02-18-2009, 12:16 PM
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#526
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Radical Centrist
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
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Quote:
Natural selection happens, but it does *not* explain how one kind becomes another kind, IE a bird becomes a reptile, or a monkey becomes a man.
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Actually it's thought that birds evolved from dinosaur-era reptiles, and that man did not evolve from monkey but they had a common ancestor.
It's not hard to believe that (for example) once one species took to the skies, that they had a huge and immediate advantage and could branch off separately from that point forward. The basic timeline from Wikipedia:
Quote:
The basic timeline is a 4.6 billion year old Earth, with (very approximate) dates:- 3.8 billion years of simple cells (prokaryotes),
- 3 billion years of photosynthesis,
- 2 billion years of complex cells (eukaryotes),
- 1 billion years of multicellular life,
- 600 million years of simple animals,
- 570 million years of arthropods (ancestors of insects, arachnids and crustaceans)
- 550 million years of complex animals
- 500 million years of fish and proto-amphibians,
- 475 million years of land plants,
- 400 million years of insects and seeds,
- 360 million years of amphibians,
- 300 million years of reptiles
- 200 million years of mammals,
- 150 million years of birds,
- 130 million years of flowers,
- 65 million years since the non-avian dinosaurs died out,
- 2.5 million years since the appearance of the genus Homo,
- 200,000 years since humans started looking like they do today,
- 25,000 years since Neanderthals died out.
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