General Chat

I’m very interested in things / events that are needed to produce intelligent life on a planet capable of technology like us or superior, things like planet needs to some solid land masses, have liquid water, needs an iron core that produces a magnetic field, distance from its star. Things like the stone, bronze & iron ages without them would we be advanced as we are,
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.
Is the above the only way to get to mankind as we know it today?

I'm not entirely convinced that the Neanderthals died out , I'm sure a saw a few in my local supermarket this morning .

As for your thought provoking question.........I think the answer is yes , we couldn't have really taken any short cuts in the evolutionary scale .