Chapter 2

Chapter 2 summarizes the different evolutionary radiations that took place from the Cambrian to the Permian period, and ends in a cliffhanger as the supercontinent of Pangaea is formed. Personally, I was glad to see that this was all new information to me; we never went over this last year in honors bio. It was actually surprisingly interesting, too. Seeing how life has evolved throughout earth's multi-billion year history really gives you a sense of wonder and insignificance. To give you an idea of how little time we've really been here, the first hominids appeared around 2.5 million years ago, Homo Sapiens appeared 500,000 years ago, and civilization only started around 10,000 years ago with the agricultural revolutions. It's amazing to think of what humanity has achieved as a species, considering the (relatively) short amount of time we've been here.