When we look at the fossil record, we see that biodiversity has been generally on the rise since the beginning of life some 3.5 billion years ago: The Tree of Life keeps getting bushier. If indeed we all are descendants of a common ancestor, this is just what we would expect. With every reproduction, there is a chance for a mutation that may or may not prove to be beneficial to the offspring. If it’s beneficial, that organism, along with its genes, survives well enough to reproduce, passing its genes forward one more generation. With this happening over and over and over, all day, all the
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