Let’s say some of the long molecules (probably RNA) started to replicate. Serving as templates of selfness, pulling in small molecules from their environment to fit where appropriate, they made copies of themselves. Darwinian natural selection would have begun there, as those molecules—the first genomes—reproduced, mutated, and evolved. Groping for competitive edge, some may have found or created protection within membranes and walls, leading to the first cells. These cells gave rise to offspring by fission, splitting in two. They split in a broader sense too, diverging to become Bacteria and
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