Tidbits:
Stories, Quotes, and FAQs.
The wisdom builder tidbits that feed the columns, articles, and trainer.
EVOLUTION
Featured Story
New This Week
Science
Story
182 Million years ago (+/- 5 million)
Diatoms Emerge
Glass-like silica cell walls
Plant Evolution
Diatoms show how evolution can turn simple life into elegant design. The round centric forms radiate outward like tiny glass suns, while later pennate forms stretch into canoe-like bodies with axis, orientation, and sometimes gliding motion. They are not agents in the animal sense, but they offer a modest glimpse of proto-agency: life responding to the world through direction, movement, and form.
Featured QUOTE
History
Quote
“Natural selection acts solely by the preservation and accumulation of small inherited modifications, each profitable to the preserved being.”
- Charles Darwin
- 1859
Evolution
Evolution is not about desire, nor is it a contest of strength, or intellect. It’s about reproductive success. The individuals, and species, that possess traits best suited for the current environment are more likely to survive, and to pass on those traits. Over millennia, these traits accumulate, leading to races, sub-species, and eventually separate species unable to interbreed.
Featured FAQ
New This Week
Science
FAQ
Did we evolve from single cells into plants and animals then chimps to human?
Evolution
Humans did not evolve from modern chimps, and animals did not simply replace single-celled life. We share common ancestors. Life began with single cells, then branched again and again. Some branches became multicellular animals. One later branch split into chimps and humans. Meanwhile, countless single-celled lineages kept evolving successfully. All life, including humans, is still evolving.
Updated Tidbits
Science
FAQ
Do aliens enjoy playing like we do on Earth?
Material-Spiritual Framework
05 May 2026
(Updated 7 days ago)
Science
FAQ
Are viruses alive?
Evolution
05 May 2026
(Updated 1 week ago)
Science
Story
Homo Sapiens: Advanced Transcendental Intelligence
New Species: Homo Sapiens
05 May 2026
(Updated 2 weeks ago)
No more posts to show
Evolution
The Ever-Changing Tree of Life!
From space dust to sapiens and beyond.
The process by which new species arise is well-understood, the evidence compelling and conclusive, our knowledge complete. We can read the fossil record like a book and on these pages we see changes gradually accumulate over millennia.
Aricle Series
Multi-Part Reads
Ancient Humans
Ancient humans were humans on a long evolutionary journey, shaped by both biology and culture.
Evolution
Evolution is the story of how life changes over time through variation, selection, and inheritance, shaping everything from single-celled organisms to human minds, culture, and civilization.
Deep-Dive Articles
Holistic Paleolithic Framework: A New Look at Prehistory
Michael Alan Prestwood
August 1, 2024
A new look at dividing up the paleolithic era switches from lower, middle, and upper to Stone, Fire, Cultural, Symbolic, Cognitive, and prehistory ending specifically at 4,000 BCE.
The Evolution of Vocabulary in Ancient Humans
Michael Alan Prestwood
July 6, 2024
The evolution of language is the evolution of communication. From touch which evolved about 800 million years ago to human words. Along the journey, communication included things like gestures, postures, and grunts.
The Evolution of Vocabulary in Ancient Humans
July 6, 2024
The evolution of language is the evolution of communication. From touch which evolved about 800 million years ago to human words. Along the journey, communication ...
Dawn of Humanity: Sapiens in Their First Millennia
May 29, 2024
Our first 1,000 years as Homo sapiens were not crude half-humans waiting to become us. From the beginning, we were already remarkably capable, adaptable people ...
Human Extinction: A New Look From Homo habilis to the Neanderthals
May 5, 2024
Human extinction is not the story of one straight line leading neatly to us. It is the story of many ancient human species living at ...
Must-Reads
Ancient Humans
The Evolution of Vocabulary in Ancient Humans
The evolution of language is the evolution of communication. From touch which evolved about 800 million years ago to human words. Along the journey, communication ...
Ancient Humans
Neanderthal Clue: Reassessing Intelligence Beyond Human Bias
Neanderthals were not dim, brutish failures of human evolution. Growing evidence shows they were intelligent ancient humans with symbolic thought, culture, and abilities that challenge ...
Animals
Cultural Transmission: The Sharing of Knowledge from Crows to Libraries
Cultural transmission is the passing of learned behavior, knowledge, and traditions from one generation to the next in all animals.
New Ideas
Ancient Humans
Holistic Paleolithic Framework: A New Look at Prehistory
A new look at dividing up the paleolithic era switches from lower, middle, and upper to Stone, Fire, Cultural, Symbolic, Cognitive, and prehistory ending specifically ...
Ancient Humans
EQ: The Story of Ancient Human Brains
Ancient human brains evolved gradually over millions of years, with important bursts of change, producing minds that were often far more capable than traditional stories ...
Ancient Humans
Hominin Census: A Speculative Journey to 700,000 and 300,000 BCE
Estimates of ancient human populations of a few hundred are misleading. They lean too heavily on surviving DNA lines. DNA traces direct surviving lines, not ...
Updated Articles
TST COLUMN
01 Aug 2024
Debut
History
Draft Paper
Holistic Paleolithic Framework: A New Look at Prehistory
Paleolithic Era
Thu 1 Aug 2024
(2 years ago)
Updated 1 week ago.
TST COLUMN
28 Apr 2024
History
Article
EQ: The Story of Ancient Human Brains
Brain Evolution
Sun 28 Apr 2024
(2 years ago)
Updated 2 weeks ago.
TST COLUMN
29 May 2024
History
Article
Dawn of Humanity: Sapiens in Their First Millennia
Ancient Humans
Wed 29 May 2024
(2 years ago)
Updated 2 weeks ago.
The Timelines
Great Apes Evolution Timeline
Michael Alan Prestwood
May 4, 2024
Primates, Hominids, Hominins, & Humans.
TST Evolution Timeline
Michael Alan Prestwood
June 20, 2021
From LUCA 3.75 billion years ago to primates.
All Evolution Timelines
March to Consciousness: The Soul Timeline
April 2, 2021
Animal consciousness is the combination of cognition and sensory input, with human consciousness being the most advanced on Earth.



























