"Steve Dufour" <stevejdufour@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:744cc401.0312152012.5368316@posting.google.co

"Proto-cells" then began to form on the warming Earth. And finally by
3.7 billion years ago, the first life appeared along the coasts of
small, new continents in the form of "biofilms" and layers of
microbial mats whose fossil forms have been discovered in recent
years.

Within a few hundred million years, those microbes had learned to use
sunlight for energy, growth and reproduction. After a few million
years, more advanced life forms emerged. And after that, the pace of
evolution and growth of diversity increased swiftly, he noted.

"Understanding the nature and timing of this ascent of life is crucial
for discerning our own beginnings," Des Marais said. "This
understanding also empowers our search for the origins, evolution and
distribution of life elsewhere in our solar system and beyond."

I read in the paper today they've discovered human dna in coral.

Anyway it's all futile in the end - even if we don't destroy ourselves, or
get destroyed, the sun will burn out & toast the earth.....

Life is obviously teeming through the universe in various forms, but maybe
the human version is one-off...?