

It was also at this time that humans developed the most advanced stone tool-making techniques. This involved removing the top from a stone, leaving a flat platform, and then breaking off multiple blades down the sides of the stone.

Using these generic blades, people then made exquisitely shaped spearheads, knives, and numerous other kinds of tools. The most advanced stone tools also exhibited distinct and consistent regional differences in style—reflective of a high degree of cultural diversity.

As a result, innovations in the making and use of tools and in obtaining food eventually led to more efficient and less physically taxing lifestyles, and thus caused changes in the skeleton of modern humans. That is to say, the bones of the average human skeleton have become much smaller and thinner.

Shortly after this, people of the Mongolian race migrated to the North American continent from Asia over a land bridge across what is now the Bering Strait. From these humble beginnings human habitation slowly spread south and eastward.

These earliest of these inhabitants were primitive people, who lived by hunting and gathering, using implements like those from Southeast Asia. They were later supplanted by other migrants with more advanced tools. These people were the earliest ancestors of the Native North Americans.

Modern man also migrated into Europe from central Asia and the Middle East. Here he encountered Neanderthal man. Of course, these early types of man had very similar lifestyles. For instance, they both engaged in elaborate cave painting.

In fact, some of the painting was done in places that primitive people would have had to gone to great lengths to get to. For instance, some areas could only have been reached by crawling through very narrow tunnels—with a lit torch, no less. This further reinforces the significance of not only the images themselves, but also the sacred spaces in which they were painted.

Primitive people often believed that ceremonies should not be performed without a connection to a specific place.  They felt that the areas where miracles and revelations occurred were to be remembered and utilized over and over again. To them mystic events were not to be considered as general messages valid for all places, but rather specific insights relative to certain locations. As a result, the shamans established special places to localize the sacred in the midst of ordinary space. This meme has been a part of religious culture ever since.

In addition to this, early man and Neanderthal man both employed similar techniques in many of the other activities in which they engaged. None-the-less, these divergent people were very much unique from one another.

For a while, these species lived together, attempting to maintain their distinct cultural identities and genetic lineages. However, by 27,000 years ago the Neanderthals had been completely outsourced. So, they went extinct.

At this point, ice covered almost all of the area of present-day Canada that lies east of the Rocky Mountains. The southern edge of the ice sheet crossed the geographic region that is now the northern United States.

Another ice sheet covered much of the land that is currently northern Europe, from southern England across northern Germany into Poland and eastern Russia. Smaller ice sheets and ice caps also existed at high altitudes in most of the world’s mountain regions.

As a result, glacial cycles altered the Earth’s landscape significantly. Erosion caused by ice, wind, and water leveled mountains and cut open deep valleys. Melting glaciers deposited huge amounts of rocks and dirt far from their origins. The weight of the ice pushed down pieces of the earth’s crust during each glacial stage. During the following interglacial stage, the piece of crust would gradually recover and rise back into place.

Huge glacial lakes appeared in North America as the continental ice sheets melted away. In addition to this, the lower sea level and changing patterns in ocean currents throughout the world modified the weather and climate of many areas.

In regions closer to the equator, increased rainfall created lakes in what are now desert areas in North America, Africa, and Australia. In South America, cooler, drier temperatures in what is now rain forest along the Amazon River turned some areas into grassland.

Many modern soils upon which present-day humans depend for food are a product of these effects. This occurred as the glaciers plowed up rocks and dirt as they advanced. Then, strong winds took the finer particles of silt and spread them into today’s topsoil.

During this period, the tiny men of Flores briefly coexisted with modern humans—who had arrived in the region more than 30,000 years ago. Then, nearly 13,000 years ago, a volcanic eruption on Flores was responsible for the demise of these little people, along with other local fauna.

After this, Homo sapiens were all that remained from the long lineage of human prototypes. So, Homo sapiens soon scattered all over the world. This led to subtle regional adaptations—like the color of people’s eyes.

Humans differ from other primates in the fact that they show more variation in eye color. Of course, since brown is the only eye color you see in most primates, it is still the most common human iris pigment. Other eye colors—like blue or green—are recent human innovations. These lighter eye colors are more common in fair skinned people—except East Asians. Light eye color is less sensitive to glare, which was an advantage to people living in northern climates—like Europe. East Asian people, on the other hand, developed an eye fold that accomplishes much the same result. Thus, they too have brown eyes.

Regardless, life was harsh for all of these individuals—in spite of where they lived or what they looked like. For instance, most people had to build permanent homes—to shelter from the increasingly longer winters. Then, in the summer, they followed the herds, and lived in mobile tents.

The winter homes were built tepee style, from branches and mammoth bones, covered with animal hides. These huts were used for many years, so they were meticulously constructed. Holes were dug deeply into the ground. Poles were then inserted into the holes, and tied tightly together at the top—with string made from animal guts. Warm furs were laid over this structure and sewn tightly in place. Large rocks were piled around the base—to help hold the hut together.

In the summer, the tribe moved, following the animals. During the warm seasons, they lived in sturdy tents, that could be moved from place to place. As winter approached, they returned to their sturdy permanent shelters. They also used pits dug in the permafrost as natural freezers, and hearths in which hot stones were used to heat water in skin-lined pits.

Then, the world experienced a drop in temperature so intense that nothing of the size, extent, or rapidity has been experienced since. Of course, this ice age had the greatest effect in Europe. This included things like the replacement of forests in Scandinavia with glacial tundra, increased snow in all the mountain ranges around the world, and more dust in the atmosphere—originating from the desert droughts in Asia.

This drying of the climate in Southwestern Asia led to the need for new sources of food. This was because the drought endangered the staple diet which consisted of wild cereals. These grains could no longer compete with dry land scrub, so by artificially clearing scrub and planting seeds obtained from elsewhere, people began to practice agriculture.

This brought about an increase in the size of communities. However, back in Europe, people were still hunting and gathering—rather than farming. So, the size of a tribe was determined largely by the seasonal resources that were available at any given time. This is because foraging species tend to aggregate or disperse depending upon the nature of the local resources.

Aggregation occurs when resources are the most concentrated, mobile, unpredictable, short-lived or low in diversity. Conversely, dispersion into smaller social units will occur when resources are dispersed, sedentary, predictable, long-lasting, or diverse. Furthermore, resources of various types may be harvested at the same time, meaning foraging groups will often combine aspects of dispersion and aggregation in the formation of co-residential multi-family social units.

Despite these complications, European hunter-gatherer groups often fluctuated seasonally in size between that of a nuclear family-sized groups in times of resource scarcity, and large aggregations of multi-family units—containing dozens of individuals—during periods of resource abundance, such as caribou migration or annual fish runs.

Of course, the glacial environmental changes affected hunter-gatherer settlement patterns. These conditions, and the typical northern latitude dependence on hunted game promoted social organization into highly mobile, multi-family social units throughout much of the year. The seasonal subsistence cycle was then interspersed with substantial aggregation events that brought numerous such multi-family groups together for short periods of time.

These periods of cooperation allowed for trade and mating. This, in turn, brought about the first form of commerce and a greater diversification of cultures and gene-pools. Furthermore, an exchange of information markedly reduced the chance of risk and increased the rate of success amongst foraging people.

Over time, these multi-family aggregations continued to aggregate during the winter months. However, individual groups were becoming more evenly scattered across the landscape. So, the average distance between groups declined, and the need for formalized information exchange during large gatherings became less critical to group survival. However, some aggregation continued to occur for social reasons—such as mate selection and seasonal ceremonies.

The latter were celebrated as the result of the waxing and waning of the year, when people noticed that the natural rhythm of life shifted. As such, the first holidays were celebrated on the solstices—when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator and the equinoxes—when day and night are of equal length.

Of these, the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, occurring about the third week of December. This festival was often observed from sunset to sunrise. To primitive man, this was a period when things seemed inert. However, it was believed that within this dormancy some of the deepest growth was actually taking place. After all, it is in the winter when seeds lie frozen within the Earth.

The ancients felt that the vernal equinox rolled back the night, allowing light to triumph over darkness. As such, this festival was typically celebrated in the latter half of March, during the dawning hours of the day. This is when the long since hibernating animals emerged and the vegetation reawakened spawning new buds. So, humans were then able to break free from the bleak hand of winter and spring back to life.

The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, which occurs during the latter half of June. So, this holiday was often observed from sunrise to sunset. This celebration marked the beginning of the dark half of the cycle, as the days grew shorter and shorter over the coming months.

The autumn equinox brought forth a reigning darkness after its celebration in the third week of September, amidst the evening dusk. This was a time to stop and survey the harvest that was brought in over the seasons past. It was also during this stage of the year that the seeds of life fell upon the earth, preparing for the next generation. So, the ancients used this time to rebalance and set things right before the harsh winter destruction returned.

As a result of these and other religious observances, this era of history marked the nearly world-wide rise of paganism amongst the nomadic wandering tribes. This period also served to replace the shaman with the office of the priest.

The priest differed from the shaman in many ways. He didn’t have to have any particular dreams or visions. He succeeded to an office, while the shaman actually had to acquire skills. The priest did not depend upon spirit helpers. His authority came form the religious order of which he was a part.

Then, by little more than 10,000 years ago, world sea levels rose about 110 feet. The sea level rise and temporary land depression allowed temporary marine incursions into areas that are now far from the sea. Apart from temporary incursions, post-glacial rebound in the region of Scandinavia resulted in the formation of the Baltic Sea.

Although geographic shifts were minor, climatic shifts were very large. As a product of earlier glaciation, the maximum planetary warmth flowed south to north—with southern latitudes displaying maximum warming a few millennia before the northern hemisphere regions.

Habitable zones expanded northwards. Large mid-latitude areas—such as the Sahara—that were previously productive became deserts. In fact, many of the large lakes that existed in these areas are now quite arid.

At this time, ice covered much of North America, Scandinavia, and other northern and southern latitude and high altitude regions of the world. However, the ice was melting rapidly, and substantial glacial lakes, including ancestors of the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada, formed at the edge of melting glaciers.

By about 6,500 years ago, the last remnants of the ice which had covered most of Canada finally vanished from either side of Hudson Bay. Afterward, the only continental ice existed at high altitudes and northerly latitudes.

The retreat of glaciers caused significant shifts in the areas that animals and plants occupied. At this time, species re-colonized the recently uncovered land. As the climate warmed, some animal and plant species became separated from other populations. In some cases species thrived in their new habitats and in some cases they did not. Human hunting practices and new diseases carried by migrating animals also made a difference in whether some of these species lived on or became extinct.

Then, as the climate, vegetation, and fauna became increasingly more modern, early human populations—across the world—began to control the breeding of plants and, to a lesser extent, animals. This was due to the fact that the widespread extinction of many of the larger game animals had served as an impetus for human populations to begin to develop wholly new means of acquiring food in order to meet protein and fat requirements. This change in diet had profound implications for nutritional ecology, health, and behavior in the people living at this time.

The adoption of a primarily agricultural lifestyle represented an improvement in the human condition, forming the very foundation of modern social structure. Farmers didn‘t need to work quite so hard, so they had more spare time, and they enjoyed better health than their foraging forebears did. Furthermore, people no longer needed to move around constantly. With an agricultural base, they had the luxury of living in villages.

However, this new lifestyle did have a down side. One of the most profound changes to occur with the foraging to farming transition was the widespread decline in oral health. In particular, many people were plagued by a disease characterized by the demineralization of teeth.

This resulted from organic acids that were produced by a bacterial fermentation of dietary carbohydrates—like sugars. This led to cavities—ranging from a slight discoloration of the enamel to a complete loss of crown matter.

The transition from foraging to farming also involved a reduced availability of animal protein. This occurred in conjunction with an increased reliance on a limited number of domesticated plants—such as rice in Asia, wheat in Europe, millet in Africa, and corn in the Americas.

On average, these plants offered a poor nutritional base. This resulted in diseases, like iron deficiency related anemia. Stunted growth was also very common amongst these people. For instance, there was a general facial reduction, along with tooth overcrowding—due to the shift from chewing hard foods to chewing soft, prepared foods. This soft texture was related to the extended periods of cooking and boiling in ceramic vessels.

In addition to this, the massive increase in sedentary population size was conducive to the maintenance and spread of infectious disease. In fact, many specific infectious diseases were not present in humans until relatively late in prehistory. Of course, this increase in crowd-based infectious disease was not a direct result of dietary change, but rather was a consequence of altered living conditions.

None-the-less, the ability to feed more mouths per unit area of land far outweighed any of these disadvantages. Thus, the immediate ancestors of modern man were incredibly willing to make a few sacrifices in order to lay the foundation of civilization.

About 7,000 years ago, fundamental differences in the Earth’s geography made regions of the world more favorable for the development of advanced societies. As an example, the Eurasian landmass provided a much larger number of plant and animal species that were amenable to domestication than other areas of the world.

As a result, the first true civilizations began to emerge in fertile places like the valleys of Mesopotamia and India, as well as along the banks of the Nile. This was mainly due to the fact that it had become necessary for the people in these areas to form cities that controlled areas up to several hundred square miles.

In order to oversee the diversity of people, some of these societies developed the world’s first systems of monarchy. The duties of such rulers included things like leading the military, administering trade, judging disputes, and engaging in important religious ceremonies.

Furthermore, these officials often ruled through a series of bureaucrats—many of whom were priests—that carefully surveyed land, assigned fields, and distributed crops after harvest. This new institution of monarchy required the invention of a political system, beyond the tribal justification of leadership based on concepts of kinship and responsibility.

Moreover, it became necessary to justify a monarch’s authority based on a type of divine selection. In some cases, the monarch himself was actually considered holy and worthy of worship. However, in order to maintain any such authority, it became necessary to establish some form of law. This was kind of like a hybrid between individual revenge and state-administered revenge.

This new form of living also greatly changed the human relation to food production. When people began to live in cities, a large part of the population ceased to grow or raise its own food. This meant that all those people who did the farming needed to get the crops to all of those who didn‘t. This required some sort of distribution mechanism, which subsequently required some form of record keeping. This led to the invention of writing.

These early writings—aside from the numbers themselves—were simply pictures of the words that they represented—known as pictographic writing. These picture words were inscribed on wet clay, which would then dry into stone-hard tablets.

All this administration required much more careful planning, and all the bureaucratic record keeping demanded some kind of efficient system of measuring periods of time. So, people began to make calendars. This interest led to the development of a relatively sophisticated knowledge of astronomy.

Then, the advent of record keeping continued to further the evolution of human intelligence. In particular, record keeping required people to start calculating. All that number crunching led people to begin crude speculations about the nature of numbers and the calculations thereof. This led to the development of mathematics.

Subsequently, writing and mathematics gave rise to the world’s first formal systems of education. These schools required teachers who conducted scholarship and specialized study which in turn generated a new information overload.

Then, about 1,500 years before the common era, waves of people from Central Asia swept into the Indus Valley. They destroyed the cities they encountered, settling finally in the Ganges Valley of northeast India.

Their religion created an elaborate caste system that stratified society. From this arose a priestly caste, known as the Brahmans. Shortly thereafter, these individuals took their ritual hymns that had been orally passed down for centuries and used them to write the Rig Veda. This was the first religious text ever written.

Around this time, the principles of good and evil emerged in Persia. First and foremost in this belief structure were the god of light and his twin brother the god of darkness. These deities controlled archangels and demons that were constantly at battle with one another. The Persians also believed that the righteous would ultimately prevail over the wicked. This demented way of thinking laid the foundation for Western society.

Of course, this wasn’t the only thing that would influence the Western world. You see, the Greeks began to organize themselves into independent city-states at this time. Then, having broke with the Mediterranean tradition of royal rule, they struggled to create new kinds of political organization for their growing communities. So, they came to the conclusion that people should share things. In so doing, the Greeks invented democracy.

In addition to this, the earliest Greek philosophers already knew that the physical world was governed by laws of nature, and not by the whims of the gods. As a result, their insistence on rationality opened the way to modern science.

Soon after this, a group of wandering teachers—known as Sophists—opened the first school in Athens. Unfortunately, they were more interested in preparing their students to argue persuasively than in teaching principles of truth.

However, unlike the Sophists, some Greek philosophers sought to discover and teach universal principles. These people taught by asking probing questions that forced their students to think deeply about the meaning of existence.

Of course, this was true in the east as well. By now, the system of political alliances in China had proved untenable. So, to maintain and increase power, state rulers sought the advice of teachers and strategists. This fueled intellectual activity and debate, and intense reappraisal of traditions. As a result, highly influential schools of Eastern thought emerged during this period.

One such philosophy—known as Cofucianism—sought to develop a more perfect society in which rulers and subjects, nobles and commoners, parents and children, and men and women would wholeheartedly accept the parts assigned to them, devoting themselves to their responsibilities to others.

The doctrines of Taoism also emerged during this dynasty. This system of thought is based on a disapproval of the unnatural. As such, Taoists often act spontaneously rather than plotting and analyzing. In this way, they feel that they are in tune with everything else.

Legalism differed from both Confucianism and Taoism in its narrow focus on statecraft. That is to say, Legalists reasoned that the extreme disorders of their day called for new and drastic measures. They rejected the Confucian theory that strong government depended on the moral quality of the ruler and his officials and their success in winning over the people. Rather, they argued, it depended on effective systems of rewards and punishments.

Back in the Western world, the Greeks began to believe that they lived in an unchanging world of universal concepts. Learned men asserted that since true knowledge is the same in every place at every time, education, like truth, should be unchanging.

Luckily, within a few decades, philosophy had become a little more grounded in reality. Scholars sought to discover the natural laws that governed the universe and then follow these laws in their lives. Eventually, they even developed a method of education designed to prepare students to serve as government officials. Their studies consisted of things like rhetoric, politics, ethics, and history. Of course, they also practiced public speaking.

The most powerful Greek thinkers were skeptical about appearances. Unfortunately, scientific investigation was limited by a lack of technology. People could only wonder about things too small to see with the naked eye, and they could not do experiments that required measurements of very small amounts of time or distance. Therefore, they had no choice but to make ideas and theory more important than practical applications.

None-the-less, science soon became an organized system of thought. This explained nature in a methodical way. For instance, it was assumed that matter consisted of small, indivisible particles. These were thought to be made of the same basic material—although no one speculated as to what that might be.

In addition to this, the mathematical masterpieces of the preceding centuries were thoroughly discussed in the various centers of Greek learning. As a result, the Greeks soon discerned things like the geometry of the circle and the elementary theory of areas and volumes.

At this time, philosophers also began to concentrate on ethics, helping people achieve tranquility in a period of change when things seemed out of their control. As a result, it was soon assumed that people should not be afraid because everything is composed of invisible particles that dissolve painlessly at death.

Unfortunately though, medicine was still very limited. Doctors knew of herbal remedies that could treat injuries and reduce pain, and they could do some minor surgery. However, they had no cures for infections, so even well-conditioned people could die quickly from disease at any age.

Then, about 300 years before the common era, China embarked on a program of Legalist administrative, economic, and military reforms. As a result, the king decided that his title was inadequate. So, he proclaimed himself to be the first emperor of China.

Within a couple hundred years, the population had reached 58 million. Trade and industry flourished, cities grew, and important cultural centers began to attract the best writers and scholars from every corner of the Eastern world.

Shortly after this, Buddhism arrived in China as the religion of merchants from Central Asia. This system differed markedly from earlier Chinese religions and philosophies. As a universal religion, it embraced all people, regardless of their ethnicity or social status. To many Chinese, Buddhism seemed at first a variant of Taoism—mainly because Taoist terms were used to translate Buddhist concepts.

In time, the Roman Empire grew so large that no one emperor could control and protect it all in times of crisis. So, the nation eventually split into two parts, each with its own emperor. The dividing line fell between present-day Italy and mainland Greece. This split in imperial rule brought about a change in culture.

The Latin-speaking Greeks in the west dwindled away, suffering along with their non-Greek neighbors as Germanic invaders gradually took over that part of the empire. In the eastern half—known the Byzantine Empire—Greeks maintained their language and culture.

With the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire, the traditions of classical education and literary culture were disrupted and attenuated. Literacy became one of the professional skills of the clergy. Many monasteries kept chronicles or annals, often the anonymous work of generations of monks, which simply recorded whatever the author knew of events, year by year, without any attempt at artistic or intellectual elaboration.

All the while, churchmen were hard at work trying to establish a standardized body of Christian teachings. As a result, Christian propaganda soon spread through sermons and biblical writings.

Then, in the seventh century, the religion of Islam emerged. Soon after this, the tenets of this philosophy were collected into an Arabic-language book called the Koran.

This rise of monotheistic beliefs slowly changed the things that Westerners valued. For instance, people became more concerned with what was believed to occur after death than what was actually happening in their daily lives.

Fortunately these idiots failed to convert the countries within the sphere of influence of the Chinese. As a result, the Buddhist monastic establishment grew rapidly in the east.

Then, the Holy Roman Empire emerged when the king of the Franks subdued western Germany, large parts of Italy, and sections of the surrounding countries. He received substantial help from an alliance with the Pope, who wanted to cut the remaining ties with the Byzantine Empire. In this way the domain of the Pope became an independent state in central Italy.

Shortly after this, China’s international position weakened and the court faced financial difficulties and opposition to Buddhism as a foreign religion emerged among influential intellectuals. Around this time, the emperor began a full-scale persecution of the Buddhist establishment. As a result, the government began losing control of the country.

Then, as if religion hadn’t done enough damage, a new Islamic group—the Seljuk Turks—emerged and began to ravage the Byzantine Empire. So, naturally, the emperor asked for military help.

As a result, the Pope launched the First Crusade—a massive armed pilgrimage against the forces of Islam. European fighters met with the emperor to coordinate their strategy, however it was soon discovered that the two sides had very different interests. The Byzantines wanted to protect their own territory from Muslim invasion and saw the Crusaders only as reinforcements. The Crusaders, on the other hand, had a much larger goal. You see, the Pope wanted to recover the Christian holy-land from the Muslims.

This really didn’t matter though. The First Crusade wasn’t important because of the land that it conquered but because it was the first example of European expansionism. It set the stage for the discovery of the Americas, the establishment of European colonies in Asia and Africa, and the political domination of the world by Europeans.

Of course, the rise of a powerful new empire also began in Asia when an enigmatic Mongol ruler embarked on wars of conquest. In fact, the Mongols succeeded in establishing the largest empire the world had ever seen. Within a couple decades, they had conquered the majority of the civilized world—ruling an empire that stretched from Poland down to Iran in the west, and from Russia’s Arctic shores down to Vietnam in the east.

While this was occurring, the clearing of forests and marshland for cultivation and new methods of agriculture kept most people well fed in much of Europe for quite some time. However, in almost no time at all, there was no more land to clear, and the existing land, no matter how well it was cultivated, could not support the growing number of people who lived on it.

The soil itself had become exhausted after years of continuous cultivation. In addition to this, heavy rains ruined the crops that would grow. This also caused severe food shortages. In cities and rural areas where the food supplies dwindled, people sickened and died.

Then, about fifty years later, the bubonic plague appeared and quickly spread throughout much of Europe. Because the plague was transmitted by fleas carried by rodents, it was worst in the cities, where many people lived close together and sanitation was poor. In some cities, the plague killed as many as two-thirds of the population. This led to a labor shortage.

However, because the plague destroyed people and not possessions, the drop in population was accompanied by a corresponding increase in per capita wealth. A new type of consumer, who preferred variety and luxury, began to appear in both the towns and the countryside. People who were unsure if they would be alive the next day wanted to spend their money on fine foods and luxuries.

Soon, political disorder began to interfere with commerce in the West. Agricultural productivity declined and the outbreak of the bubonic plague drastically reduced the population of many parts of Europe. However, the factors related to economic recovery soon stimulated political and cultural changes. The pursuit of wealth and the opportunity for traders and bankers to interact with the world beyond their town walls created an atmosphere more open to new ideas and to innovation, experimentation, and enterprise in all aspects of life. Then, the absence of centralized control encouraged the emergence of free spirited geniuses—during the period known as the Renaissance.

Then, times that were already bad in France and England were made worse by the Hundred Years’ War. England had held territory for a long time in what is now France. However, the French kings had been constantly trying to extend their influence in the English territories, and the two sides had fought several small skirmishes over the issue.

The Hundred Years’ War was fought on French soil and marked the end of chivalry and knightly warfare. You see, honorable combat was of little importance to the outcome of this war. By the end, both armies were using guns and cannons.

Then, powerful leaders began to emerge in France, England, and Spain. These rulers were far more successful than earlier monarchs had been in securing the resources and developing the machinery of effective centralized government. Nevertheless, their reigns marked the beginning of the development toward the modern state.

Of course, the Holy Roman emperor still held political control over large amounts of territory in central Europe and in Italy. In addition to this, the Pope wielded spiritual authority over all of Europe. The church and the state were viewed as two different aspects of one Christian society. However, despite the strong ties between church and state, popes and secular rulers frequently struggled with each other for control over church administration and secular lands.

By this time, the bubonic plague had become a full blown epidemic. It moved through northern Italy, North Africa, France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, the Low countries, England, Scandinavia and the Baltic. Around 30 million people died and economic depression followed.

Then, European voyages to the Caribbean Sea and India set in motion a series of explorations that sparked European imagination. These journeys intensified national rivalries. The Atlantic powers—including Spain, Portugal, and France—competed for colonial territory and vastly increased their wealth. These economic developments also exposed other countries to the new Italian culture and gave them the resources to rival Italy in cultural expansion.

The discovery of America was followed by a great development of the slave trade—which had previously been an overland trade almost exclusively confined to Muslim Africa. The lucrative nature of this trade and the large quantities of alluvial gold obtained by the Portuguese drew other nations to the Guinea coast. This development of a direct sea route to Asia undercut Italy’s role as the primary intermediary between the Far East and the Western world.

Then, in search of riches and adventure, or impelled by Christian zeal to spread the gospel among the heathen natives, tens of thousands of immigrants poured onto the American continents. The Spanish and Portuguese governments received extensive help from the church in their efforts to consolidate their respective colonial empires.

Roman Catholicism was the sole recognized religion in the colonies, but ecclesiastical policy was determined and controlled by the Crown. In return for the service of Christianizing, educating, and pacifying the Native Americans, the church and the various Catholic religious orders active here were granted many privileges and enormous tracts of territory.

In the north, African slaves were brought to the English colonies. To transport these captured people, Europeans loaded them onto specially constructed ships with platforms below deck designed to maximize the numbers of slaves that could be transported.

Spanish conquest of the southern portion of the North American continent was substantially facilitated by the strife prevailing among the indigenous peoples of the region. Internal turbulence had been especially acute in the Aztec Empire.

By now, this was the largest and most politically powerful in North America. However, the empire was hated by many of the tribes under its sovereignty, and some of these tribes became willing allies of the Spanish. Through this circumstance and superiority in weapons, Spanish victory was ensured.

Although tens of thousands of indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America were exterminated during the period of Spanish conquest and rule, the Aztec, Maya, and other peoples survived and multiplied. Their descendants constitute a majority of the present-day population of these areas.

Meanwhile, during the rise of modern science, in much of the civilized world, a predominant view held that God created every organism on Earth more or less as it now exists. But in that time of burgeoning interest in the study of fossils and natural history, the beginnings of a modern evolutionary theory began to take shape. During this period people began to realize new things—like the fact that the planets move around the Sun. This paradigm shift forced people to accept the fact that the Earth was no longer the center of the universe.

Around this time, Portugal’s involvement in India, and Spain’s disenchantment, allowed the rising power of the Netherlands to establish a string of trading centers from the Cape of Good Hope in Africa to Indonesia. As a result, the Dutch discovered Australia.

However, Dutch ships sailing to Indonesia often sailed off course, and their crews landed on the western and northern coasts of Australia. Despite their increasing knowledge of the continent, which they called New Holland, the Dutch did not follow up their oceanic discoveries with formal occupation. his is because, in their contacts, they found little of value for European trade. Thus, the way was open for the later arrival of the English.

Then, well over two centuries ago, the ruling dynasty of China reached the height of its power. The rulers firmly established domestic order, which led to unprecedented peace and prosperity in China.

So, in order to reverse the balance of trade, British merchants introduced Indian opium, an addictive narcotic drug, to China. Addiction spread, and within a couple decades, the opium market had shifting the balance of trade in favor of Britain.

Around this time, economic, political, and military conflict broke out between Great Britain and its 13 colonies along the Atlantic seaboard south of Canada. This ended in the establishment of the United States of America. As a result, the success of the colonies in freeing themselves from the rule of their parent country soon had repercussions among the Spanish colonies in the Americas.

After the American Revolution ended, Britain moved quickly  to establish its first settlement in Australia—since it could no longer ship British convicts to America. Food shortages, harsh penal laws, and the general displacement of people during the early stages in the Industrial Revolution in Britain added to its criminal population.

Leading social reformers of the day assumed that the best way to eliminate crime was to remove these criminals from society. Then, the British government announced its intention to establish a penal settlement in Australia.

At this point, the Royal Navy set sail from Portsmouth to begin the first permanent settlement. Their domain covered half of Australia, but human resources were limited. The initial settlement of Australia brought explorers into contact with Australian Aborigines, many of whom used the surrounding lands as their campsites and hunting domains. Soon, the 5,000 Aborigines of the island were reduced to a mere handful.

Up to now, mathematics was generally regarded as the science of quantity, whether of magnitudes, as in geometry, or of numbers, as in arithmetic, or of the generalization of these two fields, as in algebra. However, mathematics came to be regarded increasingly as the science of relations, or as the science that draws necessary conclusions. This latter view encompasses mathematical or symbolic logic, the science of using symbols to provide an exact theory of logical deduction and inference based on definitions, axioms, postulates, and rules for combining and transforming primitive elements into more complex relations and theorems.

From this, the foundations of modern education were soon established. At this time, people developed an educational method based on the natural world and the senses. Holding that children should study the objects in their natural environment, pupils determined and traced an object’s form, counted objects, and named them. Students progressed from these lessons to exercises in drawing, writing, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and reading.

By little more than a century ago, a group of young reformers gained access to the young and open-minded Emperor of China. As a result, the emperor instituted a sweeping reform program designed to transform China into a constitutional monarchy and to modernize the economy and the educational system.

In the end, the court finally adopted a reform program and made plans to establish a limited constitutional government. In about a decade, a revolutionary assembly had elected the first president of the Republic of China, and their long history of monarchy came to an end.

Soon, modern universities began to produce a new type of thinker who was deeply concerned with China’s fate and attracted to Western ideas. As a result, thousands of young people went abroad to study in Japan, Europe, and North America.

This type of behavior quickly posed acute challenges to traditional ideologies—throughout the world. In fact, with each passing day, a growing number of people are becoming more and more frustrated with conservative views that limit their consensual lifestyles.

None-the-less, religions actually continue to thrive in many areas. This is the result of things like the adaptation of religion to secular values, the repositioning of strict religious dogma in direct opposition to social norms, and the emergence of new religious movements that meet the specific and diverse spiritual needs of people in the modern world.

In many instances, religion has been able to adapt to modernity by accommodating the diversity of contemporary culture. Many religious traditions have broadened the concept of God to allow for the coexistence of various faiths, have acknowledged gender equality by ordaining women, and have adopted outward characteristics of modern culture in general.

In contrast to this, fundamentalism offers a different response to modernity. Conservative movements, which have appeared internationally in every major religious tradition, have gained vitality by protesting what they see as the conspicuous absence of moral values in secular society—like the growing acceptance of homosexuality. In times of anxiety and uncertainty, such movements present scripture as a source of doctrinal certainty and of moral absolutes—although they often pick and choose which things they want to be right while completely ignoring other passages.

Of course, for all its challenges to traditional religious identity, modernity has at the same time created many new spiritual opportunities. Thousands of religious movements have recently emerged around the world, offering alternative forms of community to people otherwise removed from past associations and disenchanted with modern values.

Collectively, these forms of spirituality offer a large number of options, addressing virtually every conceivable type of spiritual need. In fact, modernity actually creates needs and problems for which new movements are able to present solutions.

In addition to this, recent human activity has had an appreciable effect on the entire planet. People destroy and defile nature wherever it is encountered—clear-cutting forests, strip mining mountains, contaminating the water, and polluting the atmosphere. Humans have modified the Earth’s vegetation patterns, created conditions that led to the loss of soil in many parts of the world, and devastated entire ecosystems.

Of course, overpopulation is at the root of all of the world’s problems. This is because as the number of people increases, more pollution is generated, more habitats are destroyed, and more natural resources are used up.

For instance, when humans began to use vast quantities of fossil fuels to power machines, the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere began to rise. Today, the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide is now more than 360 parts per million—a rise that equals the full natural fluctuation between an ice age and a warm period.

The consequences of such an increase in temperature will become increasingly devastating. Sea levels will rise, completely inundating a number of low-lying island nations and flooding many coastal cities such as New York and Miami. Many plant and animal species will be driven into extinction, agricultural regions will be disrupted, and the frequency of severe hurricanes and droughts will increase.

What’s more, the ozone layer is being overrun with chemicals used in refrigeration, air-conditioning systems, cleaning solvents, and aerosol sprays—known as chlorofluorocarbons. These chemicals release chlorine into the atmosphere. This, in turn, breaks ozone down into its constituent parts of oxygen. Because chlorine is not affected by its interaction with ozone, each chlorine molecule has the ability to destroy a large amount of ozone for an extended period of time.

The consequences of the depletion of the ozone layer are dramatic. Increased ultraviolet radiation will lead to a growing number of skin cancers and cataracts and also reduce the ability of people’s immune systems to respond to infection. Additionally, the growth rates of the world’s oceanic plankton, the base of most marine food chains, will be negatively affected—leading to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and thus to more global warming.

In addition to this, a significant portion of industry and transportation is based on the burning of fossil fuels—like gasoline. As these fuels are burned, chemicals and particulate matter are released into the atmosphere. These chemicals interact with one another and with ultraviolet radiation in sunlight in various dangerous ways. For instance, smog is formed when nitrogen oxides react with hydrocarbons in the air. This, too, can cause serious health problems.

When sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide are transformed into sulfuric acid and nitric acid in the atmosphere and come back to earth in precipitation, they form acid rain. Acid rain is a serious global problem because few species are capable of surviving in the face of such acidic conditions.

Of course, acidic water is not so bad in comparison to the fact that millions of people lack safe drinking water because humans have long acted as if water could serve as a limitless dumping ground for wastes. As such, raw sewage, garbage, and even oil spills have begun to overwhelm the diluting capabilities of the oceans. So, most coastal waters are now polluted. As such, life is beginning to suffer.

In fact, flora and fauna everywhere are dying out at an unprecedented rate. Of course, the leading cause of extinction is habitat destruction. This is particularly true of the world’s richest ecosystems—like tropical rain forests and coral reefs.

Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Humanity is swept under the spell of that pesky one-eyed demon—the television. We are now socially controlled zombies and it seems that the human race is nearly over….only I want us to win. Please don’t let us lose. Please?!!!!!!

THE CHRONICLEXICON

An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Cosmological Terminology

Afterlife

When an organism stops functioning, it automatically it goes through a sequence of events that collectively make-up the process of dying.  This occurs with increasing levels of complexity based on the corresponding degree of evolutionary advancement along with diversity and intensity of experiences that took place during the individual’s life.  So, the process of dying is much less sophisticated to a paramecium than it is to a chimpanzee.  However, the basic underlying theme is the same for all life.

In its simplest form, death is simply the reciprical of birth.  First, the physical body stops functioning. When the body ceases to live, the experiences of that individual’s life are rapidly encoded into the cosmos.  This generates the phenomenon often referred to as a life-review, in which all the memories of one’s life over the individual automatically.  Shortly after this, he mind and soul detach from the lifeless husk and retreat from the universe.  These two portions of the individual then pass through the veil that separates the physical objects of the universe from the mental subjects of the multiverse.

Once in the psychological domain of existence, the being then experiences a much more detailed review of life from multiple perspectives.  As an exaggerated example of this, imagine that a man lived a very wicked life of murder and rape and the like.  At this stage of his existence, the man would be confronted with the experiences of his victims – first hand.  That is to say, he would relive the experiences from there perspective, not his own.

What’s more, let’s say that one of his victims just happened to be a woman that was two years away from curing cancer.  As a result, the man would have to experience the suffering of all the cancer patients that will not get a chance to live a full life, even the ones who haven’t been born yet.  Now, immediately a religiously motivated person would say that this guy is in Hell, and they would kind of be right.  The only problem is that this isn’t eternal damnation.  Instead, it’s more like a slow, albeit finite purging process.

Eventually, as the individual is pulled toward and eventually through the veil that separates the multiverse from the omniverse all sense of self disintegrates and the being returns to an egoless state of complete interconnectedness, as the soul reunites with itself.

Continuum

A continuum is of course something that has individual parts, but they’re so close together that you can’t actually separate them. As an example, time is not separate from space.  There is only one single thing called space-time, which forms a continuum.

Cosmological Indicators

Since the omniverse experiences by way of the universe, organisms are supposed to authentically express themselves at all times.  To ensure that this occurs, there are built-in indicators that tell an individual when it is on the right track or not.

Every being is free to choose any event from the world-lines of the multiverse, even through there is a specific track that each is destined to be on.  To understand what makes these different consider the following examples.

First, let’s examine the notion of painting a portrait.  In one instance, a man becomes inspired by the life and times of John Lennon and as a result he decides to paint and for 37 hours he loses himself in the canvas.  Afterwards, this man steps away from the image of Lennon and walks away feeling great.  If, however, this same man’s girlfriend asked to have her portrait painted and the man didn’t really want to, he would not enjoy the experience and it would leave him feeling drained and frustrated.

Shortly after these experiences, maybe hours, days, or even weeks later, the omniverse would generate a cosmological indicator for each act.  The former would result in a spontaneous feeling of joy, the latter sorrow.

Since the purpose of existence lies in the pursuit of unprecedented experience it is unreasonable for someone to ignore their calling.  This is why a person that is too far off-track has to endure extended bouts of accident, illness, and injury.  These streaks of bad luck are indicative of their self-resistance.  Conversely, a person that responds to the omniverse rather than the universe will experience a tremendous deal of good fortune instead of chronic despair.

By giving in to the expectations of the world around oneself, an individual is condemned to live in a state of apathy.  By giving in to the spontaneous expression of self, an individual receives the blessing of ecstacy that is intended for each and every one of us.

Dichosmic Motive

The degree of curvature of space-time around an object is proportional to the influence it receives from the dichosmic motive.

At the most fundamental scale of existence, the cosmos is driven by a microcosmically creative inspirational urge toward existence that is counter-balanced by a macrocosmically destructive expirational urge toward non-existence.  This mechanism is the engine that motivates the primary actions of the cosmos.

This perpetual process is expressed in things like evolution and involution assembly and disassembly, integration and disintegration, enabling and disabling, expansion and contraction, ad infinitum.  An example of this can be seen in the fact that particles aggregate into increasingly complex structures with novel characteristice arising at each stage of organic evolution.  Then, when the role is reversed, cells metabolise an organism and break down into simpler forms until the particles are all dispersed back into the quantum fluctuations from which they emerged.

The dichosmic motive accounts for many of the outstanding problems in several fields of science.  The expansive and contractive forces of the universe that scientists have labeled dark energy and gravity are prime examples of this.  The nuclear forces are another manifestation that clearly indicates that there is a creative attraction that works against a destructive repulsion, even at extremely small scales.

This is even reflected in our mythology, as well as the natural world.  It is said in the western mystery traditions that the left-hand path is evil and the right-hand path is good.  Not surprisingly, only left-handed particles experience the negative effects of the weak force, while particles spinning to the right do not.

Among its many functions, the dichosmic motive serves to modify the geometric structure of space-time.

Microcosm

Existence is made up of microcosms that have no extension or duration.  These structures are indestructible, eternally existing constructs into which everything has been programmed.   They interlock without ever meeting, to give us the reality we experience.  The only problem with this is that there can be no empirical verification of its truth outside of a priori reasoning.

The microcosmic components of existence consist of quanta, qualia, and quintessence, while the macrocosm is composed of objects, subjects and aspects.  These are universal, multiversal, and omniversal in respect to this.

Relativity

Even in the presence of an objective timepiece, different observers can interpret an identical length of time as passing at different rates due to the subjectivity of multiversal time.  Another effect of this is that the perception of temporal intervals is directly affected by the experience of spatial relations.  Yet another effect of this is that time seems to pass more quickly as one ages.  This means that a unit of time appears much longer to a young girl than to an old lady, even though the objective measure of time is the same.

Entheogens, being spiritual sacraments, drastically shift an observers perspective from universal to omniversal temporality.  When viewed under the influence of these substances, a clock appears to be a meaningless reference point and a useless tool for measuring occurrences since they do not correlate with the user’s experience.  As the boundaries for experiencing objective time are removed, so is its relevance.  This mystical experience of unbounded timelessness is a fleeting glimpse of infinity.

An awareness of space-time, being the perception of one’s surroundings, is important due to its necessary relevance to survival, especially with regards to individual boundaries.

Time and space are not entirely equivalent in physical space-time.  An observer can move freely in space but not in time.

Distances in space or in time separately are not invariant with respect to omniversal coordinate transformations, but distances in universal space and time along space-time intervals are.

Space and time are part of the systematic framework used to organize experiences, therefore it is relative to an observer’s frame of reference.  Events that are experienced as occurring simultaneously to one particular perspective will not be simultaneous to another, if the observes are moving with respect to one another.  Moreover, an observer will measure time more slowly than one, which is stationary with respect to them.  Moreover, objects are measured to be shortened in the direction that they are moving with respect to the observer.

Space, time, mass, and energy are the fundamental building blocks of the cosmos.  This means they cannot be defined by way of anything else.  However, these components can be related to each other.  Thus the primary constituents of existence can be explored by way of experimentation and observation.

Space

As you shift your perspective down in scale, moving toward the microcosmic boundary of existence, the dimensions of space and time become more and more interlinked.  Where you might experience connection in the universe, you would experience interconnection in the multiverse, and full blown continuity in the omniverse.  The same is true of temporal phenomena which express themselves in things like coincidence, synchronicity, and eternity respective to those same domains.

This is primarily due to the fact that universal dimensions open up and extend outward thus allowing separation to occur.  The multiverse, having open dimensions that furl inward tends to produce space-times that intertwine with one another.  While the omniverse is composed of dimensions that are entirely closed off, so the resulting space-times are by every account boundless and therefore infinite in all regards.

Universal space is the expanse within which matter is extended, so that objects and events have positions relative to one another.  In this way, these three objective dimensions serve as a collection of relations between objects, given by their distance and direction from one another.

Physical space opened up moments after the initial condition of the universe and it has been expanding ever since.

Mathematically, spaces are described as different types of manifolds, where the properties are defined largely on local connectedness of points that lie on the manifold.

Time

Time is the dimension of the cosmos which, at a given place, orders the sequence of events for any particular occurance.  There is no tangible connection between any two universal moments as they exist in sequence.  Each of these moments are unique, independent events known as epochs. As such, the past and the future have no physical existence.  They are merely the probable manifestations of things like memory and expectation.

A time interval may be measured in two ways:  as the duration between two known epochs or simply by counting from an arbitrary starting point. This is determined through the intervals between the initial conditions of the past and the projected outcome of the future.  Time measurement actually consists in counting the repetitions of any recurring phenomenon and, if the interval between successive recurrences is sensible, in subdividing it.  A determination of time is synonymous with the establishment of an epoch.  Planck time ^(h) is an epoch.  The current epoch is the exact moment of time that you are presently in.  It is equal to plancks constant which is the minimum time interval.  h=6.6261 x 10 ^–34 joule-second .

Time comes into being whenever a clock is started. So, temporal measurements necessarily consist of ascertaining clock correction, which is the correction that should be applied to the reading of a clock at a specified epoch.  When measuring time you must remember that a moving clock runs slower than one at rest.  At the speed of light the clock actually stops. Similarly, where there is gravity clocks tick slowly, so where there is a lot of gravity, clocks tick very slowly. In addition to this, time flows one way in the universe, several ways in the multiverse, and every way in the omniverse.

Universal Time:

In universal time, the quantity that indicates the occurrence of a specified event is obtained by a measurement from a fiducial epoch-reference point.

Universal time is part of the fundamental structure of the macrocosm, being a dimension in which events occur in sequence.

Physical space-time is used to keep everything from happening all at once.  This is what establishes the basis of cause and effect.

Universal time is directional  -  the past lies behind, being fixed and incommutable, while the future lies ahead and is not necessarily determined.  As a result, entropy increases over time as the negative mode of the dichosmic motive becomes more predominate throughout physical space-time.

Since universal time started at the Big Bang no information from the omniversal time that proceeded is accessible to the physical domain of existence, so the things that happened then don’t effect the present time-frame.  What happened before the Big Bang is necessarily meaningless from the universal standpoint.

The universe is that which prevents everything from happening all at one.

Linear time begins when universal involution gives rise to omniversal evolution.

Entropy, being an arrow of time, flows in one direction, so causes  precede effects.  The universe is running down toward disorder at a vastly slower rate than our circadian rhythms, expanding as it grows colder and slower, never to be reset.

What we relate to as physical time began with the expansion of the universe.  The time before that was aspective.  This kind of time is always there.

Multiversal Time:

Organisms feel time passing because bodies are running clocks. The experience of physical time of this sort necessarily requires body clocks. Organisms are not consciously aware of any single instant of time, but rather a series of time up to a few seconds long.  This unification of mental experience into a single event, such as hearing a sentence rather than just individual words or syllables, is known as the specious present.

Due to their simultaneous virtual transitions, entangled systems are able to evolve very quickly, by trying out all possibilities at once, rather than individually subatomic systems do this to test the most stable future energy state.  The mind does this in order to test the best possible future-life scenario.  Both do so via the multiverse. Multiversal time is separate from the physical space-time continuum.  The past is contained within the cosmos as it folds back in on itself, in the same way the future exists outside the parameters of the universe. This subjectively perceived time is a local experience of change against an absolute omniversal background time.

Perceived time comes into being through our inability to grasp everything at once.

Multiversal time is part of the fundamental structure of the compactified fundamental structure of the compactified dimensions of the mind, within which observers sequence and compare events.

Multiversal time is part of the abstract conceptual framework of experience.  With this observers sequence events, quantify their duration, and compare the motions of objects.  This allows organisms to comprehend sense experience through mental constructs.

The past and furure are defined by backward and forward light cones.  The past is the set of events that can send light signals to an observer, while the future is composed of the events to which the observer can send light signals.  These are multiversal phenomena, while all else is non-observable –  being omniversal.

Omniversal Time:

Omniversal time is circular, while universal time is linear.

The cosmos is locked in a perpetual series of ages that always return to their beginning like an eternally spinning wheel.  Given enough time there is, any closed system will return to its initial state.  With an unlimited amount of time to work with, a system will return to its origins again, and again, indefinitely.

While the omniverse has an infinite past with no beginning, a universe has a finite past with a definite beginning.

Universal space and time form a container for events which is as real as the objects it contains.

Energy

Potential energy equals the work done against a given force in changing the position of an object with respect to a frame of reference.Elastic potential energy equals the work needed to compress (or expand) a spring.Kinetic energy is the work required to accelerate an object to a given speed.Thermal energy is microscopic motion of particles constituting the given media.Chemical energy is the energy due to associations of atoms in molecules and the resulting aggregates of matter. Electric and nuclear energy are released from nuclear fission and fusion processes. Surface energydeals with tension

reverse = no energy spread into empty states available in the volume, from which it cannot be recovered into more concentrated forms without degnelation of more energy.  No dissipation.

Irreversible = processes where heat is generated, and quantum states of lower energy – present as exitations in fields between atoms, act as a reservoir from which it cannot be recovered.  Energy must stay as heat and cannot be completely recovered as usable energy unless its through an increases in some other find of heat – such as an expansion of matter.

As the universe evolves in time, its energy becomes increasingly confined to irreversible states.

Heat death = the Big Freeze.

Fundamental principle of energy.

The total inflow of energy into a system must equal the total out flow of energy from the system, plus the change in the energy contained within the system

Every living organism relies on an external source of energy to grow

and reproduce.

Particles exhibit wavelike properties and those waves are determined by a particles momentum.

A particle is associated with a wave whox wavelength is miersely proportional to momentum.  So the smaller the momentum, the longer the wavelength.

Wavelength is equal to Planck’s constant divided by momentum.

Waves that oscillate frenetically – having a small wavelength, carry more momentum than those that oscillate lethargically.

A wave is a function of position whose square gives the probability for finding a particle at any location in space.  This is known as a wavefunction.

Particles cannot be pinned down and can only be described in terms I probabilities.  So you cannot know a particles’s exact location.  You can only specify the probability of adding in somewhere.

Omniversal energy is defined in terms of the energy operator as a time derivative of the wave function.

This describes the space-time-dependence of slow changing wave function of multiversal phenomena.

The solution of this equation for a bound system is discrete, resulting in a set of permitted stales, each characterized by an energy level.

Like almost everything else in the cosmos, mass-energy transformations are part of the process of becoming.  Over time, these events are characterized by various kinds of potential energy that has been dormant since the initial condition.  Along and across the scales of existence, properties of nature emerge and diverge via triggering mechanisms at various different boundary conditions amongst the growing states of complexity.  This continued advancement is required to fight against the self-destructive force of material decay and that bleak little arrow of time – entropy.

Energy is conserved because the laws of physics do not distinguish between different moments of time.

A universe begins in the highly concentrated confines of a single microcosm with all of its energy wound so tight that it is cut off from every last degree of freedom then everything explodes out into macrocosm and pushes its way into a bleak expansion headed toward the cold, stale entropy that is nothing.  At which point everything releases itself out of the omniverse, through the multiverse, and into the universe.

Mass-energy transformations are the most important microcosmic characteristic used in explaining and predicting natural phenoma, while space-time interactions are the most useful macrocosmic feature of existence.

Due to the nature of large scale macroscopic events, it is impossible for matter to enter the clustered dimensions of the furling multiversal surreality of mind.

Thee is a broad range of different forms of energy that collectively account for all the phenomena we experience.  While one  form of energy may be transformed into another,  the total amount of energy always remains the same.

Although the total energy of a system, like the universe, does not change with time, local values can differ within its various frames of reference.

Conservation of energy is the direct mathematical consequence of the translational symmetry of  the  quantity conjugate – time-to energy.

One aspect of mass is the weight of an object.  This results from the strength of the dichosmic pull on the object.  This indicates how heavy something is.

Inertial mass is the measure of an object’s resistance to changing its state of motion when a force is applied to it.

A strings mass increases whenever it is put into tension.  Its added mass arised from the added potential energy stored within it, which is bound in the stretched string.

Raising the temperature of an object, by increasing its heat energy, increases its mass.

No net mass or energy is ever created or lost in any event or experience.  Mass-energy simply moves from one thing to another.

Potential energy always comes from a local field, and it is found whenever the field is varying or has a value which carries energy.

Athough all mass is energy, this energy is not always in a form which can be used to generate power.

Macrocosm

Everything in the cosmos is conceived of as patterns of dynamic energy.  The lowest possible level, that is, the ground state of energy in the universe is known as the quantum vacuum.  It is called a vacuum because it cannot be perceived or measured directly.  This is due to the fact that the vacuum acts as a void, featureless background.  However, it actually contains the potentiality of everything in the universe.  This serves as the framework upon which wave-particle realities manifest.  These things literally EXIST – “stand out from” – the underlying sea of probabilities.  This is the backdrop from which particles appear and disappear.  In addition to this coming and going, particles are slightly altered on their courses as a result of moving through this all-pervasive, underlying field of potentiality.  In other words, the vacuum exerts a subtle push on the surface of existence.

The four elementary parts of the cosmos can be classed into two sets:  mass-energy and space-time.

Active energy – like radiation – can be converted into particles that have rest mass, and vice-versa.

The total amount of mass-energy in a closed system remains constant because energy cannot be created or destroyed, and in all of its forms trapped energy exhibits mass.

Through mass-energy equivalence every object has a certain energy, even at rest.  Although an object at rest has no kinetic energy, it can have other amounts of internal stored energy such as chemical or thermal, in addition to any potential energy it may have from its position in a field of force.

Whenever energy is added to a system, the system gains mass.  Whenever energy is subtracted from a system, the system loses mass.

Certain reactions convert mass into specific types of energy, which can be used to do work.  This is called active energy.  Conversions of mass into active energy never make all of the mass into the sort of energy that can be used to do work.

The multiverse is a turbulent sea of probabilities.  This vast ocean of potentia creats a dymamic interplay between the forces of creation and destruction.  Through this, particles appear out of and disappear back into the Quantum vaccum.  This level of space-time is composed of enfolded dimensions that curl back in on themselves producing convoluted, Planck scale structures.

Potentiality

The potentiality of a quantum entity is the reality waiting to manifest as the system evolves.  It represents the range of all possible futures.

All actualities are reducible to underlying potentialities.

Superposition is a state of potential in which an actual entity exists before interaction leads to decoherence.

The wave function describes the entire range of things that might occur if one measures the entity at any given time, or in any particular context. Beyond this probable condition, the wave function collapses to a single state-the actual existence.

Though they are only possibilities, these states have an effect on each other and on physical reality – 4-dimensional unfolded space-time.  They can evolve and interfere with each other, their interactions can give rise to actualities, and they can initiate real processes.

As a result of their nonlocality, potentialities can travel faster than the speed of light, giving rise to instantaneous correlations.