The
Start of You
4
billion years ago
Forgive
us, but we thought that since you've come this far you might like to meet
your true ultimate ancestor on Earth.
That beyond-imaginably-distant relative may have appeared something like this
single-celled protozoan. See any resemblance?
Your
Ancestor's Profile
Paleontologists
believe the first living cell somehow came to life about four billion years
ago. (Explaining that "somehow" is the holy grail of
origins-of-life researchers.) Beyond that humble organism, whatever it was,
your heritage on this planet, sorry to say, dies out. Or, if it makes you feel
better, was yet to be born. But that's 160 million generations of your
family in the past, and who can count that high anyway?
