The Science of Evolution

Last night rather than watching the infuriating and

depressing national politics on MSNBC, I opted for

science on PBS. The program offered various pa-
leontology studies of the evolution of four different

species of animals—the crocodile/alligator, the bird,

the whale and the elephant. Very enlightening, espe-

cially tracing the origins of those species going back

millions of years. Many of you may know that after

many of Nature’s trials and errors, birds evolved from

the dinosaurs. Prehistorically, the modern day crock

and gator are not as old as their time-worn appearance

would lead us to believe. Whales began as land animals.

And had it not been for the elephant’s ancestors clearing

dense vegetation from Earth’s prolific jungles and forests,

hominids, the precursor of modern day man, may have

never been forced down from the trees to walk upright on

land. Along the way, there were five mass extinction

disasters on Earth which wiped out thousands of species.

Survivors of those have evolved into many creatures we

have come to know terrestrially today. Educational pro-

grams such as the one I watched on PBS last night got me

to thinking how mankind has evolved to negatively alter

the natural progression of things here on Planet Earth. And

what a pity that an asteroid strike like the one at Chixulub

which excelled the extinction of the dinosaurs, even a

massive volcanic eruption or a frozen global Ice Age

didn’t eliminate the ancestral lines of Donald Trump and

Mitch McConnell. I can only imagine that here and now,

today in the Good Old USA, and on the face of our sustain-

ing Mother Earth, this would certainly be a far finer place.

I can’t help but thinking we’d be better off had Neanderthal

prevailed.

Chris Hanch 6-20-19